Planned leave is a staffing gap an urgent care knows about in advance. A vacation, a parental leave or a training week is on the calendar before it starts. That notice only helps if the work begins when the leave is approved and not the week before.
This guide covers how to cover planned leave with locum clinicians: which shifts to post, when to post them, and what the person going on leave hands over. It applies to every role on your schedule.
List the Shifts the Planned Leave Removes
Start from the schedule. Write down each shift the person would have worked: the date, the hours, the role, and whether they'd have been the only provider on site.
Then list the duties they hold outside those shifts. A physician may be the collaborating or supervising physician for your NPs and PAs. Someone reviews results that come back after a patient has left, signs forms, orders supplies or opens the building.
A locum clinician covers shifts. Each of the other duties needs a named person for the length of the leave. If one of them is a supervisory duty that your state regulates, ask your attorney who can hold it.
Decide Which Leave Shifts Go to Locum Coverage
You have three sources for each shift: your permanent staff, clinicians who are already cleared at your clinic, and an outside locum clinician.
Permanent staff can absorb a short leave if they want the extra shifts. Ask them, and don't assign the shifts. For a leave of several weeks, absorbing every shift means the rest of the team works above their normal hours for the whole period.
Mark each shift with its source before you post anything. The hybrid staffing model explains how to split hours between permanent and locum coverage. If you keep a roster of cleared clinicians, the float pool guide covers offering shifts to them first.
Post Planned Leave Shifts When the Leave Is Approved
Post the shifts as soon as the leave is approved. Early posting leaves time for the credential file and for EMR access. It also lets a clinician plan their own month around your dates.
Post every shift of the leave at the same time. A clinician who can see the full run can take several shifts, and you can see early which dates nobody has taken.
One Locum Clinician or Several for a Planned Leave
One clinician for the whole leave means one file, one orientation and one EMR account. By the second week they know your clinic. If that clinician cancels, every remaining shift is open.
Several clinicians mean more onboarding work, and a cancellation opens fewer shifts. A middle option is one clinician for the larger share of the shifts and a second who is cleared and has worked at least one of them. The second clinician is your backup if the first cancels or the leave runs longer.
Hand Over Before the Planned Leave Starts
The person going on leave writes down what's unfinished and who owns it while they're away.
- Open items: pending results, referrals waiting on a reply, callbacks and forms waiting for a signature. Name an owner for each. The locum clinician on the shift doesn't automatically own work that started before they arrived.
- EMR inbox: decide where messages and results addressed to the person on leave go, and set that up in the EMR before their last day.
- Standing duties: the list from the first step, with the name of the person covering each one.
- Outside contacts: employers, schools or other clients who call this person directly need a new name to call.
If the dates allow, schedule the locum clinician's first shift on a day the departing person is still working. You pay for double coverage that day. In return, the locum clinician learns the clinic from the person they're replacing.
Seven locum orientation mistakes covers what the locum clinician needs before that first shift. Shift handoffs with rotating locums covers the handoff at each shift change.
Plan for Leave Dates That Change
Leave dates move. A parental leave can start early, and a return date can slip.
Before you book, read the cancellation terms of your staffing source. Know what you owe if you cancel booked shifts and how much notice avoids the charge. Before the leave starts, ask the covering clinician whether they could take more shifts if it runs long. Keep the second cleared clinician informed of the dates as they change.
Close Out When the Planned Leave Ends
- Give the returning person a written summary: what happened to each open item, and anything new that was assigned to them.
- Return the EMR inbox routing to normal.
- Turn off the locum clinician's system access, or keep it if you've booked them again, and record the expiration dates in their file.
- Tell the locum clinician about the next leave dates you know of. A clinician who has covered one leave at your clinic needs no new file and little orientation for the next one.
Rediworks is a self-service marketplace for urgent care shifts. You post the clinician type, dates and shift details for the leave, and clinicians see the rate before they apply. Sign up to post shifts.