If you’re unfamiliar with the locum tenens industry, well, let’s break it down for you.
Since the 1970s, locum tenens physicians have been utilized to fill in gaps in healthcare. What kind of gaps are there in healthcare?
In a recent healthcare survey, 64% of healthcare facilities reported using locum tenens physicians. Family practice, internal medicine, general surgery, psychiatry, and anesthesiology physicians are consistently the most in-demand locum physician specialties.
NALTO (The National Association of Locum Tenens) estimates that three-quarters of all hospitals augment their permanent medical staff with locum tenens physicians. Temporary physicians provide patient care for more than 600,000 days per year (1 day equaling 8 hours.)
The landscape of the healthcare industry has changed significantly over the last several years and as a result, so has the healthcare staffing industry. As the demand for specialized medical professionals grows across the country, more gaps are needing to be filled. More and more medical facilities are allotting budgets for temporary staffing to maintain continuity of care in their communities. In our 2023 Healthcare Organization Survey, 70% of respondence say they will maintain or increase their use of locum tenens in the next 12 months. In a recent report by Market Statsville Group, the healthcare staffing market was valued at $22.5 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 5.7% from 2023 to 2030.