Rural Hospital in Montana
Case Study
Facility Details
• Rural health clinic including a critical access hospital (licensed for 19) and nursing home (licensed for 45)
• Over 30 on-staff medical practitioners
Healthcare Challenges
As a rural healthcare clinic, critical access hospital, and nursing home in Northeastern Montana, this facility is critical to the overall health of the local population for many miles outside of the facility.
Due to the rural surroundings of the area, it can be difficult to find enough permanent providers to staff the facility for the needs of the patients. While they have providers who live in the area and work there full-time, they needed to fill in the gaps of provider openings to fulfill the needs of their patient load.
Solutions
The facility began working with Wilderness Medical Staffing in 2014. WMS collaborated with them to create a solution where locum tenens providers could be best utilized to meet the needs of the clinic and hospital.
Since they needed providers with various skillsets for more than one position at a time, WMS went to work to find clinic-only providers, as well as providers who could work in the emergency room of the hospital. WMS’s dedicated account executive and recruiting team found highly qualified medical practitioners who would be able to meet the demand of the patient load and expertise that were needed.
Over the years, several providers have taken positions at the facility, with many returning to take assignments year after year. Return providers create continuity of care for the patients while easing the transition of integrating locum tenens to work alongside their permanent staff.
Results
The success of working with WMS caused the facility to continuously utilize WMS providers. The facility works with their WMS account executive, planning months ahead to have WMS providers scheduled to work when needed, which fills provider gaps within their permanent staff. This planning helps to cover the needs of the community and allows new providers to ease into orientation and familiarity with the facility.
WMS consistently works one-on-one with the facility to find providers efficiently, while assisting them with credentialing of new providers. To ensure scheduled locum tenens are familiar with the facility before arrival, WMS introduces the contracted providers to the on-staff point of contact. This enables them to begin orientation before their assignment.
The locum tenens that WMS has provided have been such a success that the facility has continued using WMS contracted locum tenens providers for several years.
Staffing locum tenens who are skilled in rural healthcare allows the communities surrounding the facility to benefit from high-quality healthcare professionals, who are adept at working in small, rural facilities.
Testimonial
“We have had a fabulous relationship with WMS. We are so thankful for the providers that WMS presents to us. Susan really does a great job matching providers to our specific needs. She gives us adequate lead time so that we can reach out to the providers and get them the tools that they need to be successful at our facility. They are prompt and efficient in organizing all steps in the locum process. We have ongoing communication so that there is success on both the provider end and facility end. With this ongoing communication, we can fend off any concerns or challenges that may arise.”
Staffing Requests
STORIES FROM THE FIELD
Read about the incredible medical providers who work locum positions through Wilderness Medical Staffing.
Many rural healthcare facilities struggle to find good medical providers. At Wilderness Medical Staffing, we use our unique network of medical providers to find the right person for the job, so you can stop worrying about staffing issues and have more time to focus on your mission.
Many rural healthcare facilities struggle to find good medical providers. At Wilderness Medical Staffing, we use our unique network of medical providers to find the right person for the job, so you can stop worrying about staffing issues and have more time to focus on your mission.
Wilderness Medical Staffing (WMS) is a team of experienced staffing experts. We provide locum tenens and permanent placements for physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. We specialize in placing excellent, compassionate providers in rural clinics, hospitals, and communities across the continental Northwest and Alaska.
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