Covering a Provider Gap With Locum Tenens While the Permanent Search Runs
Healthcare Headhunters recruits healthcare professionals for employers. No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
This is what we do all day: recruit healthcare professionals.
A provider vacancy can strain your schedule, but temporary coverage must not slow the permanent hire you still need.
No postings. No stacks of resumes. No chasing. You interview a short list.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
Need someone now? Call 305-306-4829.
What happens next
- We review your role, responsibilities and location.
- Ivan or a senior team member will reach out soon.
- You meet a focused shortlist when qualified candidates fit the agreed search.
- Fees.
- No upfront fee. Pay only if you hire, under the signed agreement.
- Exclusivity.
- Set out in the signed client agreement.
- Confidentiality.
- We agree the brief before outreach. This is not a promise of absolute anonymity.
- No hire.
- No hire means no fee on standard searches.
What does an open seat cost you every week?
An open role costs you more than the recruiting fee. Someone covers the work, waits for care, or stops a service. We ask what is falling behind and who is carrying it. Use your own figures to compare the cost of waiting with the cost of hiring.
The seat is costing you every week.
Overtime, diverted patients, a stretched team and a schedule held together by favors.
The posting brought the wrong people.
Applicants arrive, but the person who has done this exact work is employed and not looking.
You are the one chasing.
Screening calls, no-shows and follow-ups land on the desk of someone with a facility to run.
What does this hire really come down to?
When a physician or advanced practice provider leaves, you may need coverage before a permanent candidate can start. We can run both tracks together. The locum handles defined clinical work while we recruit for the long-term seat. You retain control over schedules, credentialing decisions, and the job profile.
A locum assignment works best when you identify the work that cannot wait. That may include scheduled procedures, inpatient rounds, consult coverage, call rotation, or supervision duties. Write down what remaining clinicians are absorbing, what can be deferred, and where patient access or staff fatigue is becoming a concern.
Keep the temporary assignment separate from the permanent decision.
What do we check before you see anyone?
We screen work history for assignments similar to your actual coverage need. We ask what cases, volume, call duties, and supervision responsibilities the provider handled during a typical week. We review current state licensure where the role and location require it.
- We also review specialty credentials, work-history gaps, and disclosed disciplinary history before presentation.
- We ask why each provider takes temporary assignments. Common reasons include schedule control, geographic flexibility, family timing, or evaluating different practice settings before making another long-term move.
- We clarify the assignment’s anticipated purpose and end point. If the permanent search reaches finalist interviews, you decide whether to extend coverage, adjust duties, or conclude the engagement.
- We ask how the provider learns local order sets, escalation paths, documentation practices, and call handoffs. A candidate should describe how they ask questions without shifting routine orientation work onto your staff.
- We discuss boundaries around nonclinical work. If you need the locum only for patient care and call, say so early. If leadership coverage is also needed, define which decisions remain with your employed team.
Where do we find them, and why would they move?
Temporary providers may come from academic medical centers, trauma-focused hospitals, community practices, or established locum work. They may hold board credentials in anesthesiology, internal medicine, psychiatry, nursing specialties, or another field relevant to your opening. Board certification can be preferred for your search, but your facility sets its own standards.
Others want exposure to different practice models before accepting another permanent position. We screen for the reason behind the move and whether the assignment terms match it.
Which mistakes stall the search?
A common mistake is letting the locum inherit committee work, recruiting duties, or unresolved department disputes that belong with a permanent leader. Another is pausing permanent interviews because current schedules feel more manageable after temporary coverage begins. Some clinicians choose locum work after a move, a family change, a leadership departure, or a desire for schedule flexibility.
Comparing a locum’s short assignment only on clinical output when the permanent role also carries call, retention, and leadership expectations.
How would we run the search for this opening?
Tell us which shifts, call dates, procedures, rounding duties, or clinics need coverage. We present locum candidates for the coverage assignment and permanent candidates for the long-term role. At each review, compare coverage needs with permanent search activity. We ask permanent candidates about those duties rather than treating temporary availability as proof of long-term fit.
Set the coverage brief
Identify what the remaining team is carrying and which work cannot move to another clinician.
Run separate candidate reviews
You can use different interview questions because the decisions involve different obligations.
Review both tracks regularly
If a finalist emerges, decide whether the locum’s end date, duties, or extension needs adjustment.
Specialties involved
Acute & Critical Care Nursing
SpecialtyPerioperative & Procedural Nursing
SpecialtyWomen's, Neonatal & Pediatric Nursing
SpecialtySpecialty, Outpatient & Community Nursing
SpecialtyHome Health, Hospice & Long-Term Care Nursing
SpecialtyLPN/LVN, Nursing Assistants & Patient Care Techs
SpecialtyMedical Imaging & Radiation Therapy
SpecialtyCardiovascular, Respiratory & Neurodiagnostic Technologists
SpecialtySurgical Technology & Sterile Processing
SpecialtyRehabilitation Therapy & Audiology
SpecialtyPharmacists & Pharmacy Technicians
SpecialtyClinical Laboratory & Pathology
SpecialtyBehavioral Health & ABA Clinicians
SpecialtyDental Hygiene, Assisting & Front Office
SpecialtyMedical Assistants, Nutrition & Patient Support
SpecialtyMedical Coding, Billing & Patient Financial Services
SpecialtyEMS & Emergency Department Support
SpecialtyLocum Tenens Providers
SpecialtyTravel & Rapid Response Clinicians
SpecialtyHow should we set an assignment length?
Start with the work that needs coverage and the time needed for onboarding. The duration can change if your permanent search, credentialing process, or service schedule changes. Terms are confirmed before the provider starts. The locum may be a strong clinician, yet the permanent role may also need committee work, service-line planning, local referral relationships, or a specific call commitment.
Can a locum become our permanent hire?
Yes, if you decide to consider that person through your permanent selection process. We recommend using the same interview, reference, compensation, and role-fit review applied to other permanent finalists.
Who handles credentialing and clinical review?
Your facility completes its own credentialing and clinical assessment. We screen credentials, work history, availability, and fit, then provide information for your internal review and onboarding process.
Should the locum interview with the permanent hiring panel?
Only if you want to assess the person for the permanent role. For coverage alone, a focused interview about clinical duties, call, documentation, orientation, and assignment boundaries is usually more useful.
What fees apply if we hire a permanent candidate?
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire. We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
What should you send us about this role?
Send us the role, where the person will work and what needs to change with this hire. We will ask about the work, not just the title. Share any license or schedule limits that could rule someone out before we begin the search.
Tell us where coverage is breaking down and what the permanent provider must own. We will help you keep both decisions moving without confusing one role for the other.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire. We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
What happens next
- We review your role, responsibilities and location.
- Ivan or a senior team member will reach out soon.
- You meet a focused shortlist when qualified candidates fit the agreed search.
- Fees.
- No upfront fee. Pay only if you hire, under the signed agreement.
- Exclusivity.
- Set out in the signed client agreement.
- Confidentiality.
- We agree the brief before outreach. This is not a promise of absolute anonymity.
- No hire.
- No hire means no fee on standard searches.
Which related pages help you prepare?
- How to hire a Locum Tenens Providers team
- Locum Tenens Providers: positions we recruit
- Locum Tenens Providers Recruiters
- Locum Tenens Anesthesiologist Recruiters
- Locum Tenens CRNA Recruiters
- Locum Tenens Emergency Medicine Physician Recruiters
- Our Healthcare Headhunting Process
- Healthcare Recruiter Fees: No Upfront Fee
- Salary Guide Methodology (BLS BLS OEWS May 2025)
What do you get at each step of the search?
Our process for every search: calibrate the seat with you, map the market, research the real people, reach out to each one personally, qualify them in live conversation, then hand you a short list with a written brief on each person and support through the offer.
Search Calibration
You get an agreed brief: the work, reporting line, credentials, schedule, and offer you can make.
Market Mapping
You get a search aimed at relevant backgrounds, including people working now who have not applied.
Professional Contact Intelligence
We check appropriate ways to reach the people identified for your search. You do not have to chase them yourself.
Persistent Personalized Outreach
We explain your actual job and follow up with people who may consider a conversation.
Live Candidate Qualification
You see people we have spoken with about the work, interest, and practical fit, not an unread resume pile.
Candidate Intelligence and Process Support
You get a written brief and support through interviews and offer discussions. You make the hiring decision.
How long will it take to see a short list?
That depends on the job, schedule, available people, and what your employer can offer. We discuss those constraints before outreach and update you as candidates respond. We do not promise a fixed shortlist date. We check the job brief before arranging interviews. Tell us which parts of the role you can change.
What if a candidate receives a counteroffer?
We ask why the person wants to move and discuss competing decisions before an offer. A counteroffer can still change their choice. Keep the duties and offer clear rather than assuming more money settles every concern. Tell us early if parts of your offer cannot change, so the candidate hears it from us first.
What are the replacement terms?
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement. Ask us to walk through those terms before you sign, so you know how a replacement would work for your opening and who would start it.
What do we not do in a standard permanent search?
We do not bill standard contingency search by the hour or simply repost your job. Temporary coverage is a separate arrangement. Any retainer or different engagement must be agreed, not assumed. Tell us early if you need coverage while the permanent search runs.