For a state facility trying to improve delivery of care, filling schedule gaps through multiple locum tenens agencies became overwhelming and inefficient. Interim Physicians, working with the facility, devised a streamlined solution.
One government hospital in a California county found that establishing an exclusive contract with Interim Physicians resulted in higher quality doctors, consistent bill rates, satisfied providers, and dependable inpatient and outpatient staffing.
Optimizing Patient Care with Exclusivity
This county facility provides essential healthcare to the state facility’s patient population both at the hospital and during aftercare in surrounding outpatient clinics.
Initially, the client engaged three locum tenens agencies, including Interim Physicians, to cover their psychiatric and internal medicine staffing needs.
The state facility later determined that it would be better served by moving to an exclusive locum tenens staffing model with a single agency. Interim Physicians won the request for proposal bid over two existing agencies and dozens of others who bid, in no small part because of the excellent performance over the years in managing staff and based upon positive feedback from providers and hospital leadership.
Our partnership with the client grew steadily as we streamlined the locum tenens model in two stages by:
- Folding 18 of their other locums physicians into lnterim Physicians’ existing roster of 15 doctors
- Absorbing more and more of their schedule, until Interim Physicians managed the majority of their total physician coverage
Interim Physicians cultivated a trusted partnership with the county government by filling more of their staffing gaps without losing sight of quality while greatly reducing the discontent coming from the providers of the other agencies. Now, we manage the agency’s entire schedule and staff over 40 multi-specialty physicians across the facility’s inpatient and outpatient settings. Our dedication to providing top-tier physicians has never wavered.
Fostering Locum Longevity
Although locum tenens providers typically fill a temporary facility need, their impact on patient care is often permanent.
Our physicians actively advocate for the state facility and encourage former colleagues and residency classmates to accept assignments there. These solid relationships — both in our physician network and with our client — have created an extensive pipeline of referrals and have provided an invaluable consistency of shifts at the facility.
Throughout our partnership with the client, we have:
- Stabilized the county’s annual budget.
- Received dozens of new physician referrals through currently practicing physicians.
- Maintained multiple long-term locum tenens physicians who have remained at the facility for several years.
- Cultivated a strong culture within our physician network that emphasizes continuity of care and long-term provider coverage.
Fostering Locum Longevity
Our exclusive contract with the facility means that we can provide a greater level of reliability and attention to detail beyond filling their schedule.
At the inception of our partnership, we established a recruiting captain and dedicated points of contact for this client facility. During our monthly strategy meetings, we constantly review their schedule and take the pulse of their anticipated needs.
As the client adjusted their process requirements over the years, we simultaneously altered our internal policies regarding timesheets and logging hours. Even if their procedures didn’t align with our back-office workflow, our ability to adapt saves them precious time.
Since 2014, we’ve worked hard to be nimble and adjust processes internally to match theirs, ensuring that we create a seamless process from submittal to acceptance. These extra steps allow our client to focus on doing what they do best: meeting unmet, essential healthcare needs at the county level. We are honored to be their staffing partner and we look forward to many more years together.
