With the year over halfway done, many hospitals are evaluating their budgets and considering ways to save on costs to increase revenues and improve their bottom lines. If staffing is one of your healthcare facility’s most significant expenses, there’s good reason to explore the option of locum tenens physicians and other providers within your various departments. Here are some of the ways that integrating locum tenens physicians into your workforce can save your facility money moving forward:
Better staff retention.
While it may not be obvious on the surface, a locum tenens workforce can have a direct impact on staff retention and workplace morale. By providing support to your full-time staff with locum tenens physicians, you’ll reduce burnout levels and demonstrate a commitment to helping your entire team succeed. Additionally, your permanent staff will be able to be productive in their roles, as they’ll have the critical staffing support to handle the demands of their positions when patient volume is at its highest. Utilizing locum tenens staff can also give your permanent staff the chance to rest and recuperate that they may not otherwise have. Retaining your permanent staff is an important cost-saving measure, especially in the current climate where there are shortages in many specialties.
Filling staffing gaps.
As your hospital experiences ebbs and flows in staffing, locum tenens physicians can fill staffing gaps in the event that full-time physicians leave your organization unexpectedly or take extended time off. In some cases, locum tenens physicians may play a vital role in preventing your facility from becoming severely understaffed, thus preventing a variety of harmful effects such as lower quality patient care or poor workplace morale due to an overworked staff. Utilizing a locum tenens workforce to equip your organization with proper staffing is essential to ensuring optimal patient outcomes and satisfaction, directly impacting your hospital’s revenue and bottom line.
Cost-effective staffing.
Locum tenens physicians can be a cost-effective hiring alternative to bringing on full-time staff, especially for positions that are difficult to fill and require expensive searches for candidates. Rather than invest in permanent staff in this case, hiring locum tenens physicians to fulfill staffing needs in certain departments or during different times of the year based on increased needs can be an asset to your organization’s budget. Using a locum tenens staffing agency means that they can take care of every aspect of the hiring process, saving your HR team time and money in the long run. This can be especially beneficial for rural facilities that may have an even more difficult time finding candidates. Utilizing locum tenens physicians can make it possible to continue seeing patients in certain specialties when there is no permanent staff member in that specialty, allowing you to continue bringing in that revenue.
As outlined above, hiring locum tenens physicians can have many cost-saving benefits for your facility. Assessing the specific ways in which your facility would save money will help your leadership team determine whether to pursue locum tenens staffing.
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