Using Twitter to Stay Informed on All Things Healthcare: Physician Shortage and Locum Tenens
February 24th, 2012 1 Min readAfter my last post on healthcare reform legislation, this tweet from Patients' Rights (@CoPatientRights) in response to a Washington Post blog entry got me thinking about the impending physician shortage and the compounded effect that millions more insured Americans will have on the amount of primary care physicians in this country. How, in the search for solutions, have we not taken a hard look at the practice and utilization of locum tenens physicians?
"@washingtonpost: alternative care providers could take over more primary care services to ease physician shortage."
I'm not quite sure what Patients' Rights is referring to when they say, "alternative care providers", likely physician assistants, non-physicians that are trained in providing many of the services that primary care physicians perform on a daily basis. Another alternative solution to the shortage comes in the form of actual physicians. Many of the physicians who choose to work locum tenens choose this work style in lieu of retirement, allowing more physicians to stay in the workforce longer. We would be remiss not to utilize these locum tenens physicians to help when patient censuses rise and to also educate the mass of physicians ready to retire that there is another solution that would allow them to stay active while winding down their careers.
Click for more information on the practice and utilization of locum tenens.
Stay connected. Stay informed. And check back for updates from me on the most sizzling of healthcare Twitter topics.
Happy tweeting! @comphealth
Author
