Use of locum tenens physicians reached a new high for the second year in a row in 2014, according to a annual survey by Staff Care, a health care staffing company.
Last year, 91% of the 259 health care facility managers surveyed reported that they used locum tenens physicians in the 12 months before the survey, surpassing the 90% rate for 2013, which had been the previous high. The current survey is the 12th the company has conducted.
The increase appears to be driven by the shortage of physicians and by the move from independent practice to employment, the report noted.
Medical practices were most likely to be looking for primary care physicians to fill their temporary positions, followed by psychiatrists and other mental health specialists and by hospitalists, Staff Care said.
In a separate survey of 2,087 physicians who do locum tenens, Staff Care found that 21% of those physicians went directly to temporary work after completing their residencies, up from 16% in 2013 and 14.3% in 2012.
“Newly trained doctors are seeking alternatives to traditional private practice, and locum tenens offers them an avenue to explore these alternatives,” Sean Ebner, president of Staff Care, said in a written statement. “It’s a way to ‘test drive’ a practice before they buy.”