the locum tenens industry

the locum tenens industry

While the locum tenens industry is no doubt a major one, with several medical staffing agencies listed in BusinessWeek’s investing resource guide, exact figures about the industry are hard to come by. A lack of clear industry definition, no central, accountable reporting agency and a dynamic healthcare industry make exact figures hard to pin down, but one thing is certain: the locum tenens medical staffing industry is worth billions of dollars, and its value, most likely, is only going to increase.

One of the main reasons why the industry is so hard to track is due to the many professions that fall under the term ‘locum tenens’. Because the term means temporary placeholder, or substitute, many professions can have such temporary professionals: teachers, lawyers, clergy, etc.

Even in the more clearly defined locum tenens medical staffing and medical recruiting industry, there are many medical professionals that work temporarily or as fill-ins: there are locum tenens anesthesiologists, cardiologists, dermatologists, surgeons, neurologists, etc. As of 2005, the industry of temporary medical professionals working at facilities in the United States was estimated to value $14 billion annually, a number that was supposed to grow at an annual rate of 15 to 25 percent.