Becker’s Hospital Review recently published an article from Medicus Healthcare Solutions examining how the physician workforce is evolving and what that shift means for healthcare organizations. The article, titled The Changing Physician Workforce: What Healthcare Leaders Need to Know, explores the growing role of locum tenens in workforce planning and how healthcare leaders can build greater flexibility, visibility, and stability into their clinical staffing strategies.
Healthcare leaders have spent years focused on physician shortages, but today’s workforce challenges extend beyond recruitment alone. Growing patient volumes, provider turnover, service line expansion, and evolving physician preferences are changing how organizations approach clinical workforce planning.
Recent Medicus' proprietary market data illustrates that shift. As of July 2026, more than 171,700 physicians have worked or are currently working locum tenens assignments, representing approximately 17% of the U.S. physician workforce.
Participation is even higher across several specialties critical to patient access, including:
As more physicians incorporate locum tenens into their careers, healthcare organizations gain access to a significant segment of the physician workforce to support coverage across specialties, locations, and periods of change.
Locum tenens is increasingly supporting a broader range of organizational needs beyond individual vacancies. Healthcare leaders are utilizing locum tenens clinicians to maintain specialty coverage, support service line growth, navigate provider transitions, and respond to changes in patient demand.
This growing role makes flexibility an increasingly important part of long-term workforce planning. It also raises another consideration: how healthcare organizations manage locum tenens as utilization expands across departments, specialties, and facilities.
As locum tenens becomes more integrated into clinical staffing strategies, healthcare leaders need greater visibility into coverage, spend, performance, and emerging staffing needs.
MedicusOne was designed to support that need. Combining enterprise-grade VMS/MSP technology with Medicus’ staffing expertise, MedicusOne gives healthcare organizations greater visibility into their locum tenens programs while centralizing coverage management through one accountable partner.
With real-time insights and concierge-level credentialing support, MedicusOne helps healthcare leaders take a more coordinated approach to managing locum tenens as needs evolve.
For organizations navigating more complex periods of change, such as multiple physician departures, service line expansion, or shifts in staffing models, the Medicus Transition Program provides additional support by helping stabilize clinical services while maintaining access to care and supporting longer-term clinical stability.
As healthcare organizations navigate ongoing workforce challenges, flexibility, visibility, and workforce stability are becoming increasingly interconnected. The Becker's article explores how healthcare leaders are adapting their staffing strategies to support continuity of care, organizational growth, and long-term clinical performance.
Read the complete Becker’s Hospital Review article, The Changing Physician Workforce: What Healthcare Leaders Need to Know.