The WMS Level of Care System

Wilderness Medical Staffing is a locum tenens staffing company whose mission is to improve lives in rural and remote communities. The specific way our company fulfills this important mission is to staff rural and remote clinics with highly qualified medical providers. For our providers, this means we prioritize connecting you with assignments that closely match your credentials and experience, ensuring you’re always working within your scope of practice. In the areas we staff, that scope can range from primary care in a family practice clinic to a remote solo-provider site where providers single-handedly respond to every emergency. There are often situations in some communities we staff where a provider’s ability to intubate a patient or make difficult triage decisions will be the difference between life and death. To consistently meet our high standard, we have developed a “Level of Care” system for differentiating medical providers in our talent pool according to their emergency experience.

Our company does not utilize this system to pass judgment on a provider’s quality of care or abilities, per se. Our sole aim in developing this Level of Care system is to ensure that your clinical experience and procedural skills are aligned with the scope of practice necessary for the location.

Our list below breaks down Wilderness Medical Staffing’s 5 Levels of Care. In bold are the titles we use for each level, next to the standard language you will see on any of our jobs that explains the experience required to apply for assignments involving that level of care.

• Primary Care | “Minimum 2 years experience in the Primary Care or Family Practice setting as an APP required.”
• Urgent Care | “Minimum 2 years experience in the Urgent Care setting as an APP required, including such procedures as I&D, splinting and suturing.
• Emergency – Supported | “Minimum 2 years emergency experience as an APP required, seeing all levels of acuity. Experience in emergency setting with other APPs present or direct physician oversight is acceptable.”
• Emergency – Solo Remote | “Minimum 2 years of solo full-spectrum emergency experience required. Must have direct patient care experience with stabilization and medevac, including intubations, chest tubes, complicated airways and strong suturing skills.”
• Emergency – Rural Hospital | “Minimum 2 years of solo full-spectrum emergency experience required in a hospital setting. Must have direct patient care experience with stabilization and transfer, including intubations, chest tubes, complicated airways and strong suturing skills.”

Level of Care Search on our Job Board

To filter our jobs by Level of Care, simply select the “Level of Care” field and click on any scope of practice you’re interested in. As you can see below, every job with a scope of practice available will be included in the list. Select any scope of practice that you have experience and interest in, and every job our company has within that Level of Care will populate below.

Keep in mind that your search will only include that specific Level of Care, so you may want to try multiple searches as you peruse our job board and always double-check the requirements section at the bottom of each job post to confirm the experience requirements for the position.

 

WMS Level of Care Search Explainer Video

The Locations We Staff

WMS specializes in staffing locum tenens providers in rural or remote healthcare facilities. Within the scope of facilities we staff is a subset of 5 general categories of facilities, hence our 5 levels of care. Below is a breakdown of each facility type, and what differentiates these facilities from each other.

Primary Care

Our company staffs Primary Care clinics across Alaska, Montana and beyond. Providers may be working in school-based clinics on an Indian Reservation or a community clinic in one of Alaska’s larger towns. Our wide range of Primary Care opportunities include community clinics, family medicine practices, school-based clinics or wellness centers. Some primary care positions we staff may require experience with behavioral health or women’s health, but these positions will never involve triage or emergency call. Most providers with at least 2 years of experience in the primary care setting will qualify for these positions.

Urgent Care and Occupational Health

Though we sometimes offer opportunities to work in an Urgent Care clinic, many of our positions in this subset go way beyond your typical urgent care. Our company works with a few industrial clients, primarily in the seafood industry. During the fishing season (roughly May – September), we have occupational health clinics set up across the state of Alaska where providers meet the medical needs of the fisherman and other employees of the seafood companies. We even staff providers on the fishing vessels themselves! Some urgent care positions will have recommended certifications in DOT or other occupational health certifications, but these positions will never involve triage or emergency call. Most providers with at least 2 years of experience in the urgent care setting will qualify for these positions. Procedures we typically look for would be laceration repair, suturing, I&D, setting and reducing fractures, and performing routine physicals.

Remote Clinics: Multiple Providers

Our company will staff emergency rooms in some small towns. We also staff outpatient clinics in remote communities where a few APPs (or physicians) will handle emergencies as a team and share the call schedule. In these settings, ER-trained providers who want some support or back-up for serious traumas can thrive. Many providers who come to WMS with a few years of urban ER experience will take their first few assignments in these settings and then transition into solo provider sites from there. Providers will need well-rounded experience with emergency procedures, and most providers with at least 2 years’ experience in the emergency setting will be qualified for our Multiple Provider sites. These positions will almost always involve some emergency call on the nights and weekends.

Remote Clinics: Solo Provider Sites

Most remote Alaska locations that our company staffs are in this category of “solo provider sites”. These are typically remote outpatient clinics in small villages of 80-500 people. Though medical providers here are the only APPs, it’s very common to have some support from community health aides and EMS services. Because these facilities have low resources, no back-up, and are very remote, providers must have strong proficiency in lifesaving procedures like intubating, placing chest tubes, strong suturing skills and confident diagnostic skills. Imaging resources like ultrasound and X-ray are often not available, and most serious traumas will be medevacked to the next level of care available. In order to be qualified for these jobs, medical providers must have at least 2 years of experience working solo in the emergency setting . Usually, this means providers should have those 2 years of experience in a rural or remote area. These positions always involve emergency call, and providers are often on-call the entirety of their assignment or at least serving as backup when they are not on call.

Critical Access Hospitals

Our highest level of care is titled “Emergency – Rural Hospital” because we reserve our most highly qualified emergency providers for our critical access hospitals. In these settings, there are resources available that remote solo-provider sites in may not have. Imaging capabilities, a hospital wing that patients can be admitted to, and more technology available for medical providers to respond to emergencies with. For this reason, the threshold for when a provider should medevac a patient is much higher. Many more patients are handled “in-house” at a Critical Access Hospital. Providers who qualify for these positions will typically have at least 2 years of solo rural ER experience, ideally experience working in a rural hospital setting. Strong proficiency in every emergency procedure is a requirement for all positions at this level.

Conclusion

In this blog, we explained what the WMS Level of Care system is, why we implemented it, and the criteria our recruiters use to determine a provider’s Level of Care. We hope this information is helpful, and that you feel confident searching our website for jobs that are a fit for you! If you have any questions about which jobs you may qualify for, our knowledgeable recruiters are always happy to talk with you. Simply email your current CV to [email protected] and tell us a little bit about yourself.