Primary care, hospital medicine, behavioral health, and multi-specialty physician recruiting.
Elina Sindhu
Healthcare Recruiting
Best locum tenens agencies - ExpertHiring
Our recruiters help healthcare organizations secure experienced locum tenens physicians and advanced practice providers for short-term coverage, ongoing assignments, and permanent searches running in parallel.
- Fast coverage for planned and unexpected gaps
- Physicians matched to your specialty and setting
- Licensing and credentialing verified upfront
Chosen by hospitals, health systems, and healthcare organizations
Physician and APP specialties we place for locum assignments
We source locum physicians and advanced practice providers across the specialties hospital administrators request most:
Hospitalist / Hospital Medicine
Inpatient coverage, admissions, rounding, discharge planning, and night coverage for community hospitals, health systems, and academic medical centers
Emergency Medicine
24/7 ED coverage, Level I/II trauma, freestanding EDs, and critical access hospitals with variable census and shift coverage needs
Critical Care / Intensivist
ICU coverage, pulmonary-critical care, and hospital medicine programs requiring overnight intensivist support
General Surgery
Elective, acute care, trauma call, and on-call surgical coverage across hospitals and regional medical centers
Internal Medicine
Inpatient and outpatient coverage for multispecialty groups, hospital medicine programs, and regional health systems
Family Medicine / Primary Care
Outpatient, urgent care, FQHC, and community health coverage during onboarding gaps or permanent searches
Psychiatry
Adult, child and adolescent, addiction, and consultation-liaison psychiatrists for behavioral health hospitals, outpatient clinics, and integrated care programs
Diagnostic and subspecialty coverage: interventional, neuroradiology, breast imaging, musculoskeletal, pediatric, and teleradiology
OB/GYN
Labor and delivery coverage and outpatient gynecology for community hospitals and women's health programs
Orthopedic Surgery
Elective schedule and trauma call coverage
OR and ASC coverage across surgical and procedural programs. See our Anesthesiologist Staffing page for supervision model detail.
Advanced Practice Providers
Locum NPs and PAs across hospital medicine, emergency medicine, primary care, behavioral health, and surgical services. See our Physician Assistant Staffing page.
What we confirm before a locum candidate reaches your desk
Before contacting a single physician, we align on the assignment - schedule model, call structure, coverage dates, and privileging timeline. Then we verify credentials. You only meet candidates who fit both.
Specialty, subspecialty, board certification requirements, and locum experience preference confirmed
Coverage dates, shift model, call responsibilities, and weekend expectations defined
Hospital privileging timeline and onboarding process mapped before recruiting begins
Board certification confirmed through ABMS
Active status, not pulled from a CV
State medical license verified active in the assignment state
IMLC compact eligibility checked
Can compress additional state licensing from 10-12 weeks to 4-6 weeks where applicable
DEA registration confirmed
Malpractice history reviewed
Claims, settlements, or sanctions flagged before introduction
Compensation, availability and permanent conversion interest confirmed before submission
What should you look for in a locum tenens agency?
Most articles about locum tenens agencies are written for physicians. If you're the one hiring, these are the questions worth asking.
Do they verify credentials before introducing candidates? Don't assume they do. Ask how board certification, state licenses, DEA registration, and other credentials are verified. Those checks should be done before you ever see a CV.
What's included in the malpractice coverage? Ask whether it's claims-made or occurrence coverage. If it's claims-made, find out who pays for tail coverage once the assignment ends. It's much easier to clear this up before someone starts than after the contract is signed.
Are they realistic about credentialing? If an agency promises to have someone working in a few days, ask how. Most hospitals still need several weeks for credentialing and privileges. If the need is urgent, ask whether the physician already has an active license in your state or qualifies through the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (IMLC).
Can you hire the physician permanently? It happens more often than people think. A locum assignment goes well, and you want to make an offer. Before the assignment starts, ask whether that's allowed and whether there are any conversion fees.
Where do their physicians come from? Some agencies mostly wait for physicians to apply. Others spend their time recruiting doctors who are already working. In most specialties, that's where you'll find the strongest candidates.
Request candidates →Get to know a few of our recruiters
The recruiter leading your search understands the market, the role, and the candidates they're speaking with.
Behavioral health physicians, emergency medicine, and difficult-to-fill physician specialties.
Ray Shimray
Healthcare Recruiting
Chief Medical Officers, Medical Directors, physician leadership, and executive healthcare hiring.
Annie Larkin
Healthcare Recruiting
70+ additional recruiters dedicated to your specific hiring needs
Our recent locum tenens placements
Client names and identifying details have been removed. Some information has been anonymized to protect confidentiality.
Hospitalist
19 days
Emergency Medicine Physician
24 days
General Surgeon
31 days
Frequently asked questions
It depends on your facility, but most hospitals take 4 to 8 weeks to complete credentialing and privileging.
That's usually driven by your medical staff office and internal process, not the staffing agency. If coverage is urgent, we'll also check whether the physician already holds a license in your state or qualifies through the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (IMLC), which can speed up licensing in participating states.
Locum tenens is temporary staffing for physicians and advanced practice providers, including MDs, DOs, CRNAs, NPs, and PAs.
Travel nursing is a separate staffing market for nurses and many allied health professionals. We recruit physicians and APPs for locum assignments, while nursing and allied health follow a different recruiting process.
We confirm malpractice coverage before every assignment. That includes the type of coverage, policy limits, and whether tail coverage applies.
We also review malpractice history, including claims or disciplinary actions, before introducing a physician.
Yes, it happens more often than people think. If both sides decide it's a good long-term fit, we'll help make the transition. We also discuss any conversion terms at the beginning of the assignment so there aren't any surprises later.
It can. The Interstate Medical Licensure Compact helps eligible physicians obtain licenses in participating states more quickly than the traditional licensing process. If a candidate qualifies, we'll check that early because it can shorten the time it takes to get someone ready for an assignment.
Yes, we recruit CRNAs, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, anesthesiologists, and physicians across a wide range of specialties. If you're hiring for anesthesia or APP coverage, we can support those searches as well.
Start by looking beyond how quickly they can fill a shift. Ask how they verify credentials, handle malpractice coverage, communicate during the assignment, and match physicians to your specialty and practice setting.
It's also worth asking whether they can support permanent recruiting if your staffing needs change.
Many locum agencies focus only on filling temporary assignments. We can help with that, but we can also run a permanent search at the same time if you're trying to make a long-term hire. If the right locum physician decides to stay, we can help with that transition too.
Need physician coverage? Let's talk.
Whether you need coverage for a few weeks, several months, or while a permanent physician search is underway, our recruiters help healthcare organizations secure experienced locum physicians and advanced practice providers who keep patient care moving.
Talk to a recruiter and start your search today, no upfront fees.
