Physician recruiters are looking for ways to better procure locum tenens.
Industry insider Brandon Tate attended the annual ASPR conference and sat down with us to share his experience.
SW: What was the biggest buzz about physician recruitment at the conference?
Brandon: The biggest topic at this year’s conference was finding more efficient ways to do recruiting. The healthcare industry as a whole is becoming more and more efficient and recruiting needs to match it stride for stride.
SW: Is the healthcare market currently dealing with a physician shortage?
Brandon: It’s scary to admit, but yes. Especially in family practice.
SW: How are facilities currently filling their physician needs?
Brandon: They usually have a team of physician recruiters who have access to some sort of marketing database that allows them to locate physicians with the specialities they’re looking for. Some more progressive hospitals are hiring locums as 1099 contractors and operating them much like a dedicated internal float pool. Finally, they usually work with a handful of agencies that they can call whenever they have no other options.
SW: What does it mean when people talk about physician recruitment being in a Post-Reform era?
Brandon: It simply means that hospitals need to become more efficient and better at doing things to combat falling revenue. They need to leverage technology and develop new processes to survive. They are implementing locum pools to not have to rely on agency as much and focusing on permanent hires.
SW: How can technology change recruitment?
Brandon: Technology is the game changer for recruitment! It makes their job easier and more efficient. They can find higher quality staff in shorter periods of time.
SW: How are recruiters managing the delicate balancing act of keeping costs down while filling high demand needs?
Brandon: The recruiters that have mastered this are leveraging technology and keeping head counts low.
SW: What is the most time consuming part of using locums without technology?
Brandon: The most time consuming process is manually completing timecards, invoicing, and making multiple phone calls with agencies each and every day.
SW: Why are VMS and MSP programs becoming more popular with locums physicians?
Brandon: Hospitals have to become more efficient to compete. Revenues are falling and smaller hospitals are being consolidated into larger institutions. The use of temporary locums from agencies can greatly help hospitals in a bind, but the processes around using them are disjointed and time consuming (especially around timekeeping and invoicing).