Powerful yet simple tips on organizing your Locum Tenens Life (Bonus: list of time-saving resources I use).

Vlad Dzhashi, MD

If you’re having trouble organizing your locum life (and let’s be honest who hasn’t) then the following post could be a GAME-CHANGER.

But first…you MUST realize that keeping things in order works like magic. When you’re organized you feel better, work better, and not only that, your life works better.

The alternative is to be overwhelmed…’cause we all know that working locum tenens has lots of moving parts: finding new jobs, scheduling, traveling, paperwork, tax planning…you name it! It’s SOOOO easy to feel like you’re drowning and barely able to keep up.

Ultimately, YOU have a choice:

You can be the person who spends twenty minutes looking for his hospital badge, pager and car keys every time you leave for work. Or you can be the person who simply walks out the front door.

ORGANIZING YOUR "LOCUMENTS"

As you progress through your career, you’re going to accumulate more and more “history”: this means documents, documents, and more documents.

So…organizing all this crap is important. This way, it will always be right on hand, and you won’t have to spend hours tearing your house apart trying to find what you need.

Physical storage for documents

First things first, you need to keep hardcopies of all the important docs in one place at your home office.

Here’s how I do it:

- Provider agreements (locum tenens companies’ contracts)
- State licenses
- Malpractice certificates (aka COI’s)
- ACLS, BLS certificates
- Immunization records
- Tax records
- Diploma
- Residency certificate
- CME records
- Board certificate
- DEA registrations

Virtual storage

The next step is to set up a “virtual” backup. This way you can access your documents anytime, anywhere.

Start by getting a scanner and scanning all your important stuff to cloud storage. I bought an All-in-One HP printer: it prints, scans and makes copies. It costs under $100 and it’s an absolute MUST for a functioning home office.

In case you’re wondering about the best place to store your documents, I recommend one of the following: Google Drive, iCloud or Amazon Drive. Most of these services are free for the basic data package.

Personally I use Google Drive to keep electronic copies of all my credentialing documents. I’ve had a good experience with it,as it’s synced with my Gmail account.

You should also create a separate folder on your computer desktop with ALL important documents. This way you can attach them to an email quickly since the majority of communication with agencies and hospitals is via email.

Using cloud-based storage will save you a TON OF TIME when you’re applying for a new license or hospital privileges. You simply download and attach all the requested documents to an email, and can also choose to share them by emailing a link.

Dealing with multiple pagers and badges:

If you work in more than two hospitals, make sure you create a separate badge and pager storage.

The worst thing that can happen is a last moment PANIC before going to the airport when you cannot find your hospital badge.

I bought this nice little basket and store only pagers and hospital badges there. It looks different from all the other storage boxes I’ve got at home and I try to always keep it in the same place.

Also, put a sticky note on each pager with the name of the hospital, as sometimes it’s not easy to figure out which pager you need.

TAX DEDUCTIONS TRACKING

Keeping track of your locum tenens expenses is another “time-pit” I used to waste my time on.

Even though you file taxes only once a year, getting an exact number of HOW MUCH you could deduct takes lots of time.

If you’ve ever filed taxes as an independent contractor, you know what I am talking about: if you’re not organized well, let’s just say that filing taxes is going to be HELL.

One hack I’ve found very useful is to keep a separate debit card account and use it ONLY for locum-tenens-related expenses. This way, you can quickly go over all your transactions using online banking and get the exact dollar amount of your annual expenses to deduct.

Another great helper is www.mint.com. This is free and very easy to use.

Mint connects to your bank account(s), lets you tag different expenses and put them under different categories for a really detailed view. This way you can see where your money went and where it came from, whether these are personal or locum tenens expenses.

EXPENSES RECEIPTS

If you ever get audited by the IRS (spoiler alert: it’s not a fun experience), you want to have proof you’ve actually spent money you claimed you spent.

To track receipts, I take pictures of my receipts and then back these up on a cloud storage.

If you want to get “fancy” you can use an Expensify app. This one is actually also well suited for people who want to track their day-to-day expenses. This app is basically an expense management system.

Its best feature is the ability to take pictures of your receipts, which the app then transcribes and stores. In addition to this, you can track your credit cards, log mileage using GPS and even connect to apps like Uber and Lyft.

TRAVEL

Although this is technically not a “travel” app, Evernote is one of the few apps that I actually use a lot when I travel.

The main use for me is the ability to create checklists. After forgetting my gym clothing and my noise-canceling headphones (they are a big deal to me as they help me sleep better in hotels), I sat down and created a packing list of ALL the things I need when traveling.

Another cool feature I absolutely LOVE in Evernote is called “Web Clipper.” It allows you to save your favorite articles and other web content that you can then access when you are offline. This is very handy and gives you something to read during long plane flights.

MANAGING PASSWORDS

If you’re like most people, then you probably have DOZENS OF PASSWORDS which need to be remembered – this is an unfortunate side effect of the digital age. Keeping track of passwords can be a major headache.

Another mistake I’ve seen people make is using the same password for everything. This is seriously dumb and can cause major problems.

Remembering passwords can also be a big problem if you work in more than ONE hospital or work at the hospital sporadically.

A simple solution is password management apps.

Lastpass is a password manager which encrypts your passwords and stores them online. You can access it from your web browser or phone, which is very useful when you’re at the hospital.

1password is similar to Last Pass and essentially does the exact same thing.

Both apps are super affordable: 1password is $2.99/month, while Last Pass has a limited free version, otherwise starts at $3/month.

Completing timesheets and other PDF docs

TImesheets are annoying, but you are not gonna get any “cheese” unless you fill them out. It’s as simple as that.

I used to print my timesheets out, fill them out, scan them and then send in an email. It was very clunky.

Recently, I’ve discovered a website called DocHub which makes it easy to edit my timesheets and other PDF files.

If you use Gmail, simply click on the PDF attachment that comes in an email, click on “open with” and select DocHub – PDF sign and edit.

If you don’t use Gmail or your timesheet is already saved on your computer, go to the https://dochub.com/ and sign up. You could then upload your PDF and edit it quickly.

One of the features that I absolutely LOVE is the ability to create a nice-looking “hand” signature and add it to any part of your document with two clicks. This saves me lots of time since I don’t have to print out the document, sign it and then scan it.

Getting rid of the stuff: Shredder

Amazon basics shredder is less than $50, and it’s an important home office tool to prevent identity theft. You can get rid of your sensitive information and always have peace of mind.

I also use my shredder to get rid of old credit cards and hospital badges.