What Makes a Great Locum Tenens Physician?

By  //  January 6, 2020

If there are certain professionals that people really don’t like to deal with, it has got to be both doctors and lawyers. The latter is for obvious reasons –– it entails legal trouble and you will end up paying a fortune.

If there are certain professionals that people really don’t like to deal with, it has got to be both doctors and lawyers. The latter is for obvious reasons –– it entails legal trouble and you will end up paying a fortune.

Dealing with doctors, on the other hand, means health problems and suffering for the most part, and probably paying a lot of money, too.

Nevertheless, you will have to deal with them sooner or later, because staying healthy is a priority, and that entails dealing with physicians on a regular basis. 

Your best option is having your own doctor, one that you go to for regular checkups as well as any other complications. But what if your regular one isn’t available?

In that case, you will need to find a locum Tenens physician –– a doctor the temporarily fulfills the duties of your personal one.

Do you just go with anyone? The answer is a definite no; you need to find a great locum tenens physician. 

This is why we’re going to fill you in on what you need to look out for.

Experience 

The first thing you need to consider while looking for a locum tenens physician is experienced. You probably had been dealing with your own for quite some time, and you need someone of equal competence and experience.

They need to be in the field for quite some time so they could catch up with your medical history with ease and efficiency, and in turn diagnose your problems and treat them.

This requires years of expertise practicing medicine so they would have encountered different cases and got to treat a variety of ailments. The more experienced the locum tenens physician is, the better they are going to be. 

Education  

You should definitely check the locum tenens physician’s credentials and the kind of education they received. Medicine isn’t exactly an easy field to get into, and the academic background really matters for you as a patient and for physicians as practitioners.

Generally speaking, locum tenens doctors should have solid credentials and need to have all the necessary licensing and medical certificates so they could stand out among the competition.

It is not exactly about the particular schools they’ve studied, but rather about what they studied, their grades, and their post-graduate certification.

You need to go through these credentials so you can rest assured that you are dealing with a professional that you can rely on. 

Licensing 

For the average employed doctor, things are easy when it comes to licensing. They just need to apply for a license in whichever state they are working and/or living, and they get to practice medicine there for as long as they want.

For the average employed doctor, things are easy when it comes to licensing. They just need to apply for a license in whichever state they are working and/or living, and they get to practice medicine there for as long as they want.

When it comes to locum tenens physicians, things are a bit more complicated.

They need to get licensed in each state they plan on working in as locum tenens, which is a lot more complicated than it sounds.

Unfortunately, it is a must, and patients need to make sure their local tenens physicians are licensed to work wherever they are because the last thing you want is to be treated by an unlicensed doctor. 

How do locum tenens coverages work, and what do locum tenens providers need to know?

Reviews 

Well, not exactly reviews, because it is not like you can exactly find their Facebook page and see what people have to say about this particular locum tenens physician. But you do need to ask around and try to learn whether they are good or not. News travels fast in the medical circles, and you can easily learn whether or not your physician is any good. So, do yourself a favor and see what other people have to say about their skill set, and you obviously have to ask your own personal doctor for their take on the temp and if they personally recommend them. 

People skills 

A locum tenens physician is a freelancer of some kind, a doctor who travels to all 50 states and deals with all sorts of people. They need to have excellent people skills, or else they will not really make it as a locum tenens physician –– or as a doctor in general really.

When you first meet with them, trust your gut feeling. Do they seem like a nice, trustworthy person? Did you feel comfortable sharing personal data and being with them in the same room?

Any good locum tenens physician will make you feel like they’ve been your doctor for years, and this is something you need to look for. 

Some locum tenens physicians actually do this on a full time basis, and you can find them in different hospitals across the state throughout the week. The important thing is to make sure they have the right credentials and experience before dealing with one.