Overview
A major health system made the strategic decision to end its long-standing anesthesia group contract, leaving a potential statewide anesthesia coverage gap that threatened surgical access across the state and placed thousands of shifts, multiple high-acuity service lines and patient continuity at risk.
During one of the most complex anesthesia transitions in its history, with all original staff and admins terminating their work, the facility turned to LocumTenens.com for trusted staffing and operational solutions to build an entirely new department. Through large-scale recruiting mobilization, transition management and hands-on operational support, LocumTenens.com stabilized anesthesia coverage across multiple facilities, protecting patient access, maintaining OR operations and guiding the health system through a high-risk transition with confidence.
The challenge
Facing the expiration of its decades-long outsourced anesthesia contract and the decision to transition coverage models, the facility was faced with:
• Thousands of unstaffed anesthesia shifts across the state.
• Risk to Level I trauma, pediatric, pediatric cardiac and adult cardiac anesthesia services.
• No existing internal scheduling or coverage model to backfill upon the existing group’s exit.
• Limited time to source, credential, enroll and mobilize clinicians ahead of peak procedural demand.
Without fast action, OR closures, surgical delays and disruptions to patient care were a looming risk.
“I’ve worked in contingent management for seven years and have partnered with multiple vendors throughout my career. I can honestly say that LocumTenens.com lives up to their promise of partnership and service. I’ve experienced high integrity, transparency and commitment.”
-Senior contingent team member liaison specialist
The solution
LocumTenens.com designed and executed a comprehensive anesthesia transition management strategy, mobilizing recruiting, enrollment and operational teams to meet enterprise-wide needs:
Large-scale recruiting mobilization
LocumTenens.com launched a full-scale recruiting response:
• Deployed the full strength of a 24-person recruiter team, sourcing and screening 553 clinicians and booking 218 clinicians across all required title levels, including cardiac and pediatric anesthesia.
• Provided a consultative approach and led all credentialing, onboarding, enrollment operations, scheduling and project management, maintaining 100% compliance with the client's onboarding requirements (drug screening, TB requirements, background checks, mask-fit testing, etc.)
• Achieved clinician privileging in four weeks, accelerating time‑to‑deployment during a high‑risk transition by 67%.
Transition management and operational partnership
Because operations were previously managed by an external group, the facility was left with no existing coverage model once the contract ended.
LocumTenens.com was able to:
• Create a custom anesthesia coverage model supporting a Level I trauma hospital with 24 ORs, a cardiac anesthesia program and a pediatric anesthesia program.
• Build schedules accounting for break coverage, in-house call, weeknight call and weekend call models
• Adapt staffing plans as procedural volumes and coverage requirements evolved, ensuring surgical teams experienced no interruptions to scheduled OR cases.
• Coordinated specialty anesthesia interviews (cardiac and pediatric) in partnership with medical leadership, while aligning administrators and clinicians to avoid OR disruption.
• Established weekly operational touchpoints and credentialing updates to ensure transparency, accountability and rapid issue resolution.
“I am personally incredibly grateful for the partnership with LocumTenens.com during our transition to an employed anesthesia model. Their recruiting and scheduling resources enabled us to quickly develop complex, comprehensive clinician schedules across over 90 locations while minimizing disruption to patient care. With their expertise and sense of urgency, I am so appreciative of our partnership. It was critical to our success.”
-Senior director of business operations
Results and impacts
Through rapid mobilization and sustained operational support, LocumTenens.com successfully transitioned anesthesia coverage without disruption during one of the most complex staffing events in the healthcare facility’s history.
Key outcomes included:
• 3,929 anesthesia shifts and calls covered in a four-month period.
• Supported daily operations across 90+ locations, increasing care team coverage by 89% (up from 35 locations to 66).
• Preserved continuity of care and ensured reliable coverage through fully managed scheduling and long‑term transition support.
• Operated under an exclusive staffing model, enabling rate consistency, cost control and protection against market escalation.
• Established a forward‑looking 2026 workforce strategy, aligning locum coverage with permanent‑hire goals following the exit of a long‑tenured incumbent group.
• Continue to hold recurring operational check-ins to ensure smooth operations and sustained coverage.
Why it matters
Large-scale anesthesia transitions are not merely staffing challenges, they are critical events for patient access, safety and operational resilience.
By leading the transition and building a holistic program, LocumTenens.com helped protect patient care and turn a high-risk contract change into long-term workforce stability.