Locum Tenens Providers Widely Used to Address Staff Shortages

Nearly nine out of 10 healthcare facilities (88%) used locum tenens providers to address staffing shortages during the past year, according to a nationwide survey of healthcare executives and managers conducted by a large staffing agency.

Among the healthcare facilities that employed these temporary providers, 70% said they were used to bridge a gap for a permanent position, according to AMN Healthcare's 2022 Survey of Locum Tenens Staffing Trends.

In addition to using locum tenens providers, 54% of respondents said they used incentives such as signing bonuses to attract new hires, and 49% reported using new retention efforts such as bonuses to keep current staff on board.

In other cases, some respondents said they were cutting services to address staffing shortages, such as reducing hours of service (18%), canceling elective procedures (14%), or eliminating some service lines and programs (11%).

"The fact that healthcare facilities continue to halt electives or reduce hours due to a lack of staff underscores the direct connection between staffing shortages and patient access to care," Jeff Decker, AMN Healthcare's division president of locum tenens, said in a statement. "Additional provider training, the expansion of telemedicine, and reduced barriers to licensure will be essential to addressing this longstanding healthcare challenge."

AMN Healthcare, which owns the locum tenens company Staff Care, emailed the survey to healthcare executives and managers (both clients and non-clients) at approximately 20,000 healthcare facilities including hospitals, medical groups, and federally qualified healthcare centers across the U.S. in February and March 2022. A total of 202 responses were received.

The survey found that the most common specialty employed was anesthesiology (28%, including both anesthesiologists and certified registered nurse anesthetists), "underscoring how the number of medical procedures requiring anesthesia has rebounded from COVID-19 related lows," the survey report noted.

The second and third most common specialties staffed using locum tenens were hospitalists (25%) and behavioral health specialists (23%), "suggesting that a nationwide shortage of psychiatrists and other behavioral health specialists continues and may be exacerbated by COVID-19," the report explained.

Roughly one third (37%) of locum tenens providers were brought in to treat COVID-19 patients. Locum tenens providers were considered to be "very important or extremely important in treating COVID-19 patients," according to survey respondents.

The survey also reported on the quality of the work provided by the locum tenens hires. The majority of respondents said the hires were excellent or good (62%) or at least adequate (34%).

As for the financial aspect, 70% of respondents said the locum tenens providers were worth the cost -- a rate that is lower, however, than in previous surveys, which found rates of 73% in 2019, 79.8% in 2016, and 81.1% in 2014.

Nearly half of respondents (47%) said their facilities were looking to hire more locum tenens providers to supplement their current staff in the future.

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