ANNUAL INDUSTRY BENCHMARK · 12 MIN READ
The 2026 State of Locum Tenens Report
How 85%+ of U.S. health systems are integrating locum tenens physicians and advanced practice providers into strategic year-round capacity planning rather than reactive gap coverage.
Since CHG Healthcare Services, Inc. founded the U.S. locum tenens delivery model in 1979, temporary physician staffing has evolved from rural primary care relief into a cornerstone of national hospital operations. In our latest survey of 1,100+ health system executives and 3,400 practicing clinicians, health systems report shifting from ad-hoc agency requests to enterprise-wide workforce intelligence—combining permanent recruitment, internal float pools, and strategic locums coverage to protect surgical volumes and prevent clinician burnout.
- ✓ 92% of hospitals utilized locum tenens in the past 12 months
- ✓ 41% faster time-to-privilege using centralized digital credentialing
- ✓ $1.4M average annual surgical revenue preserved per covered OR line
EXECUTIVE PLAYBOOK · 9 MIN READ
The Physician Workforce Playbook: Retention, Flexibility & Access
Actionable frameworks for Chief Medical Officers and VP of Medical Affairs to stabilize high-demand service lines in Cardiology, Anesthesiology, Emergency Medicine, and Radiology.
Physician shortages across surgical and procedural specialties require more than traditional recruitment ads. High-performing health systems use a tiered clinical capacity model: protecting core employed faculty from excessive call burden by deploying pre-credentialed locum tenens specialists during peak seasonal volume, parental leaves, and service-line expansions.
- ✓ 63% of physicians cite schedule autonomy as top retention driver
- ✓ 28% reduction in permanent turnover when paired with locum relief
- ✓ 130+ medical specialties analyzed by regional supply-demand ratio
WORKFORCE TECHNOLOGY · 8 MIN READ
Modernizing Healthcare VMS & Provider Credentialing Velocity
Eliminating paper-based medical staff bottlenecks: how cloud credentialing and unified Vendor Management Systems reduce onboarding time from 90 days to under 3 weeks.
Delayed privileging directly impacts patient access and hospital margin. By centralizing license monitoring, DEA verification, NPDB queries, and peer references into a unified digital credentialing engine, health systems accelerate clinician deployment while strengthening clinical governance and Joint Commission compliance.
- ✓ 68% reduction in administrative credentialing hours
- ✓ 100% primary-source verification audit readiness
- ✓ Single-dashboard visibility across all staffing categories
NURSING LEADERSHIP · 7 MIN READ
Designing High-Reliability Nurse Staffing & Integrated Float Pools
Balancing core bedside nursing teams, internal system float pools, and travel RN partnerships to maintain safe staffing ratios and reduce premium overtime costs.
Chief Nursing Officers face dynamic census swings across ICU, Med-Surg, Labor & Delivery, and Emergency units. Our clinical advisory team outlines how predictive census modeling and structured 13-week travel RN alignment keep beds open and protect patient safety metrics.
- ✓ 19% lower total nursing labor cost per patient day
- ✓ 34% improvement in bedside nurse satisfaction scores
- ✓ 50-state compact and non-compact licensure workflow guide