Locum Tenens Physicians: Requirements and Benefits

Today, most healthcare facilities look forward to hiring physicians for Locum Tenens positions as it not only helps in fulfilling their staffing needs, but also helps in bringing down the costs associated with permanent recruitment for any position.

The term Locum Tenens is derived from Latin and is a healthcare phrase used for fulfilling a permanent position lying vacant due to a vacation, ill health or maternity leave of the permanent employee. Sometimes, the hiring of professional medical staff is also done on locum basis during periods when the influx of patients increases during specific months of the year.


This type of position benefit medical students who are freshly out of their residency and also to the experienced healthcare professionals. The duration of an assignment can be anywhere between four to fifty-two weeks in a year. Professionals starting their career take locum hiring as a bonus that can help them in getting assorted kinds of practice experience. The doctors and specialists who have been working for many years use locum positions for cutting down their work gradually before retiring.


The basic requirement and essential criteria for locum tenens jobs include U.S. residency training, work permit for the United States and one or more valid medical practice licenses. These positions also require fulfilling requirements such as an active Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) registration along with clearing any drug screening and criminal background tests.


Most locum positions are generally filled by the physicians with the help of physician staffing agencies, which can be easily found and contacted online. The medical experts, who are looking for locum positions, have their CV’s forwarded to suitable employers by the staffing agency and a follow up is done by the recruiter of the agency from time to time.


Once selected, screened and hired, physicians start practicing in the respective healthcare facility for a period of time under a contract. Locum Tenens physicians are free to schedule and plan their working hours and week offs. Another benefit a physician rules is the choice of selecting the desired location to work before applying for a job in the medical field.

For more information on opportunities for Locum Tenens and the hiring essentials, please visit the website http://www.locums4you.com/

10 Things You Won’t Miss when You Work a Locum Tenens Assignment (continued)

As promised, here are 2 more things you won’t miss when you work locums:

7. Self promotion – Twenty years ago, physicians would have considered it unethical to market and promote their practices. Today, the internet has changed all that and physicians must use every angle they can to get the word out to prospective patients.  Locum tenens physicians don’t have to worry about promoting themselves or their practices because when their assignment is complete, they move on to the next one. Most locums do recognize however that they need to provide excellent patient care and be easy to work with so that they are either invited back when a vacancy opens up or can land a plum assignment in a new locale.

8. Long hours – Physicians with office or hospital practices rarely work an eight hour day. When you have administrative responsibilities in addition to medical responsibilities, the day is long. If you have a family or want to spend your free time somewhere other than work, the long hours can take their toll. That’s not to say that locums don’t work long hours when needed. They do! But locums tend to be able to set their schedules and work when they want to, and if they want time off, they just schedule their assignments around it.

Ten Things You Won’t Miss when You Work a Locum Tenens Assignment

If you work locum tenens assignments on a regular basis, you know the freedom that comes along with the locum lifestyle. If you are new to locums or haven’t worked locums in awhile let me take this opportunity to remind you of the top 10 things you will NOT miss when you work locums:

1. Low or no reimbursement – When you work a locum assignment, you won’t have to worry about getting reimbursed for your work. You won’t have to wonder how much the insurance company or Medicare will pay you for seeing that patient. Because locums are paid by the hour, day or by the shift, you simply turn in your timesheet or invoice and you get paid in full. In fact, locums are paid well overall, and if you are willing to take call, or work weekends, holidays or the night shift, your paycheck will really look attractive.

Locum Assignment

2. High practice operating costs– The hard costs of running your own practice today just keep skyrocketing: staff salaries, office rent, utilities, phones, technology, malpractice insurance, lab costs, office equipment, you name it. Add to that the fact that reimbursements are down and sometimes there isn’t much left at the end of the month. Locums don’t have to stress about whether or not they can pay their staff or whether they can keep the office lights on. Locums just go to work, see patients and collect a paycheck.

 

3. Costly malpractice insurance – As we all know, the cost of malpractice insurance keeps on rising. Depending on your specialty and where you live, it can be one of the largest costs a physician takes on. Physicians who work locum assignments must have malpractice insurance too, but the cost of the coverage is usually paid for by the staffing agency placing the physician in the assignment. If a locum decides not to work through an agency, there are daily-rate malpractice insurance options where coverage is available for only the days worked, making it a lot more cost-effective.

4. Office staff or hospital politics – If you’ve been part of a medical office or hospital staff, you know just how crazy the internal politics can be. There are other physicians jockeying for position, hassles from hospital administration, and departmental issues that are always cropping up. As a locum, you have the luxury of not being drawn in to all the hoopla going on around you. At the end of the day, you can go home to a “politics-free” zone.

Coming on November 5th… more things you won’t miss when you work a locum assignment.

Locum Tenens: To See the World in a Grain of Sand

The neat thing about working as a locum tenens is that it offers the ability to travel and explore new places!  When you were young, the world was an endless stream of opportunity.  You wanted to travel & explore, so maybe you did & maybe you didn’t.  But either way, after backpacking Europe or visiting temples in the south pacific, you returned home to start your career.  Of course that natural spark for adventure has never really left you.  Working as a locum tenens provides a viable and respected means to travel and explore new regions before settling down to permanent practice.  Maybe exploring parts of the country will afford you the opportunity to decide where in the world you finally rest and set up shop in a permanent practice.  Working a locum  allows you to move to a big city or a quiet country side, or a small town on one of the Great Lakes; the options are infinite. 

Working as a locum may give your resume a competitive edge when looking for the perfect associateship.  In traveling and living in many towns and cities, you come across a wide spectrum of patients from all walks of life.  It proves that you are adaptable to change, interested in the world around you, and are eager to learn & grow as a person.  The opportunities that present themselves while working as a locum are endless.  Don’t rest now; the best is yet to be!

We remain, as always,

LOCUMS4YOU

Pathmark Locum Service, Inc