A tenens substitute doctor or substitute doctor is a doctor who has a temporary job in a medical facility or medical office. The term locum tenens is Latin and roughly translates to substitute or substitute. These physicians can also be called independent physicians, as they work when and if they wish in locations of their choice, rather than having a job at a specific hospital, facility, or doctor's office.
Statistics vary on how many doctors are locum tenens, but in most hospitals, up to 50-80% can work there temporarily. Most substitute physician jobs are hired through agencies, and many of these physicians, in fact most of them, obtain their substitute work through an agency. There are numerous agencies designed to place physicians in various positions, and they can offer quite good salaries and the payment of any necessary malpractice insurance, which can reduce costs. Some agencies also help a surrogate physician find a place to live in the area where he or she occupies a temporary position. There are jobs available for general practitioners and specialists.
Some physicians choose to become surrogate physicians after completing medical school and board certification. Working temporary jobs can give your doctor the opportunity to travel. However, if these jobs are outside of the country where the doctor trained, you may need additional training. Once in an area that the doctor really enjoys, he might look for a permanent position instead.
Sometimes small medical practices employ surrogate physicians to fill in the hours that the practice will continue to see patients, but it is generally not open for business. Alternatively, one doctor can act as locum tenens for another if a doctor with a small office wants to take a vacation or needs to leave the office for a few days or weeks. Employing a substitute doctor or having an agreement with another doctor means that patients who need medical help during this time will not have to look for another doctor elsewhere.
While it is advantageous to have a surrogate physician to attend to emergency needs when a person's regular physician is not available, some complain of some problems that can arise if they have to work regularly with surrogate physicians. First, there is little continuity of care because people are unlikely to see the locum doctor more than once. Hospital billing can be separate and this can cause an insurance problem that sometimes requires a battle with an insurance company because the surrogate doctor generally does not have a contract with any insurance company.
One of the ways to address this problem of ensuring that surrogate physicians have all the necessary information would be to institute an electronic record-keeping method. So far, although there are some programs available, hospitals and doctors' offices have not made a general decision about using just one of them. Therefore, when a surrogate physician treats any patient, they must rely on the patient's information and may have little or no access to prior medical records. This is not always the best scenario for superior patient care, even when a locum tenens physician is highly qualified.