Unlocking Locum Tenens’ Hidden Potential

We imagine that when our clients think of locum tenens, they think of this: 

  • Skilled temporary staff
  • Gap fillers

We also think it’s time to change that perspective: these experienced medical professionals aren’t just highly-talented “temps,” they potentially could be the catalysts for improvement and organizational change. 

Many locums have worked as such for years and after they worked for many more years in medical settings. Such a wealth of expertise should be leveraged far beyond filling empty shifts. Here’s how to tap into their breadth and depth of knowledge to drive positive and meaningful change at your hospital/facility. 

Identify your new champs for change

Recognize the high-level of expertise in your locum tenens pool. 

  1. Look at their resumes with new eyes: search beyond clinical skills/years of experience and note leadership roles, experience in change management and/or special certifications/degrees. 
  1. Conduct interviews that discuss their skills but which also talk about their experience in process improvement, organizational change and their leadership roles at employers and on previous assignments. 
  1. Categorize your locums based on their strengths in areas such as patient experience improvement/enhancement, workflow optimization interdepartmental communication, and so on. 

Perhaps you discover that a locum cardiologist led successful EMR implementation at a large hospital network. Such information would be invaluable if you decide to plan a similar project. 

Consider placing locums in leadership roles

Once you’ve found your change champions, put that expert to work.: 

  • What about placing experienced (and expert) locum tenens pros in temporary leadership positions during your facility’s organizational change efforts? 
  • Form advisory committees and create cross-functional teams filled with both locum tenens pros and permanent staff and ask them to tackle specific challenges/advance new programs. 
  • Assign initiative leaders. Put locums with specific expertise in leadership spots that mesh with that specialized knowledge. 

Here’s an example: appoint an NP with extensive experience in “lean” healthcare workflows in charge of a workflow optimization initiative within the ER. 

Make knowledge transfer easy

Remember: the main goal of leveraging locums’ expertise isn’t just for one-and-done projects, but to effect lasting change. 

  • Implement the aforementioned mentorship programs and pair locums with extensive experience with permanent staff to create knowledge-sharing opportunities. 
  • Host “learning sessions” after each project. This lets you gather insights from locums to help plan/inform future change initiatives. 
  • Document, document, document! Create a knowledge base that captures the strategies and results (whether they succeeded or failed) for future initiatives. 

Rethinking locum’s roles at your facility means you’re not merely “filling gaps”: you’re also providing your facility with an ongoing stream of new ideas/proven strategies. Such an approach can mean large improvements in workflows, the patient experience and communication between/among departments. 

Learn more about how SUMO Staffing can help you find terrific, top-notch locum tenens professionals.