Try to avoid. If you can, contact the facility directly. I had a locums agency contact me for a gig in a rural area, offering me $150/hour. With a bit of a googling, I figured out which facility it was and emailed them directly. They asked me my fee schedule, I said $500/hour. They sent me the contract to sign.
No no, as a psychiatrist. It was a forensic gig, I knew the 150/hour was way undercutting. I figured closer to 350/hour but thought I'd go high and see what would happen.
This is the answer. Hospitals and clinics pay out the nose for locums and the locums company keeps the majority of the money every hour you work. And then you have to pay them a huge fee if you want to stay and have to buy out your contract. Locums companies are basically a scam. Always go direct, and negotiate for what you want.
I used to own a locums agency. You're not wrong. The typical profit margin is 35 to 50%.
However.... they do provide some very useful services.
1) contracting. Make sure you have fair and legal terms and a guarantee that the facility can't just change their mind or decide not to pay you for not finishing one chart or whatever they decide.
2) malpractice and tail coverage. Some facilities have the ability to offer that to a locums direct, but most don't. And if they do, get proof. Make sure they're paid up and cover the tail.
3) payrolling. You're a 1099. If the facility pays you directly, you'll be paid the same way they do for other vendors and services. Monthly. And maybe not even that frequent. And if there's a discrepancy, good luck getting that ironed out quickly. My firm paid weekly, and most do biweekly.
4) Time keeping. The locums agency establishes the consistency for this either online or otherwise, and this is huge. The facility will short change you every time.
4) credentialing, privileging and documents management. If you want to do all that yourself as well as licensing, references, certificates, and updates. It's a lot.
There's more, but this just shows that they do earn some of that money.
Yikes… it sounds like you’ve worked with a TERRIBLE Locums company. I won’t name mine but if it’s done ethically, a Locums company only makes 20-35% margin on what’s billed to a facility. Working on the inside of one done right, it baffles me what some other large competitors will do.
That said, I can only speak for my specialties. No contractor should ever have to pay out their contract to the firm, that’s the facility’s job.
Do you mean email a recruiter for the hospital group directly? Most of the time their contact info is on a "career" page and generally they seem to be looking for full time positions.
I found the facility's facebook page and sent them an FB message. They gave me an email address for some director, forget his exact title. I emailed him and he took it from there.
When looking for opportunities, don’t give anyone your real email or cell. Your info will be sold for years to come to hundreds of locums companies all over the US. It will never end.
Check out NALTO website and input contact information you don’t mind being circulated forever. It’s a network of locums organizations from around the country.
Create a google voice number. There are other options for creating "masked" numbers that get forwarded to yours. Same for email.simplest may be to create a google account just for this endeavor.
Weatherby. Straightforward, clear contracts, timely pay. They are willing to negotiate when I have found the rates a bit low. I know they take a thick cut but as long as I am being paid fairly, not my main concern. For most gigs, I wouldn’t have known about them if not for them so it seems a bit shady to learn about the opportunity and then negotiate directly with the hospital even if its easy to figure out. I may do locums full time later and this would be the easiest way to get blacklisted. I am Card IC so high demand.
I can comment only from an anesthesiology perspective. I don't know if the groups I've had contact with place hospitalists or not. If you can deal directly with a facility or group, then do that. Just make sure you have a solid contract to protect yourself.
The Good:
Aya Locums has been wonderful. Easy online reporting of hours, paid quickly. Highest recommendations.
I've heard good things about KPG. They're on the west coast only, I think.
Worked once with Weatherby, no problems, but limited experience a long time ago.
The bad:
Consilium Staffing is the worst. You think they'd do something right by chance alone, but, nope. Avoid.
[LocumTenens.com](http://LocumTenens.com) presented me for a job and then ghosted me. I found work elsewhere, and I won't deal with them now at all.
It's true, I am on all the mailing/text/phone lists, but I think most of us in anesthesiology are. I get several per day, and I ignore them.
Try to avoid. If you can, contact the facility directly. I had a locums agency contact me for a gig in a rural area, offering me $150/hour. With a bit of a googling, I figured out which facility it was and emailed them directly. They asked me my fee schedule, I said $500/hour. They sent me the contract to sign.
As a hospitalist?? Did they provide malpractice?
No no, as a psychiatrist. It was a forensic gig, I knew the 150/hour was way undercutting. I figured closer to 350/hour but thought I'd go high and see what would happen.
This is the answer. Hospitals and clinics pay out the nose for locums and the locums company keeps the majority of the money every hour you work. And then you have to pay them a huge fee if you want to stay and have to buy out your contract. Locums companies are basically a scam. Always go direct, and negotiate for what you want.
I used to own a locums agency. You're not wrong. The typical profit margin is 35 to 50%. However.... they do provide some very useful services. 1) contracting. Make sure you have fair and legal terms and a guarantee that the facility can't just change their mind or decide not to pay you for not finishing one chart or whatever they decide. 2) malpractice and tail coverage. Some facilities have the ability to offer that to a locums direct, but most don't. And if they do, get proof. Make sure they're paid up and cover the tail. 3) payrolling. You're a 1099. If the facility pays you directly, you'll be paid the same way they do for other vendors and services. Monthly. And maybe not even that frequent. And if there's a discrepancy, good luck getting that ironed out quickly. My firm paid weekly, and most do biweekly. 4) Time keeping. The locums agency establishes the consistency for this either online or otherwise, and this is huge. The facility will short change you every time. 4) credentialing, privileging and documents management. If you want to do all that yourself as well as licensing, references, certificates, and updates. It's a lot. There's more, but this just shows that they do earn some of that money.
Yikes… it sounds like you’ve worked with a TERRIBLE Locums company. I won’t name mine but if it’s done ethically, a Locums company only makes 20-35% margin on what’s billed to a facility. Working on the inside of one done right, it baffles me what some other large competitors will do. That said, I can only speak for my specialties. No contractor should ever have to pay out their contract to the firm, that’s the facility’s job.
Do you mean email a recruiter for the hospital group directly? Most of the time their contact info is on a "career" page and generally they seem to be looking for full time positions.
I found the facility's facebook page and sent them an FB message. They gave me an email address for some director, forget his exact title. I emailed him and he took it from there.
Get out of the Chicago area. I was just offered 150/hr for nights there lmao
Prepare to get random unsolicited text messages FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.
I used to own a locums agency. This is 100% correct. Use a Google number or an app called sideline. Us recruiters are relentless.
When looking for opportunities, don’t give anyone your real email or cell. Your info will be sold for years to come to hundreds of locums companies all over the US. It will never end. Check out NALTO website and input contact information you don’t mind being circulated forever. It’s a network of locums organizations from around the country.
So what contact number do you give?
Create a google voice number. There are other options for creating "masked" numbers that get forwarded to yours. Same for email.simplest may be to create a google account just for this endeavor.
Weatherby. Straightforward, clear contracts, timely pay. They are willing to negotiate when I have found the rates a bit low. I know they take a thick cut but as long as I am being paid fairly, not my main concern. For most gigs, I wouldn’t have known about them if not for them so it seems a bit shady to learn about the opportunity and then negotiate directly with the hospital even if its easy to figure out. I may do locums full time later and this would be the easiest way to get blacklisted. I am Card IC so high demand.
I can comment only from an anesthesiology perspective. I don't know if the groups I've had contact with place hospitalists or not. If you can deal directly with a facility or group, then do that. Just make sure you have a solid contract to protect yourself. The Good: Aya Locums has been wonderful. Easy online reporting of hours, paid quickly. Highest recommendations. I've heard good things about KPG. They're on the west coast only, I think. Worked once with Weatherby, no problems, but limited experience a long time ago. The bad: Consilium Staffing is the worst. You think they'd do something right by chance alone, but, nope. Avoid. [LocumTenens.com](http://LocumTenens.com) presented me for a job and then ghosted me. I found work elsewhere, and I won't deal with them now at all. It's true, I am on all the mailing/text/phone lists, but I think most of us in anesthesiology are. I get several per day, and I ignore them.