Across the United States, tens of millions of Americans live in areas with shortages of primary care, dental, and mental health professionals. And there’s little sign of this issue slowing down any time soon—in fact, the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) projects the country will be short 87,150 primary care doctors, 11,860 dentists, 79,160 psychologists—along with shortages of other key specialties—in 2037. Many healthcare facilities in the U.S. are already struggling with staffing shortages, but others have turned to healthcare staffing agencies like Barton Associates to fill in the gaps. In this blog, we’re going to outline four key ways temporary medical staff such as locum tenens providers can help healthcare facilities maintain continuity of high-quality patient care in the face of growing shortages.
1. Filling Critical Healthcare Staffing Gaps
For many healthcare facilities, such as those located in rural areas of the country, the healthcare staffing shortage is already here—but for others, it’s a looming issue that must be planned for. Temporary medical staff, such as locum tenens physicians, nurse practitioners (NPs), physician assistants (PAs), and dentists travel across the country to work short- and long-term assignments at healthcare facilities that are short-staffed.
These professionals play a vital role in maintaining essential services and ensuring continuity of patient care. By filling vacancies in critical positions, temporary medical staff help maintain essential service and ensure continuity of patient care. More specifically, healthcare facilities benefit from partnering with medical staff recruitment agencies to:
- Maintain regular appointment schedules and avoid cancellations.
- Keep emergency departments and urgent care centers fully operational.
- Ensure specialty services remain available, even when permanent specialists are scarce.
- Support continuity of care for patients with chronic conditions who require regular follow-ups.
- Allow facilities to maintain their full range of services without cutting back due to staff shortages.
By strategically utilizing temporary medical professionals, typically through partnering with healthcare staffing agencies such as Barton Associates, healthcare facilities can address immediate staffing needs while also gaining time to develop long-term recruitment and retention strategies for permanent staff.
2. Reducing Burnout Among Permanent Staff
Did you know that nearly half of physicians (45.2%) reported at least one symptom of burnout in 2023? What’s more, a 2023 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association uncovered that one-third of the doctors surveyed considered leaving clinical practice altogether—and over 6% of the country’s doctors (more than 70,000) left medicine between 2021 and 2022, according to Definitive Healthcare.
Enter temporary medical staff, such as locum tenens providers. These traveling healthcare professionals can be deployed at healthcare facilities struggling to maintain adequate staffing levels as physicians and other providers deal with burnout. By partnering with a healthcare recruiter at medical staff recruitment agencies to find temp providers, facilities can:
- Alleviate the workload on temporary staff, allowing them to take time off.
- Reduce overtime and extended shifts that are associated with burnout.
- Provide coverage for planned and unplanned time off without overburdening permanent staff.
- Offer permanent staff opportunities for professional development without compromising patient care.
Think of temporary medical staffing as a pressure release valve—as permanent staff feel increasingly burnt out, locum tenens providers can step in to give those permanent providers time to rest and recharge. In turn, this will likely improve job satisfaction and increase retention among permanent providers—starting a trickle down effect that leads to better patient outcomes and ensures continuity of patient care.
3. Bringing Diverse Expertise and Skills
One of the greatest benefits of temporary medical staff, such as highly-skilled locum tenens providers, is the wealth of diverse experience they bring to healthcare facilities. These professionals have often worked in a variety of practice environments, each offering unique challenges and learning opportunities—so when they arrive at a new healthcare facility, they can leverage this experience to teach others and help maintain quality patient care.
The varied backgrounds of temp medical staff, like locum tenens providers, allows these professionals to:
- Introduce best practices and innovative clinical approaches from other healthcare settings.
- Adapt quickly to new processes, electronic health record (EHR) systems, and more.
- Bring specialized skills that might be otherwise lacking among permanent staff.
- Offer fresh perspectives on cases, leading to enhanced patient care.
By partnering with medical recruitment agencies to capture the varied experience of temporary medical staff, healthcare facilities can enhance their service offerings and ramp up operational efficiency, benefits that lead to more comprehensive and consistent patient care.
4. Enhancing Flexibility in Medical Staffing Models
As a healthcare facility, you can often predict when there will be higher patient volumes—flu season is one of the primary examples of such a phenomenon. Partnering with healthcare staffing agencies, specifically with a healthcare recruiter who has a deep understanding of your facility and the patient volume trends you see, allows you to garner access to temporary medical staff that can be strategically deployed to meet fluctuating demands.
Achieving this flexibility in medical staffing enables you to:
- Scale your workforce quickly during peak seasons or unexpected surges in patient volume.
- Maintain optimal staff-to-patient ratios without over- or understaffing.
- Respond rapidly to unforeseen emergencies or circumstances.
Healthcare industry recruiters like those found at Barton Associates work to build a meaningful relationship with you, putting in the work to get a complex grasp of your facility’s historical trends and challenges so they can better provide you with temporary medical staff.
Barton Associates is Your Healthcare Staffing Agency Partner
Need temporary medical staff at your facility? There are many healthcare staffing agencies out there on the market, but none give you the level of personalized service that Barton Associates does. Our highly-skilled locum tenens physicians, NPs, PAs, and dentists are ready and willing to travel across the country to provide you with the temporary healthcare staffing your patients deserve.
