When you need to quickly fill temporary positions at your healthcare facility, you’ll usually have the choice between traditional locum tenens staffing agencies or medical staffing partners.
While these two types of staffing solutions can be useful when you need to fill hospital medical staffing positions, they have a few key differences you’ll want to be aware of to make a fully informed choice. Before you make a decision, find out more about the main differences between traditional locums agencies and medical staffing partners.
What Is a Locum Tenens Agency?
A traditional medical locum tenens staffing agency is a company that specializes in filling temporary positions at healthcare organizations. They can play a part in the benefits that locums providers contribute to the healthcare industry at large. Like medical staffing partners, they essentially help healthcare organizations fill temporary positions or shifts during staffing shortages.
However, while some locum tenens agencies offer continued support to their locums, that’s not always the case. Traditional models may only be willing to partner facilities with locums physicians, meaning healthcare organizations that need a wide array of staffing solutions and locums providers to solve their staffing issues will find their options limited.
What Is a Medical Staffing Partner?
A medical staffing partner refers to a company that maintains a comprehensive network of full-time, part-time, moonlighting, and locum tenens providers. The medical staffing partner uses their connections to provide healthcare organizations with qualified medical staff, such as physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and CRNAs to solve a wide variety of short-term and long-term hospital staffing issues.
Alongside providing locum tenens and other providers to fill open positions, a medical staffing partner will work with you to fully understand your staffing needs as they change over time. With a medical staffing partner, you can expect them to continue to provide ongoing support to their providers, ensuring that your healthcare workers have everything they need to have maintained success.
What’s the Difference Between a Medical Staffing Partner and a Locums Agency?
While locum tenens agencies can be beneficial when you only need a quick fix, they have quite a few drawbacks compared to a medical staffing partner. As you try to decide between the two options, find out more about the three primary differences between locum tenens agencies and medical staffing partners below:
1. Medical Staffing Partners Offer More Personal Service
Medical staffing partners and locum tenens agencies both offer personalized service. However, a reliable medical staffing partner often develops a stronger relationship with their clients. Since locum tenens agencies tend not to work as closely with hospitals and other medical practices, you might get stuck re-explaining your needs every time you need to fill a temporary position.
In contrast, a medical staffing partner is a trusted partner you can expect to remember your needs and check that you don’t need new positions filled. Over time, a medical staffing partner will know the exact type of candidates you’re looking for. Medical staffing partners also usually respond faster and provide more informed and effective solutions if you have complaints about a staff member or need to make an adjustment.
2. Medical Partners Have a Broader Pool of Candidates
Since traditional locum agencies tend to only work with locums providers, they often have a smaller talent pool to draw from when you need to fill an open position. As a result, you can’t always expect a locums agency to give you the best-fit candidates.
In contrast, medical staffing partners often have a larger network of available talent they can draw from to help you find the right candidate for your needs—including more affordable, efficient, and effective local physicians. By partnering with a trusted medical staffing partner, you can feel confident you’re receiving vetted talent with a great track record.
3. Medical Staffing Partners Provide Greater Accountability
Traditional locum tenens agencies may offer less accountability due to their more hands-off approach to filling open medical staffing needs. Like medical staffing partners, they fill open temporary positions with staff. However, they aren’t as connected to your hospital, meaning they can be harder to hold accountable when a temporary member doesn’t live up to your expectations.
A medical staffing partner’s in-depth involvement in your hospital or care facility makes it much easier for you to hold them accountable. If you have an issue with staff from the medical staffing partner, they’ll often work harder to make it right and find other qualified candidates. Their wider and better-supported talent pool can also speed up the process of replacing temporary staff who end up not being a good fit.
OnCall Solutions: A Partner for Your Medical Staffing Needs
As a leading medical staffing partner, OnCall Solutions is proud to help medical practices and hospitals fill open full-time, part-time, per diem, locum tenens, and moonlighting positions. With our tailored solutions and local model, we can help you receive the staffing services you need at lower costs than you’ve come to expect. Since we’re a medical staffing partner, you can trust us to work closely with you to understand your staffing requirements and ensure you always receive high-qualified professionals.
Find out more about how our medical staffing solutions can serve your healthcare organization’s staffing needs. If you’re ready to partner with us for temporary staffing solutions or have any questions, please contact us.
