“We had a gut feeling that the need for locum tenens was going to be great as more doctors became employed and their quality of life became a bigger issue,” he said. “I had the MBA, so I knew the whole point of business is to figure out how to create value. I knew there had to be a way to pay doctors more and charge the hospital less.”
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November 2022The Royers did just that in 2013 by forming an otolaryngology staffing agency, ENT Surgery Solutions, LLC, (www.ENTlocums.com). Allison is founder and CEO; Mark is the medical director. Today, they are the largest provider of otolaryngology surgeons around the country for short-term and ongoing staffing needs at healthcare centers, and a member of NALTO. Their administrative team features practicing otolaryngologists in directorship roles who understand the challenges of the specialty. The Royers also continue to practice as comprehensive otolaryngologists in southern Indiana.
A lot of the locum tenens things I’ve been doing are at critical access locations that wouldn’t otherwise have any sort of head and neck presence, and it’s rewarding to be able to deliver care in places that have less access. —Paul A. Tennant, MD
Paul A. Tennant, MD, an otolaryngologist fellowship trained in head and neck cancer surgery and based in Louisville, Ky., has been doing locum tenens work through the Royers’ agency for much of the past year. When he was recruited by a private hospital system in Louisville, he had to honor the one-year noncompete agreement he had signed with the University of Louisville, where he had done his residency and worked as a faculty physician for seven and a half years. Married, with six young sons, Dr. Tennant did need to work, but was prohibited from working within 100 miles of the city until that noncompete expired.
“I got into locum tenens reluctantly,” he said. “I wasn’t enamored with the idea of leaving home and my family.” Dr. Tennant still doesn’t love it sometimes and says he didn’t have the best attitude about it at first. But he has found locum tenens options that allow him to be in town often, and he finds it fulfilling to provide care to patients in rural parts of western Kentucky and southern Indiana, given that Louisville and Lexington are the only metropolitan centers in Kentucky that provide tertiary or quaternary care.
He hustled this past year to piece together enough work and has privileges at 10 or more different facilities. He has also formed relationships with many other physicians as a result, learned several healthcare facilities’ systems, and can interact within these systems effectively.