When it Comes to Locums Staffing, Healthcare Leaders Are Demanding Visibility and Control
A Q&A with Syncx experts
In the United States, more physicians are retiring than entering the workforce. At the same time, our population is aging and chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease are on the rise. Shifting demographics, increased demand for services, bigger workloads, and physician burnout mean healthcare provider demand exceeds supply. And that balance won’t shift anytime soon. The demand for locum healthcare providers, those who temporarily fill in for full-time providers to scale medical services and relieve pressure on staff, will continue to rise.
Recently, we caught up with Syncx Vice President of Finance Louis Arias and Senior Director of Client Experience Chris Moseley regarding some of the burning issues healthcare leadership are dealing with when it comes to locums staffing. Read below for their expert insights.
What pain points do healthcare leaders face when it comes to managing locums?
Chris: Projections. Forecasting locum needs can be difficult, representing a significant pain point for healthcare leaders. Will they need full-time employees (FTEs)? Seasonal support? Locum providers? They must decide which path to pursue: continue leveraging locums or hire a FTE or seasonal staff. Forecasting demand and supply of locum providers is crucial to planning and managing healthcare staffing needs, yet most healthcare leaders do not have access to detailed locums data to help them make those decisions.
Louis: Additionally, they’re dealing with a challenge of finding the best and brightest talent, whether locums or FTEs. If they are a healthcare system in a more remote part of the country, it might be harder to find high-quality talent and secure optimal patient outcomes.
Why are healthcare leaders getting more involved in locums programs?
Chris: Increasing costs and the continued focus on identifying enough talent to provide care are high on the strategic priorities for many health systems. Locums is becoming a more meaningful strategic staffing strategy and with any top priority comes leadership support and alignment. Whether locums or FTE, hospitals are struggling to find enough providers to keep up with the growing demand for services.Everyone is thinking about how to solve this problem in the most cost effective way, without compromising quality.
When did you notice this shift?
Louis: Before the pandemic, we were already seeing more healthcare providers leave the industry than enter it. Then, COVID represented a tipping point. For numerous reasons – many of them interwoven – providers moved on to new opportunities or retired. For example, the rapid increase in technology and electronic medical records throughout healthcare caused a certain subset of providers to leave the industry.
How does Syncx help healthcare leaders gain more visibility into locum tenens staffing?
Chris: Most health systems don’t have good reporting on locums; they just know they spend a lot of money on the program. For example, they might know they spend $100 million annually on locum talent and most of it is at a certain location. This doesn’t provide you with the information required to forecast provider demand. With Syncx, healthcare organizations can drill down into all the locums spend data – down to specialty, location, and provider type – and create customized reports and dashboards. This data can tell them whether it makes more sense to hire FTEs in certain locations and departments.
On the flip side, they can see how many shifts will be open in the next 100 days by department and specialty, allowing them to get a jump start on recruiting for critical openings. Today, large systems that rely on locums need to plan ahead. Just like permanent physicians, locums physicians in many specialties are in demand. Those organizations that don’t have visibility and a solid plan, and end up waiting until the last minute, have a higher likelihood of going without coverage.
Louis: Oftentimes, we see hospitals that don’t have good visibility into the availability of their full-time providers. Syncx Float Pool solves that, giving healthcare leaders insight into which internal providers are on the sidelines before turning to locum talent. For example, before requesting a locum neurologist in their Philadelphia facility for two weeks, they can look at their internal float pool and get real-time visibility into nearby neurologists who are part of their system and available.
How does Syncx support the healthcare C-suite in achieving greater control over locum staffing and management?
Syncx Float Pool
Louis: Take the neurologist example I just mentioned. If you need a neurologist and can leverage your own internal provider via Syncx Float Pool, you’ll save 20%-30% vs. a locum provider, thereby increasing profits and driving down insurance costs and deductibles. Our float pool solution helps healthcare organizations decrease locums spend by leveraging their own talented providers who are already vetted.
Syncx MSP
Louis: The industry is moving toward an MSP model. If I’m a hospital or network of hospitals, instead of dealing with a hodgepodge of agencies, I want to centralize with a strategic business partner who can help me grow, provide me with fresh insights, and operate as a true partner for the long haul.
Organizations don’t come to us to place one position or handle a short-term surge. Instead, they come to Syncx as a long term strategy, and as a result they gain detailed insight into provider usage and spend, access to a wider pool of high-quality candidates, and a streamlined staffing process. Syncx MSP isn’t your average MSP. In fact, our recent client experience survey, administered through Clearly Rated, validated that. Our Client NPS score was 52 points higher than the average MSP, and we are just getting started!
Chris: Healthcare organizations are saving money, time, and headaches by working with one central system such as Syncx MSP. We might have as many as 40 locums staffing agencies working with one client. The client, however, only has one partner to interface with: Syncx.
How do healthcare leaders measure the success of their locum program? How does Syncx help track such metrics?
Chris: From a talent management perspective, success is when they know they’ll need locums ahead of time. Success is a holistic, real-time view of talent demand so they can plan for and manage it. For example, with full visibility into talent demand, they might be able to eliminate 10 locums throughout the year if they hire three more full-time providers.
Louis: Balancing cost with patient care represents success. If I’m a healthcare leader spending millions annually on locums, I had better be getting high-quality talent when I need it and that talent better deliver great patient outcomes. Healthcare leaders also want insight into the number of shifts covered by locums, missed shifts, and patients care metrics, such as time to be seen by a provider. If you’re cutting costs but missing shifts or not providing a high level of patient care, you’re out of balance.
What future trends in locum tenens staffing could impact hospital leadership?
Chris: Demand for locums is only going to rise. Hospital leaders should begin thinking about how they can create and leverage their own float pools to supplement or slow their agency spend, which will save 20%-30% in agency mark-ups.
Louis: MSPs and staffing agencies with the best technology will succeed. Syncx is investing heavily in our technology, including AI, to remain on the cutting edge of healthcare locums staffing and management.
What advice would you give to healthcare leaders who want to gain more control over/visibility into their organization’s locum tenens staffing process?
Chris: You must make locums staffing part of your actual business plan. Many healthcare systems consider locums a necessary evil, something they have to deal with versus a program they can control and plan for. There is so much to gain by changing your mindset and building locums into your business plan.
Louis: As Chris said, strategize and plan for locums staffing. It isn’t easy, but Syncx can help.
Join us on the journey!
Connect with us today to learn more about how Syncx can help you gain control over locum staffing in your organization.
