Make The Most Of Locum Tenens

THIS ARTICLE PROVIDED BY CALVIN BRUCE WITH JCNATIONWIDE

Working locum tenens can be professionally challenging and financially rewarding for physicians in any specialty. Both new and experienced physicians stand to benefit from what locum tenens offers:

• Travel opportunities nationwide
• Attractive income without management hassles
• Paid malpractice, lodging and travel
• Variety of medical practice settings
• Diversified patient population
• Interaction with top medical specialists
• Chance to learn new medical procedures
• Expanded professional networking
• Greater overall marketability.

As with any other professional endeavor, you get out of it what you put into it. The following practical advice is suited to both novice and experienced providers who want to make the most of their locum tenens experience.

Communicate and cooperate fully. Recruiters work hard to match qualified physicians with outstanding employment opportunities. Considering how competitive the locum tenens industry is, recruiters are always scrambling to “beat the clock” when making a placement. Therefore, it behooves you to communicate promptly and cooperate fully with recruiters when they discuss opportunities and present you to clients. Otherwise, you might lose out on some appealing locum tenens assignments.

Acquire broad clinical experience. Locum tenens assignments vary significantly in length of coverage and type of clinical environment. Rather than limit your availability to major hospitals and clinics, why not be more open-minded and consider a wide array of practice situations? The possibilities include: Indian reservations, military bases, “doc-in-a-box” clinics, correctional institutions, university health systems, mental health agencies, state youth service organizations, and so on. Such broad clinical experience will enable you to expand your professional horizons, treat diverse patient populations, observe different practice management styles, and become more “culturally competent.”

Learn all you can working with seasoned physicians. This advice is especially appropriate for physicians who have recently completed their residency. Interacting with experienced physicians in different practice settings will enable you to increase your medical knowledge base and fine-tune your communication and interpersonal skills.

Take advantage of offers for new licensure. In order to market your services to more clients, locum tenens recruiters will offer assistance in acquiring additional state licensure. Usually there’s a stipulation that you share the cost of the license, or commit to work so many days or weeks in that state as a gesture of appreciation. That is a small price to pay for the benefit of increasing your marketability and overall earning potential as a valuable locum tenens practitioner.

Get references wherever you work. This advice is especially important whenever you work assignments lasting a month or longer. Acquiring written references from supervising physicians and other medical colleagues who can attest to your clinical skills is one way to build your professional dossier. Plus, it makes it easier for recruiters to place you if they have an assortment of fresh references to draw from when presenting you for contract opportunities.

Give your best service. In order to get outstanding references, it’s imperative to render the highest level of medical care possible. Specifically, it pays to be the kind of provider that the facility would want to use again, even if you aren’t certain that you would like to return. After all, your work performance always reflects on yourself as well as the agency that places you. As a further inducement for giving top-notch service, keep in mind that recruiters reserve the most appealing locums assignments for their most reliable and productive providers.

Be prompt and thorough in filling out required paperwork. Such paperwork includes medical charts and other reports at the client facility. In point of fact, some clients withhold authorization of locum tenens earnings until all charting is complete. Providers who are constantly tardy in this area of compliance tarnish their own reputation and that of the agency they represent.

Don’t impose impossible demands on recruiters. Recruiters aim to make locum tenens assignments as enjoyable as possible for the doctors they place. There is a limit, though, as to what they can do to accommodate special requests. For instance, they may not be able to book your favorite airline, pay for an extra room for your mother-in-law to accompany you and your spouse when you work at an “exotic” location, or find lodging that will accommodate your pet pooch and cockatoo. For this reason, it pays to be flexible in settling on the details concerning locum tenens scheduling.

Keep credentialing information handy. Locum tenens recruitment is fast-paced, to say the least. Recruiters must act quickly when their marketing associates land new marketing contracts. To facilitate the process and increase the odds of staying busy, keep in your portfolio legible copies of your primary credentialing information. Recruiters with whom you work might need some additional documentation. Or, if you decide to work with other recruitment groups, you will have handy--and for speedy transmittal--the initial paperwork they need to begin in-house credentialing.

Prepare for minor “emergencies.” Anytime you’re away from home, there is the chance that you might experience some minor “emergency.” In practical terms, when traveling, it pays to have handy a small first-aid kit for any cuts, scrapes or bruises that might occur. If you suffer from any chronic condition that requires special medication, that information should be easily retrievable from your personal effects. Also, it’s smart to keep on hand a small sewing kit for taking care of any tears in your clothing or missing buttons that might occur.

The more you work locum tenens, the greater satisfaction you will experience in meeting timely coverage needs of healthcare organizations. Over time, your earning potential and overall marketability will also increase. That should be enough incentive to make the most of locum tenens. Good luck!

Calvin Bruce, CPC, serves as Senior Staff Writer with JCNationwide in Atlanta. His articles have appeared in publications such as Unique Opportunities, Healthcare Review, Healthcare Business, Recruitment Today, Personnel Consultant, and Recruiting Physicians Today—along with numerous websites.
 

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