Emergency departments (EDs) were struck particularly hard during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

<p>
  Emergency departments (EDs) were struck particularly hard during the height of
  the COVID-19 pandemic. Non-COVID visits declined as patients were fearful of
  exposure to the virus and other medical emergencies, such as car accidents,
  were down as people sheltered in place. Volume matters more in emergency
  medicine (EM) than in other medical specialties, relying heavily on numbers to
  generate revenue.
</p>

<p>
  This volatility has turned the supply and demand of EM physicians on its head
  over the past year, changing a historically tight recruitment market into a
  buyer&rsquo;s market. However, this appears to be a short-term trend. Factors
  such as, an ongoing shortage of EM physicians in rural areas, COVID-19
  vaccines and growing closer to herd immunity, leveling out of patient
  confidence in visiting the ED, and others, point to a return to ED physician
  shortages in the near future.
</p>

<p>
  As healthcare organizations continue to manage the future ebb and flow of
  patient visits and look to effectively build back ED resources, many are
  incorporating locum tenens to gain more flexibility in meeting ever-changing
  patient demand and to gain more control over costs as they rebuild.
</p>

<h2>Supply &amp; Demand: The COVID-19 Factor.</h2>

<p>
  Due to the nature of how emergency medicine hiring works and how significantly
  ED volumes have dropped overall despite often large numbers of COVID-19
  patients, many EDs have been forced to reduce staff to trim costs.
</p>

<p>
  A
  <a
    href="https://www.acepnow.com/article/acep-surveys-members-about-covid-19/"
    target="_blank"
    >survey</a
  >
  from the American College of Emergency Physicians found that 20% of EDs laid
  off doctors in 2020, nearly one-third furloughed them and more than half cut
  hours or wages. In fact, 83% reduced physicians&rsquo; hours during the
  pandemic.
</p>

<p>
  The supply/demand mix is the result of a domino effect &ndash; fewer visits to
  the ER resulted in less revenue for the ER and cash-strapped employers stopped
  recruiting new doctors. In short, fewer healthcare organizations could afford
  new EM doctors during a crisis in which it would seem they should be in high
  demand.
</p>

<h2>Supply Surplus an Urban Problem, Not the Same in Rural Areas.</h2>

<p>
  Rural areas have consistently struggled to recruit EM physicians to their
  healthcare facilities, and this went largely unchanged during the pandemic.
  And the rural emergency physician shortage is expected to worsen in the coming
  years, according to a
  <a
    href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2883814-1&amp;h=3492389163&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.annemergmed.com%2Farticle%2FS0196-0644(20)30501-1%2Ffulltext&amp;a=National+Study+of+the+Emergency+Physician+Workforce%2C+2020"
    target="_blank"
    >new report</a
  >.
</p>

<p>
  Of the 48,835 clinically active emergency physicians in the U.S. 92% practice
  in urban areas with just 8% practicing in rural communities in 2020, down from
  10% in 2008. The analysis also shows that the rural emergency physician
  workforce is aging. While the median age for an urban emergency physician is
  50 years old, the median age in large rural communities is 58 years old and 62
  years old in smaller rural communities.
</p>

<h2>Effectively Navigating the Peaks and Valleys of ED Visits.</h2>

<p>
  The underlying dynamics of ED physician supply and demand today are
  short-term. It is only a matter of time before the market sees a return to
  shortages and the status quo. However, the road back to pre-COVID patient
  demand and revenue generation is going to be a bumpy one.
</p>

<p>
  As patient visits to the ED ebbs and peaks as the country continues to emerge
  from crisis-level, a contingent labor, flexible staffing model can help
  healthcare leaders manage these fluctuations more cost-effectively. By
  pivoting away from a fixed number of full-time physicians to a greater use of
  locums physicians can lead to greater cost containment as volumes are harder
  to predict.
</p>

<h2>More Insight into Talent Markey Dynamics.</h2>

<p>
  As a trusted staffing partner to leading healthcare organizations across the
  U.S., Cross Country Locums continually monitors and analyzes key market
  dynamics of the emergency physician sector. To learn more about current labor
  trends for emergency physicians,
  <a
    href="https://www.crosscountrylocums.com/lp-em-physicians?leadSource=Blog&campaignCode=BLERMKTTREND"
    target="_blank"
    >download</a
  >
  our latest Market Snapshot.
</p>


Emergency Departments In 2021: Managing An Unpredictable Ebb And Flow