The 2025 Healthcare Staffing Landscape: 5 Trends Shaping the Year Ahead

Q: Why is locum tenens demand increasing in 2025?

Locum tenens usage is rising because permanent hiring remains slow, workforce instability persists, and organizations rely on temporary clinicians to maintain coverage and manage fluctuating patient demand.

Q: How big of a problem is physician burnout today?

Physician burnout remains historically elevated and is a primary contributor to staffing shortages, extended hiring timelines, and increased reliance on temporary clinicians.

Q: How long does it take to hire a permanent physician?

The average time to fill a permanent physician role is approximately 300 days due to credentialing delays, rising retirement rates, and heightened competition for experienced clinicians.

Q: Can AI really improve healthcare staffing?

AI improves healthcare staffing by automating sourcing, screening, credentialing checks, and engagement workflows—allowing recruiters to focus on relationship-building and retention.

Q: What kind of data is most valuable for staffing organizations?

The most valuable data combines claims information, provider profiles, market-level intelligence, and internally generated operational insights to support precise forecasting and recruitment decisions.

The 2025 Healthcare Staffing Summit by SIA underscored what most industry leaders already suspected: healthcare staffing is moving fast, breaking old patterns, and redefining what the next decade will look like. Demand is rising, innovation is accelerating, but systemic challenges aren’t fading.

For agencies, provider organizations, and health systems, the question is clear: how do you plan for 2026 when the ground keeps shifting beneath your feet?

Below, we break down the five trends that dominated this year’s discussions—and how they’re influencing strategic planning for the months ahead.

1. Locum Tenens Has Become a Long-Term Workforce Strategy

Locum tenens is no longer a contingency plan—it’s a core staffing model.

At the Summit, leaders repeatedly emphasized that temporary clinicians have become foundational to workforce stability. Utilization climbed dramatically in 2024 and shows no signs of slowing in 2025.

Health systems now rely on locum tenens to:

Absorb unpredictable patient volumes
Maintain continuity during hiring delays
Cover extended leave and turnover
Fill specialty gaps in rural and underserved regions

Many organizations report that locum clinicians have shifted from last-minute support to a planned component of workforce budgeting. Expect this trend to continue as retirement rates rise and permanent roles remain slow to fill.

2. Physician Burnout Remains a Structural Threat

While burnout metrics have improved slightly from their peak, physicians remain under significant strain. Conversations at the Summit made one thing clear: burnout is still at the heart of workforce shortages.

The biggest contributors include:

Increasing administrative load and EHR complexity
High patient volumes
Limited control over schedules
Rising productivity expectations despite resource constraints

As more physicians reduce clinical hours, move to hybrid schedules, or leave medicine altogether, health systems face an intensifying supply–demand gap. Some staffing firms are investing in predictive analytics to forecast retirements and workload surges with greater accuracy—often with impressive early results.

3. Permanent Recruitment Timelines Are Getting Longer

One of the most attention-grabbing data points from the Summit: permanent physician recruitment now averages close to 300 days.

Several forces drive this prolonged timeline:

A looming wave of retirements
Intensified competition for experienced clinicians
Credentialing workflows that create delays
Growing candidate expectations for flexibility

Because nearly half the hiring process may be consumed by credentialing alone, many organizations are turning to automation and AI to reduce friction and speed up verification. Long lead times also mean teams must build deeper candidate pipelines and engage prospects long before roles open.

4. AI Is Becoming the Recruiter’s Strategic Co-Pilot

AI was the unofficial star of the Summit. But the message wasn’t that AI will replace recruiters—rather, it will support them.

Industry leaders highlighted practical ways AI can streamline operations without compromising human connection:

Automated candidate sourcing
Smart lead scoring
Initial resume triage
Credentialing pre-checks
Tailored outreach sequences

The guiding principle: let AI reduce manual workload so recruiters can strengthen relationships—the true driver of placements, retention, and client satisfaction.

Organizations adopting AI strategically reported higher recruiter productivity, faster fill times, and better candidate engagement.

5. Data Integration Is the Competitive Edge

An emerging theme at the conference: you can’t run a modern staffing organization without integrated, high-quality data.

Data-driven teams are better equipped to:

Predict staffing shortages
Identify candidate–facility fit
Understand population-specific care demands
Build precision-targeted recruiting campaigns
Improve speed-to-fill and retention metrics

The most effective datasets merge:

Publicly available claims and provider data
Commercial market intelligence
Internal operational data
Insights from candidate interactions, EHRs, and credentialing systems

Yet integration remains the largest barrier. Many organizations struggle to maintain up-to-date, unified datasets—driving increased demand for specialized data vendors and AI-enabled data hygiene tools.

Read more about 5 Mistakes in Physician Recruiting

Conclusion: Preparing for a Volatile but Promising 2026

The Healthcare Staffing Summit made one thing clear: 2025 isn’t a transitional year—it’s a turning point.

Locum tenens is maturing into a long-term strategy. Burnout is reshaping workforce expectations. Recruitment timelines demand deeper pipelines. AI is becoming essential infrastructure. And data integration is separating agile teams from overwhelmed ones.

Organizations that adapt now will be best positioned for the mounting challenges—and opportunities—of 2026.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Why is locum tenens demand increasing in 2025?

Because permanent roles are taking longer to fill and workforce instability persists, locum clinicians help organizations maintain coverage and flexibility.

2. How big of a problem is physician burnout today?

Burnout remains historically high and is directly impacting physician availability, recruitment timelines, and retention.

3. How long does it take to hire a permanent physician?

Current data suggests an average of ~300 days, driven largely by credentialing delays and increased competition.

4. Can AI really improve healthcare staffing?

Yes—when implemented responsibly, AI reduces administrative workload and accelerates sourcing, screening, and credentialing without replacing human recruiters.

5. What kind of data is most valuable for staffing organizations?

A blend of claims data, provider attributes, market intelligence, and internal operational data delivers the most accurate insights for recruiting and forecasting.