Locum Tenens Emergency Physician

What these providers cover

Undifferentiated emergency patients across all acuities.

What the shift actually looks like

Continuous undifferentiated volume with no control over intake. Single-coverage rural sites and high-volume urban departments are fundamentally different jobs.

Credentials and certifications

Typically required

MD/DO board certified or eligible in EM; ACLS, ATLS, PALS; state license; DEA

Typical workload

Patients per hour based

What to specify when you send the req

Annual volume, single vs double coverage, trauma level and pediatric responsibility.

Why this role is hard to fill

Single-coverage rural sites and high-volume urban departments attract different physicians. State which yours is.

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 hour, single versus double coverage, trauma level, pediatric responsibility and boarding load.

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.