Have you heard of the gig economy, and how it’s helping keep American healthcare afloat? The gig economy: from Uber to TaskRabbit and many others, the gig economy over the last 3 years has seen massive growth. And there’s one industry which has been doing gig work since about the 70s, and now it’s set… The post The “Gig” Economy In American Healthcare appeared first on Locums, Inc..

Have you heard of the gig economy, and how it’s helping keep American healthcare afloat?

The gig economy:

from Uber to TaskRabbit and many others, the gig economy over the last 3 years has seen massive growth. And there’s one industry which has been doing gig work since about the 70s, and now it’s set for growth on an enormous scale.

In most industries, one could comfortably use the term gig: a writing gig, a taxi gig, a handyman gig. Not the medical profession. It’s either Latin or nothing.

The medical profession doesn’t do gigs, they do temp work, known as a locum tenens position. Locums tenens is a Latin phrase which means “to hold the place of”, “to substitute for”.

You may have heard of nursing agencies who used to send nurses out to hospitals, private practices, and other healthcare facilities looking for temporary staff. Locum tenens businesses send physicians, nurses and physician assistants to health care facilities looking for temporary staff.
The gig economy in America

A recent study revealed around 20-30% of American labor force is made up of contractors and self-employed workers. With these numbers expected to grow significantly. Which should not come as a surprise. The allure of not being tied to a desk working the tedious 9-5 has many people jumping ship and trying to captain their own.

For some this works: for many others, they find themselves back at a desk, unable to cope with the demands and fluctuations of the gig economy.

However, there is one industry where the gig economy is thriving.

The healthcare gig economy
The demand for locum tenens physicians, nurses and physician assistants is on the rise. As Locums, Inc wrote in a previous blog 94% of health care facility managers have used a locum tenens physician in the last 12 months. They are easy to find, can work anything from one shift to a three month shift and don’t require the health care facility manger to commit to a full-time staff member if they don’t need one.
As the shortage of doctors in the US gets worse, the need for locum tenens nurses and primary care doctors increases.

Healthcare and the American people
With the American healthcare landscape set to change over the coming months, many Americans could be left without access to healthcare, and health care facility managers could be struggling to fill full-time positions.

With locum tenens physicians and nurses, the stress can be alleviated from those facilities in need of staff now.

The primary benefit to a health care facility manager—aside from ensuring their patients get the care they need, and don’t go elsewhere—is that it gives them breathing room to find a physician or nurse to fill the full-time position. Or simply, handle a temporary surge of patients.
More of a band-aid than a cure

Locum tenens are a great way to help health care facilities when they’re in need. But it’s only a temporary solution. What America needs is a long-term plan to tackle the impending doctor shortage before the country finds itself 100,000 doctors shy of what it needs.

Locum tenens can help until that solution is found.

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