In scanning the news, it seems that everybody is talking about the physician shortage. Here are just some of the headlines from the past week:
While this may be great news for the physician job market, it's very bad news for all of us patients, which is why it's such a major topic of conversation. Of course, the question left lingering is always this:
What can any of us do about it?
I think many of us have the power to help make a difference. As a PR professional representing CompHealth, part of my job is to educate about locum tenens, and I would like to think that I'm not just facilitating physician employment but also contributing toward easing the doctor shortage in my own small way.
Let me give an example. There was another headline that broke this week, though it didn't get as much attention as these others. A small town paper called the
Northern Wyoming Daily News ran a story about a CompHealth locum tenens who is making a difference in the community and beyond. This in itself is a story worth sharing, but there's more to tell.
Dr. Ricardo Ramos has been practicing emergency medicine for 34 years. Not so long ago he started planning a well-deserved retirement, but a realization that he wasn't quite ready to give up serving patients persuaded him to instead try locum tenens part-time. He prefers rural assignments and either fills in for or supplements hospital staff in remote hospitals scattered across the Western U.S.
The bigger story here is that if it weren't for locum tenens like Dr. Ramos filling in, many of these patients in rural America wouldn't have access to quality care. The doctor shortage is particularly hard-felt in remote communities where physician recruitment is especially tough. If we could get more highly capable physicians to delay retirement and work part-time as locum tenens, we could start filling patient care gaps that exist in this country.
This is where I come in. By sharing Dr. Ramos' story, hopefully I can plant a seed in the minds of other physicians considering retirement. Even if it's just part-time, working locum tenens assignments is an opportunity for these physicians to make a real difference.
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