Insights From Wapiti

A note from Kim Herrmann, CEO, and Troy Kastrup, President of Wapiti Medical Staffing:

Locum Tenens Week occurs the second week in August. This is a great time to recognize the service and quality of care our health care providers deliver.

Some of you may not be familiar with the term locum tenens or the impact the locum industry has in your community. Locum tenens is a Latin term literally meaning “to hold the place of.” Simply put, a locum tenens healthcare provider fills a need to maintain access to care in hospitals and clinics. In fact, 90% of US healthcare facilities use locum tenens physicians every year. It is likely that the medical facilities in your community have used locum providers at some point to help staff their clinics, hospitals, emergency departments, etc.

Why do healthcare providers work locum? The top reasons include:

• answer a call to serve multiple communities
• flexible scheduling
• ability to travel
• professional growth
• avoiding burnout
• extra income
• spending more time with patients

Some healthcare providers work locum periodically in addition to their regular jobs. Some make a full-time career out of it. More than 50,000 physicians (over 5% of all doctors) work locum tenens assignments annually. These physicians provide care for an estimated 7 million Americans every year.

Wapiti has been in business for 25 years. We have seen firsthand the impact that locum tenens has on communities, providers, facilities, and patients. Without the locum tenens industry, medical facilities in rural communities and other medically underserved areas might lose their ability to serve their town. As a result, some facilities would close, and those community members would lose their immediate access to healthcare.

The vision of Wapiti Medical Staffing is to improve the well-being of the communities we serve: one employee, one healthcare provider, one facility at a time. We remain steadfast in that goal and are extremely fortunate to work with a team of physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and CRNAs who work diligently to ensure that the healthcare needs of underserved areas are met. We recognize the value they bring to our towns and celebrate them this week and every week.