Locum tenens is often a reactive function of a healthcare system’s business; a need arises, and locums meets the need. But real-time data and analytics can help you predict future locum tenens needs, inform long-term recruiting efforts, make informed decisions about workforce optimization, and even reduce costs.
Inform your strategy: More benefits of business intelligence
“If you're a recruiter, you can dive into rates and try to anticipate how much a locum need would cost for one of your facilities, how many bids you're going to receive on that, how long it'll take to fill,” says Garrett Wolfe, Locumsmart business intelligence manager. This data can be helpful in future workforce planning. Understanding what is involved in hiring a locum provider can also help you determine how temporary staffing fits into your long-term physician recruitment efforts.
Other metrics relevant to physician recruiters include bid comparisons, fill rates, and unique providers submitted per request.
Example Locumsmart reports:
More Locumsmart reports:
Grow your bottom line: Learn how locums can be revenue-generators
“Everything starts with visibility. The first key to identifying a problem is visibility,” said Thomas Lanvers, SVP of business development and customer success.
Often, a few facilities account for a disproportionate share of locum tenens usage in a health system. “Why are they utilizing locums so much?” Lanvers asks. “There might be endemic problems. There might be culture problems. There might be too much churn.” But pinpointing the problem allows businesses to drill down on solutions.
“It's 100% about being able to see and then act,” Lanvers says. “That's why real-time analytics are critical.”
Of course, when billed for correctly, locum tenens can be revenue generators. However, more accurate predictions of actual needs can allow leaders to optimize staffing levels.
Lanvers explains that vendor evaluation is often based on subjective measures with positive or negative experiences obscuring the big picture. Vendor KPIs can help drill down on objective metrics like:
A lack of competitive bids, a lack of visibility, and the utilization of higher-cost boutique vendors can lead to higher costs. “Spend that comes from outside Locumsmart is typically 20% more expensive than spend that comes from inside the tool,” he says.
Want to do more with your locum tenens analytics? Locumsmart consultants can help healthcare organizations make the most of their data and achieve their goals.
Download the pdf
To learn more, email us at sales@locumsmart.net.
Inform your strategy: More benefits of business intelligence
Key data to monitor
One of the benefits of working with a locum tenens vendor management system (VMS) like Locumsmart is that they collect an enormous amount of data that you can use to forecast your future locums needs, such as:- Number of confirmed shifts
- Shift costs
- Usage by specialty
- Rates by specialty
- Usage by facility
Forecasting physician recruitment needs
Looking at historical data can help you plan for upcoming locums needs, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It can also help inform your long-term staffing planning.“If you're a recruiter, you can dive into rates and try to anticipate how much a locum need would cost for one of your facilities, how many bids you're going to receive on that, how long it'll take to fill,” says Garrett Wolfe, Locumsmart business intelligence manager. This data can be helpful in future workforce planning. Understanding what is involved in hiring a locum provider can also help you determine how temporary staffing fits into your long-term physician recruitment efforts.
Other metrics relevant to physician recruiters include bid comparisons, fill rates, and unique providers submitted per request.
Example Locumsmart reports:
Planning for future locum tenens utilization
CFOs and finance teams are most interested in overall locums utilization and spending. Hiring all of your locum tenens providers through a VMS like Locumsmart can provide you with a consolidated view of your total utilization. Finance teams can delve deeper into where the need is coming from. For example, a rate analysis breaks down median rates by vendor, specialty, facility, or state. Usage projections are built at the specialty level to forecast utilization trends for the upcoming year.More Locumsmart reports:
Grow your bottom line: Learn how locums can be revenue-generators
Detecting problems early
Locum tenens analytics can provide an aggregated picture of a healthcare organization’s locum tenens usage. This visibility gives leaders a deeper understanding of trends and can highlight problems that may otherwise have gone unnoticed.“Everything starts with visibility. The first key to identifying a problem is visibility,” said Thomas Lanvers, SVP of business development and customer success.
Often, a few facilities account for a disproportionate share of locum tenens usage in a health system. “Why are they utilizing locums so much?” Lanvers asks. “There might be endemic problems. There might be culture problems. There might be too much churn.” But pinpointing the problem allows businesses to drill down on solutions.
“It's 100% about being able to see and then act,” Lanvers says. “That's why real-time analytics are critical.”
Saving money on contingent staffing
Using analytics to forecast needs can also uncover opportunities to reduce locums utilization. One example Wolfe points to is the data created when hospitals schedule shifts on Locumsmart. “This creates data that we then utilize for projections. Over the next six months, I have X number of CRNAs working in my facility. If I can hire full-time CNAs and cancel those, I could save X number of dollars in locum spend.”Of course, when billed for correctly, locum tenens can be revenue generators. However, more accurate predictions of actual needs can allow leaders to optimize staffing levels.
Optimizing locum vendor performance
Tracking vendor performance is another valuable way to use locum tenens analytics. “Locumsmart has dashboards that show everything broken out by vendor,” Wolfe says. “You can see where you are spending the most, what vendors pay the fastest and with the fewest errors, and what vendors are submitting the most bids.” Lanvers explains that vendor evaluation is often based on subjective measures with positive or negative experiences obscuring the big picture. Vendor KPIs can help drill down on objective metrics like:
- Time to bid
- Frequency of cancellations
- Ability to fill subspeciality roles
The benefits of consolidated data
To get the most value out of your data, capture it all in one place. That way, high utilization can’t fly under the radar. “We help our clients achieve full data capture within Locumsmart. If you have rogue spend or things happening behind your back, you don't have that visibility,” Lanvers says.A lack of competitive bids, a lack of visibility, and the utilization of higher-cost boutique vendors can lead to higher costs. “Spend that comes from outside Locumsmart is typically 20% more expensive than spend that comes from inside the tool,” he says.
Expert consultation
Business intelligence is a key component of Locumsmart, which offers locum tenens analytics via customizable dashboards and reporting tools that reveal historical trends and aggregate data to forecast future hiring and locums needs.Want to do more with your locum tenens analytics? Locumsmart consultants can help healthcare organizations make the most of their data and achieve their goals.
Download the pdf
To learn more, email us at sales@locumsmart.net.