Understaffed practices can rely on locum tenens providers

Recently, Physician's Practice released their 10th annual Staff Salary Survey, in which they surveyed physicians and practice managers about pay, benefits and the changes going on within staffing their practice.

According to the survey, while 60% of practices have reduced staff or maintained the same number of staff, their patient load continues to increase. The additional demands of an aging population combined with improved access to healthcare are continuing to strain healthcare, from small private practices to large healthcare systems.

Because of this, it comes as no big surprise that 36% of these practices consider themselves understaffed and indicated that their biggest staffing challenge was increased workload and employees performing dual roles.

How can locum tenens address these staffing challenges?

Staff Up During Busy Times: Call a trusted locum tenens agency to help you quickly recruit physicians or advanced practice providers to help on a temporary basis. At Health Carousel Locum Tenens we pride ourselves on attracting top talent so facilities can seamlessly fill their coverage gaps.

Give your providers the time off they need: With the increased workload, the last thing you should do is to overwork your current staff. Burnout is a very real problem in healthcare. Bring in locum tenens PAs and NPs that can help your staff take a much-deserved vacation.

Plan early for next year's busy seasons: If you find yourself seasonally understaffed, plan in advance to have locum tenens providers ready as a part of your strategy to combat your shortages before they happen. This can also improve your patient satisfaction ratings.

Understaffed AND no raises?

The other issue that the Staff Salary Survey brought to light was the lack of pay increases for those working in their practices.57.5% of the practices surveyed did not plan to give raises - beyond a cost-of-living increase - to their staff this year. More than half of those practices not giving raises cited decreasing reimbursements by payers and patients as the biggest factor.

Locum tenens work can help NPs and PAs who are stuck in a salary plateau, by offering opportunities for extra shift work outside their regular hours, or to take a long-term locums position to increase their income.

If you have a staffing need in your facility, contact the experienced team at Health Carousel Locum Tenens to learn more about how we can help you continue to provide the same level of care with increasing patient demands and decreasing permanent staff.