Locum Tenens | Vista Blog

Ralph Gabarro, is CEO of Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, and Chair of the Associated Health Resources (AHR) Board of Directors. AHR is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Maine Hospital Association, and was created in 1992 to provide member hospitals, hospital-affiliated long-term care facilities, and employees across the state with access to a wide range of high-value products and services.

Posts Tagged ‘locum tenens’

VISTA loves Maine! And Maine loves VISTA!

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

VISTA Staffing Solutions has been the exclusive endorsed provider of physician locum tenens services for members of the Maine Hospital Association since 2004. The agreement was established by Associated Health Resources, an MHA subsidiary established to evaluate and select top quality, high-value products and services for all members.

Under the agreement, VISTA proactively recruits and licenses physicians and places a priority on filling Maine openings. Once they hit a threshold on locum tenens fees, they pay rebates to the MHA and member hospitals. It has been a positive, lasting relationship, so last year the AHR added divisions from VISTA’s parent company, On Assignment, to the contract to expand the service offering to include travel nurses and allied health professionals.

It is important to the AHR, and to me personally as chairman, to monitor the value members are getting from the vendors we endorse. This spring we commissioned a survey of members to determine if they were using the VISTA/On Assignment services, and why or why not.

Here is a recap of the results:

Twenty seven hospitals completed the survey, 21 of which have used VISTA locum tenens at some time. More than half were using VISTA services when the survey was conducted. In response to an open-ended question about their experience with VISTA, the comments were overwhelmingly positive, and included:

“Easy to work with. Physicians were highly trained.”
“Great experience, professional staff who are very helpful in getting all information needed for credentialing.”
“I have found them to be professional, the quality of the candidates they present to be top notch, and coordination of assignments to be easier with them than other companies. I also appreciate that they have one point of contact (Mary Bowers) checking in with me periodically. My experience with other companies is that you can field calls from 10-20 representatives of the various service lines each and every month. VISTA’s approach shows that they value my time.”
“Very positive—Mary Bowers is very responsive. Rates are competitive. Rebate is a good incentive.”
“VISTA is our ‘go to’ agency. Their staff are all exceptional to work with and we know the candidates have been screened well before being presented to us.”

We appreciate the value VISTA places on the relationships the company has built throughout Maine and the effort they have put into bringing value to our endorsement.

Tags: locum tenens, Maine Hospital Association, physician
Posted in Industry Updates, VISTA Lore |

VISTA’s Locum Tenens Doctor of the Year pays a visit

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

Last week the VISTA family medicine team was honored with a visit from Roving Doc, star of Rovingdoctor.blogspot.com, and his wife and blog author, Connie A.

Roving Doc has worked in both domestic and international locum tenens assignments across the US and in Bermuda for the past 20 months. From Arizona to Alaska and back again, he has delighted patients, communities, and hospital colleagues with his warm yet meticulous manner. For these reasons and more he was our nomination for Locum Tenens of the Year in Locum Life magazine.

During the visit the pair regaled us with stories of life and work on the road (with Connie promising to work on writing up one about the hand in the Cuisinart in the small town ED.) Roving Doc said we all felt like extended family. We couldn’t think of a better compliment!

Roving Doc and the VISTA Team

Tags: locum, locum tenens, physician
Posted in Stories from VISTA Physicians |

Finishing in 50 states! A note from a locum tenens psychiatrist

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Dear Friends at VISTA!

Big news! As of May 2, when I finished the Providence, Rhode Island Marathon, I have run, walked, limped, etc. the requisite 26.2 miles in all 50 of our fine states! I’ve been at this pursuit since 2001, when I turned 60 and decided I needed to get in better physical shape. On one of my early marathons I learned of the “50 States Marathon Club,” which I qualified to join after finishing 10 states. I joined and got the T-shirt! It has been a fun association and continuing motivation to keep running. I have now earned the privilege of wearing the much coveted shirt that says, “50 States Finisher.”

Ironically, I achieved something else in this lovely city, and it closes another gestalt. Providence College is where I received my pre-med degree in 1964!

As you can imagine, my wife, Eileen, and I have shared great traveling adventures as we chased these marathons all over this crazy country. It all started when we ran the Honolulu Marathon in 1978. After that, we ran five more Honolulu Marathons together over the years. She had a faster time than me every year, by the way, except for the time she slowed down so we could cross the finish line together. There is good reason why Honolulu is one of the most popular marathons in the world. It is beautiful, friendly, fun, and shows off their great Aloha spirit. It is my most favoritest!

Here are some highlights of our sojourn:

Boston 2004, 88 degrees at the start! (I call it the Hotathon);
New York 2003, 2 million fans lining the course;
Chicago 2006, 34 degrees and windy (what else?)
Ketchikan, AK 2004: 40 runners total, we ran over two mountains
Swan Lake, South Dakota, 2006: A small event, flat, remote! ( even won a ribbon for first in my age group)
Lincoln, Nebraska: Flat! Started off in an electrical storm. Thunder for a starting gun!
Avenue of the Giants, California, 2005: A glorious run through the redwoods, with the pileated woodpeckers drumming in the springtime.
Richmond, VA, 2008 on my 67th birthday.
Extra-Terrestrial Midnight Full Moon Marathon, Nevada, 2009. Ran through Area 51! No aliens sighted, but I wondered about a couple of the runners.
Acadia National Park, Maine, 2007…….in the autumn foliage along the carriage paths.

I especially want to thank my patient wife, Eileen, who has been my “roving aid station” on most of these marathons, showing up along the course to give me love and caring, encouragement, ice water, M&Ms, Red Bull, Gatorade, Wavy Lays, Mentos, Tylenol, and anything else to keep me going for a few more miles!

EILEEN!!

What next? The Bay to Breakers is in San Fran in eight days; my first Canadian marathon, on Vancouver Island (Ucluelet) is on June 12th; hopefully I’ll do the Berlin Marathon in September; and the tough Marine Corps Marathon 10-31-10 in DC. If I can get a place, I’ll run the London Marathon next April. Registration opened and closed on May 4th while we were flying back from Boston, all 125,000 places!

Thank you all very much for all your good wishes for good luck in the past. They have helped me tremendously to get where I am today.

Tags: locum tenens, psychiatrist
Posted in Stories from VISTA Physicians |

VISTA Staffing Solutions | Locum Tenens

Posts Tagged ‘locum tenens’

VISTA loves Maine! And Maine loves VISTA!

VISTA’s Locum Tenens Doctor of the Year pays a visit

Finishing in 50 states! A note from a locum tenens psychiatrist

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