America, as well as the rest of the world, is facing a significant shortage of skilled healthcare professionals these days. It has been building for quite some time, and it’s expected to grow far worse in the coming years. According to the latest reports, the deficit will exceed 120,000 physicians within the next few years. At the same time, it will span nearly 200,000 nurses and hundreds of thousands of home health aides.
This growing gap is affecting hospitals, clinics, assisted living communities, and other medical facilities though some are certainly being hit harder than others. It’s giving rise to increased workloads among existing staff members. It’s also causing rising burnout and turnover rates. On top of all that, it’s leading to increased wait times for patients and reduced quality of care along with other problems.
Using Locum Tenens to Ease the Crisis
Numerous strategies have emerged as potential remedies for the burgeoning deficit of healthcare workers. Many of them show a great deal of promise. Still, quite a few experts have pointed out that connecting with locum tenens providers with help from companies like CHGHealthcare could be the true key to mitigating the crisis. Locum tenens providers step in to fill short-term assignments in medical facilities. They can fill various roles in these facilities while easing the burden of the shortage on existing staff members. They’re sure to be a vital ally for several reasons.
Relief From Staffing Shortages
On the most basic level, locum tenens providers can help by providing immediate relief from staffing shortages. They’re available to quickly and efficiently fill open positions in medical facilities. As such, they can help prevent disruptions in patient care and ensure facilities are able to provide the highest quality of care. They have the qualifications and experience to adapt to different working environments and workloads. Because of that, they can take away much of the burden left on existing staff members when permanent staff members leave the team or need to take time off.
Expanded Reach
Locum tenens providers can also help healthcare facilities expand their reach. In underserved areas, medical facilities often struggle to keep permanent staff members. They certainly face difficulties when it comes to providing the care their growing communities need. At the same time, rural areas tend to be the hardest hit by the ongoing medical worker shortage. Many physicians and other medical professionals prefer to work in urban and suburban settings, so rural communities are often overlooked. Medical facilities can use locum tenens providers to expand their reach and bridge those gaps.
Reducing Burnout and Turnover Rates
Burnout is common among healthcare workers. Heavy workloads, long hours away from their families, and high-stress working environments leave them searching for jobs that offer better work-life balances. That, in turn, leads to high turnover rates in healthcare facilities. Those issues are adding to the growing medical worker shortage.
Medical facilities can bring in locum tenens providers to allow existing staff members to take vacations and personal leaves as needed. That may lead to improved morale, reduced risk of burnout, and higher retention rates. This is particularly important in the medical field as it helps to reduce complications for patients and keeps healthcare facilities operating more efficiently among additional benefits.
Fostering Telehealth
Furthermore, locum tenens providers can be crucial in fostering the growing telehealth movement. Many experts believe that telemedicine is going to be instrumental in helping to mitigate the healthcare staffing shortage moving forward. It’s giving medical facilities greater flexibility while also allowing them to more effectively help patients in underserved and remote areas. It’s also giving patients simpler, more convenient ways to connect with their healthcare providers.
That being said, staffing shortages are hampering medical facilities’ ability to take advantage of all the benefits of telemedicine. Locum tenens providers can offer telehealth services just like permanent staff members, so they can certainly be part of the solution here as well. Healthcare facilities can bring in locum tenens providers solely for telehealth services or for a combination of in-person and virtual patient care. As long as all industry regulations for telemedicine are followed, medical facilities can employ locum tenens providers for telemedicine in several ways.
Cost-Effectiveness
Locum tenens providers can also be a more cost-effective solution for medical facilities than other alternatives. Though bringing in locum tenens providers comes with certain expenses, those are often lower than those incurred by high turnover rates. Locum tenens providers’ potential to help improve patient satisfaction rates and prevent lost revenue makes them even more economical in the long run. Medical facilities can use the money they save over the long term by hiring locum tenens providers to offer more incentives for permanent staff members as well.
Easing Healthcare Staffing Shortages With Locum Tenens Providers
More healthcare workers are expected to leave the medical field in the years to come. To make matters more complicated, not enough rising students will be entering the medical field to bridge the resulting gap. Additionally, the growing population will lead to an increased demand for medical services moving forward. Those factors and many others are expected to contribute to the surging deficit of healthcare workers.
Though mitigating the shortage will require several measures, locum tenens providers are going to play a major role in the process. They’re available to promptly fill an array of roles in medical facilities. They can give facilities immediate relief from staffing shortages as well as the added flexibility they need to effectively deal with them. Locum tenens providers can also allow medical facilities to expand their reach in underserved areas while reducing burnout and turnover rates among existing staff members.
Locum tenens providers can also empower healthcare facilities to use telemedicine to their full advantage as well as that of their patients. In addition to those aspects, locum tenens providers offer medical facilities a cost-effective solution both now and over the long term. With all that being the case, they can certainly be a vital ally in reducing the effects of the healthcare staffing crisis.
