Acadia Health + HWL
Standardizing Locum Staffing: Better Fill Rates, Lower Costs
About Acadia Healthcare
With more than 18,000 beds in 40 states, Acadia Healthcare provides behavioral health and addiction treatment services to patients in a variety of settings, from inpatient psychiatric hospitals and residential treatment centers, to outpatient clinics and therapeutic schoolbased programs.
The Situation
Interim CEO Ron Mays found himself unexpectedly handling locum sourcing for Riverwood and Desert Hills Behavioral Hospitals, lacking guidance from Acadia Healthcare's corporate office.
With no standardized process, Mays negotiated locum contracts independently, leading to uncertainty about competitive rates, spending comparisons, and potential risks.
The lack of a centralized system across Acadia's 586 facilities resulted in inconsistent contract terms, non-competitive rates, prolonged time-to-fill, and varied screening processes for behavioral health locum providers, posing a multi-million dollar expense challenge for the expanding network.
Key Challenges
Persistent need to find temporary behavioral health specialists at the individual facilities.
Facilities unable to leverage the power of corporate spend in dealing with local and regional locum vendors.
Without standard contracts, rates, and candidate prescreening, facilities were taking on unnecessary risk, paying too much for locums, and accepting locum providers who may not meet corporate standards.
We appreciate the value of the HWL system to work on Acadia job openings. It saves time and gives us the ability to quickly fill openings. We see more opportunities in real time. It also speeds up the paperwork process before and after each placement.
Dennis Beaupre
Senior Staffing Consultant at Wellhart
The Goal
To reduce locum tenens costs, assure provider quality, and improve vacancy fill rates.
The Solution
Acadia partnered with Healthcare Workforce Logistics (HWL) to implement an efficient Locum Tenens Managed Services Program (MSP) using a customized Vendor Management System (VMS).
HWL, with its next-generation technology and extensive experience in locum physician staffing, tailored the VMS to meet Acadia's specific needs, including identifying and contracting with qualified locum agencies.
The VMS's open marketplace sourcing process ensures equal opportunities for all locum agencies to fill orders at market rates without concerns about candidate poaching.
Our solution is flexible and we customize it to meet the needs of each individual client. If a health system simply wants technology, we are happy to license our VMS so that they benefit from a more efficient process and greater transparency. For those who need more support in day to day staffing operations, we offer resources to accommodate that need.
Jonathan Ward
HWL President
Outcomes
99% fill rate on orders since HWL Program Launch.
Improved time to present candidate to less than 1 day.
Significantly improved time to fill.
Decreased locum spending by more than 50%
Improved quality of locums staff
Total transparency into locum usage and spending
Results
Launched in June 2017, the HWL Locum Tenens MSP achieved a 99% fill rate at Acadia facilities, cutting spending on locum providers by over half. Taft Brown, Acadia’s VP of Talent Acquisition, praises the streamlined process, emphasizing one call to the HWL Account Manager for end-to-end service. The technology provides actionable metrics, reducing assignment lengths and locum spend. Remarkably, this service comes at no cost to Acadia. CEOs like Ron Mays no longer deal with locum agencies, allowing them to focus on running their facilities while HWL’s Locum MSP handles recruitment efficiently.