My review of locum tenens firms

[cookymonster]

Detailed my experience leaving employment and setting out on my own two feet in another thread. I haven't seen a thread where we review locum tenens agencies and I thought if the hive wanted to review them it would be helpful for the crowd.

First of all, why am I using agencies? Well, I didn't want to. Money that goes to the middleman takes money out of my pocket. But the problems I had with doing this on my own were thus:
1) Internal HR-based recruiters weren't responding to my emails with CV attached. Or if they did, it was over a week later.
2) Offers from administration were horrible, even when the middle man was cut out. See my previous thread where I note that I was offered $126 per hour to cover weekends, without benefits. IC docs also pay self-employment tax. At another facility out of state, I was offered $143 per weekday and $161 on weekends. No pager fee for call.
3) I had a bad experience working directly with a hospital system, which promised to wait for licensing but then pulled the rug out at the last minute.

I should say that I have not done any assignments yet so none of these reviews are comprehensive. Some of these recruiters could just be lying to me. Also my isolated reviews mean next to nothing. I hope they will be supplemented by others on this forum who will post their experiences.

Barton - aggressive, annoying recruiter. Pushes me to ask for lower pay than I'm routinely offered at other firms. At other firms the jobs usually have an hourly rate posted (seems minimally negotiable) but with Barton the recruiter expects me to make the first offer. When I name an offer that is comparable to other firms will list he then asks if it is "all inclusive" meaning the hourly rate includes all travel costs, which is obviously not what I implied.

Comphealth - Feel most satisfied with them. I am always honest and tell the recruiter about jobs I am considering at other firms, and he does not seem to have an issue with it. Not overbearing, seems to present good jobs, but responsive. Their market share doesn't seem as high as other firms. Pays pretty well.

FCS - I called them and spoke to one recruiter, told him what I was looking for (which is very selective). No one called me back. Their website and job listings are not user friendly so I haven't bothered since then.

Locum Tenens - They seems to have a lot of jobs and pay well. The recruiters I've spoken with have been relatively pleasant to interact with and not overbearing. One downside is that recruiters seem haphazardly organized geographically, so I've had to keep track of several of them. I think Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio have three different recruiters for instance.

Weatherby - I just have one recruiter there, who isn't bad but not as strong as the others. I think he has given up on trying to deal with someone as picky as I am. They at least have a good website, a lot of listings, and seem to pay decently.

I hope others will add their experiences. As I have said I am new at this and have plenty to learn.

I will say I am not committed to using agencies long term. If you want to avoid them and see if you can get paid slightly more as a result, you can try your luck on Nomad Health or Lucidity Direct, but pickings are pretty slim.

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[Sushirolls]

Thanks for adding this to the SDN collective.

 

[Ironspy]

Thanks for this. Very useful. I get calls from Barton every week. Terrible jobs when I’ve talked to them. I’ve told them I am not interested and have started blocking numbers.

Medicus- almost took a job with them but backed out due to recruiter harassing all of my references

I looked at Nomad but could not figure out how they were different from a recruiter. Can anyone clarify?

 

[psychapp121]

How does it make sense that when you talk to hospital directly you get worse offers

 

[cookymonster]

I have been conscious to avoid giving out my references whenever possible. I'm on the verge of not talking to Barton because they keep badgering me for references, when I told them I don't want them contacting my references when I'm not even sure I'm taking one of their jobs.

One reason to limit the number of firms you work with is I think they only have to use the references once. The more firms you work with, the more forms and phone calls for your references potentially.

Also, Weatherby and Comphealth are both owned by CHG Healthcare and make you fill out the exact same application. I do not know why they do not just consolidate.

With Nomad, you just submit your CV, and the internal HR-based recruiter at the hospital will contact you to discuss the position, skipping the firms.

 

[dl2dp2]

This is really helpful. Thank you.

 

[wolfvgang22]

How does it make sense that when you talk to hospital directly you get worse offers

I wonder if hospitals think
1. There must be something wrong with you if you aren't using a locums firm to get a locums job, or
2. It is easier to bully an individual seeking a locums job, since you aren't risking alienating a whole locums firm.
Just speculation.

 

[cookymonster]

My best guess is that there is some taboo in administration about negotiating directly with physicians and that no one in middle management wants to tell their boss they set that precedent. It is easier to just say they gave that money to an agency since that is protocol for an unfilled position. The other possibility is that the division of HR that makes agency contracts has a separate bucket and the books aren't watched as closely. Whatever it is, hospital administrators aren't known for economic efficiency.

 

[futuredo32]

Weatherby placed me in my current horrible position. Jackson and Coker is good.

 

[Sushirolls]

How does it make sense that when you talk to hospital directly you get worse offers

Because they don't respect you. They very reason they likely have an unfilled, unmet need for a position likely overlaps with their other less ideal business practices. They don't respect you and see you as a cog, and if they see an opportunity to grind you down just a little more and save a few dollars they will. The mantra followed is "Penny wise, pound foolish."

 

[PikminOC]

Comphealth was good for me
StaffCare was not as good for me. Recruiter was pissed I left a position early as he then lost money.

 

[cookymonster]

It looks like I am taking a position with Weatherby. I hope I have a better experience than @futuredo32

I've also noticed another significant difference in how the firms work. Most firms - CompHealth, Weatherby, Barton - have recruiters whose job is basically just to work one on one with us. They have an entirely separate arm that is the "client rep" that works with the hospitals.
Locum Tenens is different in that their recruiters also have the direct communications with the hospitals, so they are also the "client reps." They seem to be more knowledgeable about the positions and have their ears to the ground, but the downside is they have a lot more recruiters and you may have to talk to a lot more of them if you are not beholden to a particular state.

 

[the5thelement]

Bad experience with barton. Guess i also got the annoying pushy recruiter. These middle men make a lot of money on doctors backs. They take $250-300/hour and give you $150.You get to take all the risk!
Imagine making $150/hour with no liability or risk.

 

[Trismegistus4]

I have been conscious to avoid giving out my references whenever possible. I'm on the verge of not talking to Barton because they keep badgering me for references, when I told them I don't want them contacting my references when I'm not even sure I'm taking one of their jobs.

One reason to limit the number of firms you work with is I think they only have to use the references once. The more firms you work with, the more forms and phone calls for your references potentially.

Also, Weatherby and Comphealth are both owned by CHG Healthcare and make you fill out the exact same application. I do not know why they do not just consolidate.

With Nomad, you just submit your CV, and the internal HR-based recruiter at the hospital will contact you to discuss the position, skipping the firms.

Interesting tidbit: CHG is the company Ken Jennings was working for when he went on his famous Jeopardy winning streak.

Barton is not a member of NALTO; neither is FCS (which I had never heard of until the OP.) Not sure what that says about their quality.

I did a few gigs through CompHealth and had a good experience. It's interesting their market share doesn't seem as high as other firms to you--I thought they were actually the largest.

 

[Orgone]

Put me in the "happy with CompHealth" camp. Good experiences with the recruiters, travel arrangements, and their system for submitting hours is wonderfully easy and user friendly.

Jackson and Coker stole money from me. I had worked an assignment where my contract stated explicitly I would get paid for time spent handling ED consults overnight. I was paid for that time as promised. 6 months later I returned briefly to that same facility on a separate contract and discovered my paychecks were missing about 2k. When I asked them about this they said, after giving me a significant amount of run around, that they were deducting pay from the earlier assignment because the hospital never reimbursed Jackson-Coker for the time I spent on overnight consults. Apparently the hospital claimed they never agreed to reimburse for my time doing this. Which might be true, but again my contract with Jackson and Coker explicitly stated I would be paid for this work. And I would not have agreed to do those calls and lose sleep on those nights if I weren't getting paid.

When I tried to rectify this with Jackson and Coker they went completely ghost on me. I emailed several times my recruiter, my recruiter's supervisor, and whoever was above the supervisor; emails, voice messages and what I got back was . . . crickets. The whole thing was incredibly slimy. I probably should have looked into filing a suit but decided to just move on with my life.

 

[Mtnbiker]

Thanks for starting this discussion! Any thoughts or experience with Hayes Locums?

 

[Ironspy]

Thanks for starting this discussion! Any thoughts or experience with Hayes Locums?

Called my personal cell nights and weekends after I asked them to stop.

 

[Mtnbiker]

Called my personal cell nights and weekends after I asked them to stop.

Good to know, thanks!

 

[AD04]

I felt Weatherby likes to low-ball physicians.

At first, the agency was offering $1,200 - $1,300 / day (for 8 hours). Someone I know worked with Weatherby in 2017 and was making $1,500 / day. As psychiatrist salary definitely went up over the past 3 years, I told the recruiter I was very puzzled why the offered amount is lower than what was offered 3 years ago.

I don't know why anyone would travel to make such a low amount.

 

[cookymonster]

I am making $195 an hour with this assignment with Weatherby. Not amazing but I haven't seen many agency assignments advertise a lot more. There are also pager fees and callback fees. On Nomad I have seen hourly rates up to $230.

My one "negative" with CompHealth, which is not really the recruiter's fault, is that I twice had jobs pull the assignments after I was presented because they decided just to go someone local or internal. Also happened with Barton I think.

 

[zolof]

This thread should be private so that consultants from those locums cant read it LOL. They are the middle man and will do anything they can to keep it that way. I have worked with several of them over the past 6 to 7 years and it is regional and some are better than others, and some have been connecting with facilities for over 20 years or more so they know all the long time HR people and even travel to facilities themselves, that's how they maintain their connections. The point is you don't always need them, you can find jobs your own, there are tons of jobs.

Of course they will try to sell you any job they have, it doesnt matter to them if its a crappy place or a good one they will get paid regardless. You have to set the terms. And if you end up liking a place, you can get out of the contract usually a two year deal for most locums, anywhere from 15k to 40k buyout to stay at the place. Of course these are generalities but some are definitely better than others, and many of them jump from locum company to locum company.

 

[cookymonster]

This thread should be private so that consultants from those locums cant read it LOL. They are the middle man and will do anything they can to keep it that way. I have worked with several of them over the past 6 to 7 years and it is regional and some are better than others, and some have been connecting with facilities for over 20 years or more so they know all the long time HR people and even travel to facilities themselves, that's how they maintain their connections. The point is you don't always need them, you can find jobs your own, there are tons of jobs.

Of course they will try to sell you any job they have, it doesnt matter to them if its a crappy place or a good one they will get paid regardless. You have to set the terms. And if you end up liking a place, you can get out of the contract usually a two year deal for most locums, anywhere from 15k to 40k buyout to stay at the place. Of course these are generalities but some are definitely better than others, and many of them jump from locum company to locum company.

Actually the only way to hold the agencies accountable is for the information to be public. What's the risk anyway? I suppose someone from the firms reading this can probably figure out who I am, but it's not like they're going to stop taking my calls. If they're providing good service, they don't really have anything to worry about anyway.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Actually the only way to hold the agencies accountable is for the information to be public. What's the risk anyway? I suppose someone from the firms reading this can probably figure out who I am, but it's not like they're going to stop taking my calls. If they're providing good service, they don't really have anything to worry about anyway.

Yeah I hope they DO read this so they know word gets around when firms are slimy or people have bad experiences. There’s a reason google reviews and yelp are public. They’re hoping you do stuff like cut your losses and never tell anyone when they cheat you out of money (thanks to the poster above who reported that).

Making this thread was actually a really good idea. Wonder if it should be stickied so people can reference it easily as time goes on?

 

[Jules A]

I have been conscious to avoid giving out my references whenever possible.

Smart. I refuse to give references without a written offer which can include contingent on acceptable references. Sometimes it stops negotiations oh well.

 

[zolof]

Good points, but I have dealt with some that are also very slimy, and sneaky as well. In reality it has gotten out of hand, it has become so dominant that in most states/cities, they have taken control of the marketing from hospital and clinics systems that there is almost no other way to contact about jobs, without dealing with them... and for 25 to 35 percent profit in their pockets.
over the years, us physicians as an organized group let that get away from us over time.

 

[Docdoc123456]

I worked with Austin major Group, Fradulent business. After I signed Assignment confirmation letter they declined the 30 days notice. They declined to pay me for the notice period as the locum was ended due to I give 30 days notice. I am filling legal action against them. I warn any physician to work with this company.