Most healthcare organizations don’t think about physician transition management until they’re already in trouble. A contract dispute escalates. A physician leader announces a sudden departure. A coverage group opts not to renew the contract. And within days, administrators find themselves making expensive, reactive decisions under pressure — precisely the conditions that lead to long-term instability.
Jackson Physician Search’s Senior Director of Recruitment, Olivia Georgia, and Senior Vice President of Business Development, Ben Stajduhar, know this scenario well. Their experience helping a rural Colorado hospital through such a time was the source material for a recent MGMA article as well as a session at the MGMA Operations Conference earlier this month. The hospital in question had found itself dangerously exposed when negotiations with an external coverage group broke down. The situation could have quickly deteriorated, and yet, through strategic, long-term partnerships with Jackson Physician Search and LocumTenens.com, the hospital was prepared to turn a difficult situation into an opportunity to reset and improve operations.
Physician Recruitment: Emergency vs. Opportunity
When coverage is suddenly at risk, there may be pressure to do whatever it takes to fill gaps as quickly as possible. That urgency is understandable, but it can lead organizations to high-cost solutions that don’t last or fit the community, creating instability down the road.
The article proposes reframing the situation entirely. What feels like a recruiting emergency can be an opportunity to address an operational challenge, but first, you must understand the magnitude of that challenge. That is, what is at risk? The answer may include patient access, clinical continuity, service line viability, financial issues, and reputation. Understanding the full impact of the problem will inform better decision-making and allow for fully scaled workforce solutions rather than staffing band-aids.
The outcome in Colorado provides the perfect example of this distinction. Rather than scrambling independently across multiple fronts, the hospital partnered with Jackson Physician Search and LocumTenens.com to organize a coordinated response that simultaneously addressed interim staffing, permanent recruiting, onboarding, credentialing, and internal communication. The organization didn’t have to choose between covering today’s shifts and building tomorrow’s team. They did both.
Anticipate and Prepare for Workforce Friction
One of the most actionable insights from the article is also one of the simplest: many workforce crises are predictable, and leaders should be looking for them well before they arrive.
The warning signs are usually visible: Scheduling issues that never fully resolve. Recurring disputes over call coverage. Contract renewals that feel increasingly tense. These aren’t just administrative headaches; they’re signals worth taking seriously.
Stajduhar recommends building a habit of reviewing high-stakes coverage arrangements long before they come up for renewal — giving the organization room to explore alternatives, strengthen relationships, or develop contingency plans before a negotiation turns into a standoff. The rural Colorado situation is a good illustration of what happens when that window closes. It also illustrates what’s possible when you bring the right partners in quickly and work from a coherent plan.
Strategic Use of Interim Coverage
One piece of the Colorado response that deserves more attention is the strategic use of interim staffing. There’s a tendency among healthcare administrators to think of locum coverage as a short-term patch — useful for planned absences, but not a serious tool for managing structural transitions.
The Colorado engagement challenged that assumption. Interim coverage, when deployed deliberately and coordinated closely with a permanent search, can function as a genuine bridge: maintaining access and continuity for patients and staff while the organization builds toward something durable. The key is treating it as a phase in a larger plan rather than a standalone solution. That means being clear about what the interim arrangement needs to accomplish, how long it needs to last, and what success looks like on the other side.
It also means starting credentialing and payer enrollment early — a detail that’s easy to overlook in a crisis but has real consequences for revenue integrity if it gets pushed to the back of the queue.
Physician Recruiting for Fit Over Speed
When it comes to the permanent hire, Georgia emphasizes the importance of fit over speed — especially in rural and smaller markets, fit is what determines whether a physician stays.
That means investing in real discovery before the search begins. What does the clinical role actually look like day-to-day? What are the call expectations, the governance structure, and the community dynamics? What kind of physician will thrive here versus burn out in eighteen months? The organizations that answer these questions honestly — and build their search around the answers — are the ones that end up with durable placements rather than revolving doors.
From Reactive to Strategic
The Colorado example demonstrates the need for a shift in how healthcare leaders think about physician workforce planning — from reactive to proactive, from siloed to coordinated, from short-term coverage to long-term team building.
If your organization relies on a small number of clinicians or a single contract arrangement for coverage in a critical service line, the question worth asking isn’t, “What do we do if this falls apart?” but, “What are we doing right now to make sure we are not caught off guard?”
By taking a proactive, strategic recruitment approach, leaders can turn transitions into opportunities for growth rather than sources of disruption. Organizations that adopt this mindset will be better positioned to navigate change, retain top talent, and deliver high-quality care over the long term.
Jackson Physician Search works with healthcare organizations at every stage of that process — from early-stage contingency planning to active transition management to permanent placement in complex or hard-to-fill markets. Reach out today to learn how we can help you build the kind of team that lasts.
