What’s the Real ROI of Locum Coverage?

In today’s fast-paced healthcare environment, organizations face constant pressure to maintain patient access, manage provider workloads, and protect revenue streams — all while delivering high-quality care. That’s why the idea of engaging locum tenens providers isn’t just a stop-gap; it can actually be a strategic investment.

The Locums ROI Calculator from All Star Healthcare Solutions helps turn that abstract idea into hard numbers. It allows healthcare leaders to compare locum costs vs. coverage gaps, identify break-even points by specialty, and payer mix and quantify the downstream revenue from improved throughput.

In other words: you can show the business case for having locum coverage, not just the staff-coverage case.

What the ROI Calculator Does

Here’s a breakdown of how the tool works and what it helps you discover:

• Enter your specialty and payer mix— the calculator uses specialty-specific benchmarks combined with your organization’s own data.
• Compute the financial impact of filling — or not filling — a shift. The calculator helps you see, in seconds, what happens if you leave a shift open vs. cover it.
• Quantify downstream revenue from improved throughput. When you avoid patient delays, cancellations, or “no shows” because you’re fully staffed, that adds revenue value — the calculator captures that.
• Produce a clear ROI projection you can take to your leadership team. The page says: “Simply enter your specialty and payer mix, and the calculator delivers a clear ROI projection you can take straight to your leadership team.”

Why Locum Tenens Matters

True to its latin roots meaning ‘to hold the place,’ locum tenens providers step in when and where care is needed. From interim roles covering vacations or leave to support for overburdened teams and beyond, locum tenens is essential to ensuring uninterrupted quality care and provider well-being.

In other words:

• They ensure continuity of care — avoid cancelled clinics, blocked access, or departments operating under-staffed.
• They support provider well-being — when your regular staff aren’t stretched so thin, you reduce burnout, reduce turnover, and maintain quality.
• They protect revenue and reputation — if patients wait longer, go elsewhere, or providers leave, there’s a cost. Locums can help mitigate that.

When to Use the ROI Calculator

Here are some use-cases where this tool can be especially helpful:

1. Pre-shift planning: If you anticipate provider vacation, leave of absence, or a busy season where staffing will be tight, you can estimate whether bringing in a locum makes sense.
2. Budgeting & forecasting: As you plan your staffing budget for the coming year (or quarter), the tool can help justify or compare costs of employing vs. covering via locum.
3. Leadership buy-in: If you need to present to CFOs, CEOs, Board of Directors etc., this calculator provides data you can present, not just gut-feel.
4. Specialty bottlenecks: For specialties where provider supply is limited and patient volume risk is high (say, certain surgical subspecialties, or rural settings), the calculator helps quantify the extra risk of leaving shifts unfilled vs. the cost of coverage.
5. Payer mix & volume shifts: If your organization is changing its payer mix, or expects changes in patient volume (growth, new service line, etc.), then the ROI calculation will shift — it helps you model “what if” scenarios.

Key Takeaways

• Locum coverage isn’t just an extra cost when you factor in avoided revenue losses and improved throughput.
• Having the correct data gives you the power to model and quantify the trade-offs.
• Using tools like this ROI calculator allows you to speak the language of finance and leadership, not just operations.
• For healthcare facilities, especially in challenging staffing markets, proactively planning for locum coverage is a smart strategy rather than a reactive scramble.

Ready to Try It?

If your organization is looking at staffing gaps, provider leave, or just wants to strengthen its continuity and throughput, go ahead and try the ROI Calculator from All Star Healthcare Solutions. It’s designed to help you move beyond the question of “Can we afford a locum?” to “What happens if we don’t?”