Using Locum Tenens to Improve Your Healthcare System’s Agility
Using the services of locum tenens healthcare professionals can help a hospital, medical office or full healthcare system become more flexible when such flexibility is required daily.
Yet when used strategically, engaging locum tenens pros can help your healthcare entity become much more agile: you can bring on locums to meet a new backlog of elective surgeries, tend to patients’ chronic conditions, lessen full-time staff burnout, better serve the underserved, and more.
One example of how locum tenens staffing improves agility is during flu season
As the number of patients spikes, having a team of locum professionals on standby lets you scale staffing up rapidly to meet increased demand.
Locum physicians, NPs and other clinicians can come in for short-term, temporary assignments, helping to ensure that you can care for a sudden influx of patients while continuing to provide a high quality of care… and also not overburdening your existing staff.
Tackle a backlog of elective surgeries and other procedures
Instead of making patients wait, you can use locum surgeons, anesthesiologists and other surgical team members to increase your operating rooms’ capacity, efficiently – yet carefully — working through the logjam.
Doing so not only improves your patients’ satisfaction, it also avoids potential losses in revenue due to delayed surgeries.
Address seasonal backlogs and fluctuations
Locum tenens pros can help you support new lines of service/expand existing ones.
If your medical system sees an unmet in your community, it could offer specialized care for underserved populations or chronic conditions. Rapidly onboard locum specialists to bolster/launch these services lets you respond quickly to changing healthcare demands, which will solidify your reputation as a responsive and comprehensive healthcare provider.
Combat burnout
Locum tenens staff truly can be powerful when it comes to fighting staff burnout while promoting work-life balance for them.
Bringing in temporary staff reinforcement can provide your overworked staff much-needed rest, allowing them to take their well-earned breaks/take care of personal needs without compromising the quality of your patient care.
Such an approach to the well-being of our full-time staff will improve retention while also creating a productive as well as positive work environment.
Implementing locum tenens staffing strategically will require careful planning and—more than likely – engaging the help of one or more reputable locum tenens staffing agencies. It’s important to identify your facility’s potential needs as well as its pain points. You also should anticipate various scenarios in which increased agility would provide you with an advantage over your competitors.
Building strong relationships with one, two or even more locum tenens staffing companies, as well as communicating your staffing needs clearly, will help ensure that the agency has a pool of qualified locums ready and available to meet your needs.
Turning your facility or healthcare system into one that’s adaptable and responsible on a “moment’s notice” allows you to navigate unforeseen challenges – as well as opportunities – that will come your way.
Learn more about SUMO Staffing’s locum tenens staffing services.