The Maine Primary Care Association (MPCA) has named VISTA Staffing Solutions, Inc., the exclusive, endorsed provider of temporary physician staffing for MPCA community health providers throughout the state. This is the first time MPCA has endorsed a provider for temporary physician staffing.
MPCA is comprised of 40 primary care clinics in rural and underserved areas of Maine and includes all of Maine’s grant-funded federally qualified health centers, tribal health centers, an island-based community health center, and the Maine Migrant Health Program. It is estimated that one in 15 people in Maine receives primary health care from MPCA member-facilities.
"MPCA is enthusiastic about the savings and benefits Maine’s heath centers will realize through this exclusive endorsement of VISTA Staffing Solutions," said Kevin Lewis, Executive Director, Maine Primary Care Association. "Maine’s primary care safety net providers now can access VISTA’s excellent quality temporary physician staffing service through a discounted group purchasing agreement."
The Maine Primary Care Association is committed to providing access to healthcare and to the elimination of health disparities in Maine through a network of community, migrant, and homeless health centers and Indian health centers that provide superior comprehensive primary care to the underserved. The group has been in existence since 1981.
VISTA Staffing Solutions, headquartered in Salt Lake City, recruits, credentials, and places physicians in temporary assignments across the country. These physicians represent a broad range of specialties and provide vital patient care for health care organizations that are short staffed. VISTA will provide MPCA with access to family practitioners, internal medicine specialists, pediatricians and obstetrician/gynecologists.
In February of this year, the Maine Hospital Association announced it had named VISTA Staffing Solutions its exclusive, endorsed provider of temporary physician staffing for the association’s 38 acute-care member hospitals.
Additionally, VISTA Staffing Solutions was recently awarded a non-exclusive contract to provide locum tenens psychiatrists to the Bangor Mental Health Institute, a 100-bed psychiatric hospital serving two-thirds of Maine’s geography.
Physicians who work in temporary assignments are called locum tenens (from the Latin, "one holding a place") physicians. Locum tenens physicians work from a few weeks to several months in practices and facilities that are actively recruiting, covering for ill or injured physicians, covering for physicians on military deployment or sabbatical, or supplementing their staff during periods of peak demand.
About the Maine Primary Care Association
The Maine Primary Care Association represents 40 community health providers including all of Maine’s grant-funded federally qualified health centers, tribal health centers, an island-based community health center, and the Maine Migrant Health Program. It was formerly known as the Maine Ambulatory Care Coalition. Its mission is to advance the strength and sustainability of its membership of safety-net primary care providers and to facilitate access to primary care for the medically underserved or uninsured in Maine. MPCA will host its 2004 Annual Conference & Clinical Symposium at the Sable Oaks Marriott in South Portland, October 8th - 11th. For more information: www.mepca.org.
For more information contact:
Kevin Lewis
Executive Director
Maine Primary Care Association
207-621-0677
kalewis@mepca.org
About VISTA Staffing Solutions
VISTA Staffing Solutions (www.vistastaff.com) is a leading provider of temporary physician staffing and permanent physician search services. Founded in 1990, the employee-owned company helps hospitals, medical practices and government agencies solve their physician staffing challenges. VISTA is the only agency that offers short- and long-term domestic jobs, international work opportunities, and permanent placement for physicians. The company is a founding member of the National Association of Locum Tenens Organizations (NALTO).
