Locum Tenens Family Physician

What these providers cover

Outpatients across all ages in clinic and urgent care settings.

What the shift actually looks like

Eighteen to twenty-four outpatients a day across all ages, with documentation extending past clinic hours in most settings.

Credentials and certifications

Typically required

MD/DO board certified or eligible; state license; DEA

Typical workload

Typically 18–24 patients per day

What to specify when you send the req

Panel size, patients per day, procedures performed and EMR.

Why this role is hard to fill

Patients-per-day is the number that decides acceptance. Understating it produces early terminations.

What candidates ask before accepting

Answering these in the req itself shortens the process considerably, because they are the questions that otherwise surface at offer stage and cause declines: Patients per day, panel complexity, procedures performed, EMR and scribe or MA support.

Contract or permanent?

Locums stabilises the schedule so a permanent search can run on merit rather than desperation. Hiring a permanent physician while critically short-staffed is how facilities end up with a bad twelve-month hire. Locum-to-perm is common and low risk.

Licensure

Physicians and advanced practice providers are licensed in all 50 states. The Interstate Medical Licensure Compact is widely described as portability and is not — it is an expedited route to obtaining several separate state licenses, each still issued and regulated independently. The physician assistant compact has been enacted but is not yet issuing privileges. Privileging, which runs on your medical staff committee calendar, is usually the binding constraint rather than licensure.

How we work this req

Every candidate is spoken to before you see them, with licensure for your state, certifications and unit-specific competency confirmed before submittal. We screen to the credential the unit actually needs rather than the title on the posting. Rates sit inside the ranges on our published cost breakdown.