Key Points
- Speed-centric staffing is a flawed metric: The locum tenens industry overemphasizes filling shifts quickly, which risks overlooking clinical fit, care continuity, and long-term outcomes.
- Locum tenens should be positioned as a strategic workforce solution: When done right, it supports patient access, stabilizes service lines, reduces clinician burnout, and aids long-term recruitment.
- Quality hinges on rigor and alignment: Effective locums programs prioritize thorough vetting, specialty match, and integration into team dynamics, not just availability.
- Healthcare leaders must evaluate partners differently: The right staffing partner is measured by process quality, accountability, and long-term impact, not just placement speed.
The locum tenens industry has a messaging problem.
Too much of the conversation still centers on speed, volume, and coverage filled. That framing may be convenient, but it undersells the role locum tenens can and should play in healthcare. Healthcare is not a transaction business. It is a quality business. And when locums is positioned primarily as a fast way to plug holes in the schedule, hospitals risk overlooking what matters most: clinical fit, patient care continuity, and long-term trust.
That distinction matters because the pressures facing hospitals are not temporary. Health systems continue to navigate workforce shortages, growing demand, and financial strain, all while trying to protect patient access and maintain service-line stability. The AAMC projects that the United States could face a physician shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036. In that environment, staffing decisions carry strategic consequences.
A physician who is available quickly is not necessarily the physician who is right for the organization, the team, or the patient population.
At its best, locum tenens is not simply temporary staffing. It is a workforce solution that can help organizations maintain patient access, stabilize critical service lines, reduce pressure on employed clinicians, support recruitment efforts, and create flexibility during periods of transition or shortage. That is a far more valuable story than “we filled the shift.” It is also a more accurate one.
The problem is that not all staffing firms operate at the same standard. When speed becomes the dominant selling point, important questions can get pushed aside. Was the physician thoroughly credentialed? Were references strong and specialty-relevant? Is the clinician equipped for the acuity, team dynamics, and patient population of that specific setting? Will the staffing partner stay accountable if issues arise?
Those are not secondary concerns. They are the core of quality.
Hospitals should expect more than coverage. They should expect rigor.
That rigor starts with credentialing and vetting. It continues with specialty alignment and clinical fit. It includes transparency around readiness, communication, and support. And it requires a partner willing to think beyond individual placements to the broader needs of the organization. If the relationship ends the moment the schedule is filled, the hospital has not gained a strategic partner. It has simply completed a transaction.
This is where the locum tenens conversation needs to mature. The value of locums is not just that a clinician can show up. The value is that the right clinician can step in, integrate effectively, support continuity, and reduce operational strain without compromising standards.
As burnout remains a system-level concern and incomplete team staffing continues drive intent to leave, flexibility matters, but quality and fit determine whether that flexibility actually strengthens the workforce or quietly undermines it.
For healthcare leaders, the takeaway is clear: do not evaluate locum tenens partners only on speed. Evaluate them on the quality of their process, the strength of their screening, the relevance of their clinician match, and their willingness to act like a partner rather than a vendor.
In a market where every staffing decision touches care quality, physician experience, and operational performance, that distinction matters. The future of this industry will not belong to the staffing firms that promise the fastest placement at any cost. It will belong to the firms that help healthcare organizations protect quality, preserve trust, and strengthen workforce resilience over time.
Tim Fischer
President
Tim Fischer is President of Jackson and Coker Locum Tenens, one of the nation’s largest physician and advanced practice locum tenens staffing firms. With more than 30 years of executive leadership experience, Tim has built and grown companies across healthcare staffing, IT staffing, and professional services.
Since joining Jackson and Coker in December 2019, Tim has focused on strengthening the company’s culture, developing leaders, improving execution, and helping healthcare organizations use locum tenens as a strategic workforce solution. His leadership is grounded in the company’s mission: connecting providers and communities to transform lives.
Tim is known for building values-based cultures, leading turnarounds, scaling teams, integrating acquisitions, and driving sustainable growth. His leadership style emphasizes accountability, quality, disciplined execution, and developing people to reach their full potential.
A lifelong competitor and supporter of athletics, Tim is also a member of the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame.
