How do you know what rate to pay in an ever-changing market? Imagine having access to live market rates for your region or city, would this be the ‘holy grail’?

The issue with not knowing the market rate isn’t necessarily paying ‘over the odds’ for locums. Often the real problem is not understanding changes in the market rate and paying too low an hourly rate and not attracting locums. This ‘lack of attraction’ can mean that your pharmacy pays more in the long run as shifts have to be filled at emergency rates, that are on average 25% higher.

Having market rate data at your fingertips can allow you to accurately set rates and improve shift fill rates.

In a recent webinar, we explored why in 2021 locum rates nearly doubled, and how better understanding factors that impact rates can help your pharmacy ultimately save money.

As mentioned in the webinar, several internal factors impact rate, they include:

• Size of pool – How many direct locums do you have in your pool?
• How you manage leave – the ability to forward plan your rota to fill gaps
• How quickly coordinators send shifts – the speed at which shifts are distributed
• Understanding best rates by region – using metrics/data to define the rate

The Locate a Locum platform can help you manage these factors. Our reporting suite enables you to make 100% data-driven decisions. Find out more