LOCUMS anesthesia agencies, the good, the bad and the ugly

[Ashers]

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Can’t you have two different DEA licenses? Instead of transferring them? I know it can get expensive to maintain 2 or 3.

I did have 2. they wouldn't pay for a 3rd when I said I'd prefer it over transferrin them back and forth. It was a huge complex debacle. Other command had no problems. I had 4 DEAs at one point.

 

[Coffee PRN]

what has your experience with comp health been like?

Bad. They try to change the contract and gaslight you constantly.

 

[amyl]

How much longer do we think the locum bubble will continue ?

It’s anyone’s guess. A few places have gotten the message that paying permanent staff better is the answer but not enough places. We just interviewed a mid career doc who is a hospital employee. His current position has been having trouble hiring due to location but otherwise sounds like a good job - nice culture and mix of proper ACT/solo. Admins “brilliant” idea is to bring in NAPA, sound or USAP (those are the three they’re talking to.) all three with the playbook of expanding crnas roles and supervision ratios to cover more stuff for less money. So some of the existing docs are walking…. But admin doesn’t care… they need less docs now and free up some capital to recruit more crnas, pay the AMC cut and not have to deal with the headache of anesthesia staffing.
Sounds like this is happening in Grand Rapids, MI and Des Moines as well. Er docs and dentists doing anesthesia too - geez. Huge Locums costs may have killed the goose laying the golden eggs as admins try to invent other ways to run ORs.
Of course slashing admin staff by 80% would be the best idea but they won’t do that. Every hospital I’ve been at has an army of nurse managers or other admins who do nothing but go to meetings. No clue what any of them accomplish ever