Locum Tenens or permanent: which fits the gap you have?

Use Locum Tenens when the service line cannot wait and the need has an end date or an unknown one. Use permanent placement when the role is part of the long-term plan and the service can hold while the search runs. The two are not competing options so much as different clocks, and plenty of departments should be running both at the same time.

What does each one actually solve?

• Locum Tenens solves time. Coverage while the gap is open, no long-term commitment, and a way to keep a clinic open or a call schedule safe while something else is resolved.
• Permanent placement solves continuity. A physician who builds a panel, takes part in governance, trains residents, and is still there in five years.

How do the costs compare?

Locum coverage carries a higher day rate. A permanent hire carries recruitment cost once and then salary, benefits, and onboarding. The comparison people miss is the third option: the cost of the role staying empty. Lost volume, diverted referrals, overtime, and the attrition of the physicians covering the gap are usually larger than either staffing line, and they are the number worth putting beside the other two.

When should you run both?

Whenever the permanent search is going to take longer than the service can hold. A sudden departure, an unexpected leave, a new service line opening before the permanent hire can start, or a search that has already been open for months. Coverage holds the ground while the search runs behind it. The practical requirement is that both are run through one firm, so the brief is written once and the facility is not managing two relationships for one problem.

What does each ask of you?

• Locum: a clear scope of work, credentialing cooperation, and a realistic view of what the clinician will and will not cover.
• Permanent: a named decision maker, a compensation band agreed before sourcing, and interview slots that do not sit two weeks apart.

How do you decide quickly?

Three questions. Does the need have an end date? Can the service survive the months a permanent search takes? Is the role in next year’s plan? An end date or a service that cannot wait points to Locum. A role in the plan with room to breathe points to permanent. Two yeses in different directions means run both.

The Locum Tenens team answers those three questions for your specialty and state on the first call. Or read how the Permanent Placement team works and how the Locum Tenens team works, then send one brief and we will come back with a recommendation rather than a menu.