Locum Tenens Companies

[res1]

Hi,
I will be a finishing CA-3 at the end of this year and I am considering getting my feet wet next year (and getting to travel a bit) with some locum tenens gigs... have any of you guys had any experience with locum tenens jobs in anesthesia? do you guys have a good recommendations of locum tenens companies that are best for anesthesiologists? Thank you so much for your input!!

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[Noyac]

Be wary!

 

[radslooking]

Be wary!

can you explain this a bit more? not sure exactly what you mean....

 

[Pilot Doc]

can you explain this a bit more? not sure exactly what you mean....

Locums jobs are there for a reason ... they can't keep permanent people to adequately staff the dept

Sometimes it might be a benign issue - three man group in a smallish hospital, well run, etc, but need vacation coverage

More often it will be a bad situation that people don't stay in for a reason. Or maybe you'll be working essentially as a stikebreaker after a hospital fires all it's anes providers en masse.

And regardless, when you show up you will be the low man on the totem pole. Guess who gets all the HIV+ cases, or the sick ones with a known litigious family, etc.

 

[buckhorn]

locum is good experience for a new graduate. Their are so many places that are run by crooks and liars, so by doing some locums you might be able to learn a Little about the business of anesthesia without making the costly mistake of working for a evil AMC or bad group.

Most new graduates only work for a year in their first job. I suspect that that is because they do not know what to look for in a job. The New Graduate invariably make a bad choice either; 1) They get suckered into the partnership lie at a group that wants cheap labor with the empty promise of partnership they will never be offered, 2) They work for the imaginary bonus lie at an anesthesia management company where after working for a year they never get the promised bonus and quit. 3) They take an employed job at a hospital work endless hours and too frequent call get burnt out and quit.

Locums gives a New Graduate the opportunity to work at a number of places talk to the current employees and find the job that is right for them. Physicians with some Locum experience may be seen as undesirable by the undesirable types of employers mentioned above because they know that if the job, the pay or the working conditions deteriorate they can call the locums agency and be working somewhere else in less than 30 days. If you are competent you will be offered a permanent position at least half of the locations that you are assigned as locums physician.

The_Sensei is right; " Problem is there aren't that many GOOD jobs; much more prevalent are the locums gigs where you're makin' this kind of cash...."

$1500 a day is 375K per year without taking any call or working more than 8 hours per day. In at 0700 out at 1500.
With decent jobs hard to find. You will not be able to match that kind of income unless you get awarded the anesthesia contract. Yes some anesthesia management company liar will promise that kind of income, "partnership income from day one" but will be paid thru the imaginary bonus plan. I.E. work for 6 month to a year at 150K per year and be fired for demanding to be paid your bonus.

OR You could slave away (80 hour per week at 150K) for two to five years to make partner, then be fired just before you make partner to be replaced by a new graduate or learn that the group is loosing money and partner make little or nothing.

Yes working locum has problems. I have talked to a number of employers who have looked at the dozen plus location that I have worked and said they don't hire locums doctors since they are too unstable. I attribute that to employers desire to employ New graduates or MDAs that will not stick up for their rights, who will work 24/7 for very low wages for the lie that they will make partner or get a non existent bonus.

With locums you know what you will get paid you work 12 hour you get 12 hours of pay two week later not a lie about a bonus at the end of the year. I have never been lied to by locums agencies about my pay or worked call or extra hours for nothing something that has happened regularly at every permanent job I have had.

 

[maceo]

locum is good experience for a new graduate. Their are so many places that are run by crooks and liars, so by doing some locums you might be able to learn a Little about the business of anesthesia without making the costly mistake of working for a evil AMC or bad group.

most places are crooks and liars..

 

[coprolalia]

I met a doc a coupla of years ago who'd worked locums for a while. All I heard was horror stories. She once even worked a gig for two straight months and never got paid. They owed her about $45,000. When she threatened to sue them, they threatened to countersue bringing up a bunch of stuff they claimed she didn't do per the terms of her contract. Long story short, she walked away from it. Can't remember the name of the locums company right now, but it all happened at a hospital in Miami (PM me if you want the name of the hospital).

-copro

 

[fval28]

true that a lot of locums companies are out to make $$ and most are run by non-clinicians.

Therefore they have very little insight into what is a "good" job and only care about collecting their fee for your labor. So they will sell a job to you (and you to the job) with little concern about whether its a good match or not.

If you are going to work locums, you are going to get dumped on- busy rooms, perhaps bad cases, and you WILL be the first one out at 3 PM to make sure they don't pay you OT-- so if you go somewhere looking at making a ton of OT to supplement your base, you may be disappointed. On the other hand, if you want to go somewhere to work hard and be out by 3, LT may be the way to go.

Just make sure you speak up for yourself loudly and often... both clinically and with the LT company.

 

[buckhorn]

I met a doc a coupla of years ago who'd worked locums for a while. All I heard was horror stories. She once even worked a gig for two straight months and never got paid. They owed her about $45,000. When she threatened to sue them, they threatened to countersue bringing up a bunch of stuff they claimed she didn't do per the terms of her contract. Long story short, she walked away from it. Can't remember the name of the locums company right now, but it all happened at a hospital in Miami (PM me if you want the name of the hospital).

-copro

I would be interested in getting the full details about what happened to your friend in Miami, FL.

I have done locums for over three years, and I have always been paid. Locums pay is slow often not coming for 30 to 45 days after you worked.

I suspect your friend fell into one of the fallowing traps.

1) Working for a tiny agency, anyone with a phone, a phone book and laptop can call themselves a locums agency, so stick to the half dozen established agencies and you will be certain to get paid even if the hospital doesn't pay the agency.

2) Doing locum without an agency, many hospitals, malignant groups or AMC's are too cheap to pay the 25% fee the locum agency takes on top of what they pay you so they will try to get you to doing locum without an agency. This can be risky and very expensive. Beyond the risk that you may not get paid, by an entity that has demonstrated it is too cheap to pay the full price. You also have to arrange for your own malpractice insurance which is difficult if not next to impossible to be done in a cost effective manner for a short assignment. If you are already working at job in the same state and have insurance, this may be a viable option, assuming your employer does not mind you using their insurance they paid for so you can moonlight at another hospital.

I have been asked to do locum without an agency a number of times, usually in the form of a "working interview" when I applied for a permanent job. I have never once done it since; they usually are looking for someone to take advantage of, i.e. work without malpractice insurance or to work for a ridiculously low rate without getting paid for lodging or transportation. Every time I was asked to do locum without an agency, the hospital quickly lost interest as soon as I started asking basic questions like pay rate and how to arrange malpractice insurance.