Healthcare Insights

Number of locum tenens by state

Locum tenens are healthcare providers that work on a short-term, contractual basis. These providers are important to healthcare because they can help fill critical roles when a provider leaves a facility, takes a vacation, or goes on a sabbatical. Locum tenens workers also offer extra support during peak seasons as well as public health emergencies.

As the Covid-19 pandemic spread across the U.S. in 2020, hospitals began to see increased rates of physician burnout and departure, exacerbating a physician shortage that had begun prior to COVID. As a result, demand for locum tenens increased dramatically and has shown no signs of slowing down.

Definitive Healthcare predicts the utilization of locum tenens physicians based on a proprietary algorithm that analyzes a physician’s recent billing activity and network affiliations. Organizations use this data for staffing planning.

Using Definitive Healthcare’s PhysicianView Product, we ranked the predicted 2023 locum tenens physician engagements for all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

2023 state rankings by number of predicted locum tenens physicians

RankState% of providers that are predicted locum tenens by stateExplore dataset
1West Virginia4.80%Explore
2Texas4.70%Explore
3Kentucky4.40%Explore
4Delaware4.30%Explore
5Louisiana4.10%Explore
6Maine4.00%Explore
7Wisconsin3.70%Explore
8Pennsylvania3.50%Explore
9Ohio3.40%Explore
10Minnesota3.40%Explore
11Indiana3.30%Explore
12South Carolina3.30%Explore
13Mississippi3.20%Explore
14California3.20%Explore
15Michigan3.20%Explore
16Georgia3.10%Explore
17Oklahoma3.00%Explore
18Alabama2.90%Explore
19Utah2.90%Explore
20Florida2.90%Explore
21Tennessee2.80%Explore
22Massachusetts2.70%Explore
23New Jersey2.50%Explore
24Missouri2.40%Explore
25Kansas2.40%Explore
26Washington2.40%Explore
27New Hampshire2.30%Explore
28Colorado2.30%Explore
29Nevada2.20%Explore
30Maryland2.20%Explore
31Illinois2.10%Explore
32Arkansas2.10%Explore
33Arizona2.00%Explore
34Idaho1.90%Explore
35Connecticut1.90%Explore
36New Mexico1.90%Explore
37Iowa1.90%Explore
38Nebraska1.90%Explore
39Virginia1.90%Explore
40Hawaii1.80%Explore
41District of Columbia1.80%Explore
42New York1.80%Explore
43Oregon1.80%Explore
44South Dakota1.70%Explore
45Montana1.60%Explore
46North Carolina1.60%Explore
47Vermont1.40%Explore
48Rhode Island1.00%Explore
49Wyoming0.80%Explore
50Alaska0.60%Explore
51North Dakota0.60%Explore
52Puerto Rico0.30%Explore

Fig. 1 - Data is from the Definitive Healthcare PhysicianView Product. Data is predicted based on a proprietary algorithm that analyzes a physician’s recent billing activity and network affiliations. Accessed June 2023.

Which states have the most locum tenens physicians?

The state with the highest predicted percent of locum tenens physicians is West Virginia, with 4.8%. West Virginia is currently ranked last in the United States for quality of healthcare, last in infrastructure, and 47th in education by U.S. News and World Report. Struggles to attract full-time talent due to the state’s low population and rural geography could also be explanations for why so many locum tenens physicians are needed.

The state with the second highest predicted percent of locum tenens physicians is Texas, with 4.7%. This ranking is a little less surprising as Texas is one of the largest states in the country by both area and population and ranks at #32 for quality of healthcare. This state was also hit incredibly hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, so more physicians may have left the workforce from burnout, explaining the high demand for locum tenens physicians.

Rounding out the top three is Kentucky, with a prediction of 4.4%. Kentucky is ranked #46 in terms of the quality of healthcare and was also one of the hardest hit states by the Covid-19 pandemic.

What are the top primary specialties of locum tenens physicians?

Currently, the top three specialties of locum tenens physicians are family practice accounting for 15.2%, internal medicine, which makes up 12.7%, and emergency medicine, with 9.8%.

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