Direct Temporary Physician Coverage for Critical Care Gaps
Connecting hospitals with qualified physicians through transparent rates, schedule discovery, and reusable credential workflows.
Structural Pressures in Physician Staffing
When vacancies arise on short notice, institutions face administrative delays, unpredictable agency margins, and acute care disruptions.
Projected U.S. physician shortage by 2036
Projected shortfall range of 13,500 to 86,000 clinicians across primary and specialty care.
Institutional credentialing timeline
Standard duration required for primary-source verification and institutional committee approvals.
Contract-labor cost escalation (2019-2022)
Surge in agency staffing expenses across more than 1,000 surveyed community hospitals.
Total hospital labor expenditure in 2024
Workforce compensation and related expenses represented 56% of total hospital operating costs.
The Structural Inefficiencies in Temporary Staffing
Traditional locum tenens relies on layered recruiting chains that separate hospitals and physicians, adding delay and unnecessary cost.
Hospital Administration Realities
Chief Medical Officers & Staffing Coordinators
Opaque Cost Structures
Facilities frequently pay substantial agency overhead without visibility into clinician compensation versus intermediary margins.
Urgent Coverage Vacancies
Critical-access and community facilities struggle with sudden gaps, relying on fragmented phone calls and scattered broker networks.
Repeated Credential Chasing
Medical staff offices must reconstruct clinician files from scratch for every placement, extending timelines by weeks.
Physician Practice Realities
Locum Tenens & Independent Clinicians
Redundant Administrative Submissions
Physicians repeatedly re-submit primary source documents, work histories, references, and immunizations to multiple agencies.
Limited Rate Transparency
Clinicians rarely know the bill-rate paid by the hospital, creating misaligned incentives and reduced compensation clarity.
Constrained Schedule Autonomy
Locum doctors depend on recruiter outreach chains rather than directly managing regional availability and preferred parameters.
The AirDoc Hypothesis
A direct, transparent marketplace with reusable documentation workflows can reduce emergency vacancy lead times and avoid excessive intermediary expense, verified through institutional pilot trials.
How Direct Coverage Operates
A documented six-stage workflow engineered to replace fragmented recruiter calls with structured, verifiable coordination.
Define Coverage Need
Facility sets shift dates, clinical specialty, location, target compensation, and urgency parameters.
Platform Capabilities in Active Development
Targeted operational modules designed to replace broker telephone chains with transparent, auditable direct coordination.
Reusable Clinician Profiles and Dossiers
Organize primary-source verification materials, state licenses, board certifications, and work histories in a structured format ready for hospital medical staff services.
Transparent Rate Visibility
Direct compensation modeling where hospitals and physicians see the exact split, eliminating hidden agency margins.
Map-Based Regional Discovery
Locate physicians by travel proximity, multi-state Compact licensure, and specific critical-access hospital experience.
Automated Expiration Alerts
Automated monitors track state medical licenses, DEA registrations, and life support certifications before gaps occur.
Physician Availability Calendars
Physicians set exact calendar windows, shift formats, and weekend preferences for direct matching with facility rotas.
Aligned Value Across the Healthcare Ecosystem
Temporary staffing works best when facilities, clinicians, and communities share transparent incentives rather than competing against opaque intermediary models.
Hospitals & Health Systems
Chief Medical Officers, CFOs & Staffing Directors
- Faster identification of credentialed, licensed clinicians
- Transparent billing comparisons with clear overhead splits
- Reduced administrative hours spent chasing repeated paperwork
- Proactive visibility into urgent department vacancies
- Lower avoidable staffing expenditures from agency price gouging
Locum Tenens Physicians
Independent Physicians & Hospitalists
- Direct visibility into total facility billing and net compensation
- Complete ownership of calendar, travel radius, and shift parameters
- Reusable credential dossier avoiding redundant document collection
- Direct communication with hospital medical staff coordinators
- Reduced dependence on layered intermediary recruiter commission
Patients & Rural Communities
Critical Access Facilities & Regional Populations
- Dependable local clinical access preventing emergency department closures
- Fewer patient transfers caused by sudden physician shift gaps
- Greater provider stability for community-based specialty clinics
- Protection of regional hospital operating margins and service lines
- Long-term healthcare workforce resilience across underserved regions
Institutional Safeguards & Clear Operating Boundaries
AirDoc is engineered to enhance discovery and coordination while respecting the statutory authority of hospital credentialing bodies.
Early-Stage Customer Discovery Notice
AirDoc is currently an early-stage concept in customer discovery and field validation. The workflows and financial models described reflect proposed mechanisms under active evaluation with medical staff professionals, recruiters, and physicians. AirDoc does not claim completed placements, active hospital clients, or regulatory exemptions until formally supported by clinical pilot data.
Founding Team & Discovery Leadership
AirDoc is founded by Purdue University researchers combining healthcare operations insight with biomedical systems engineering to solve acute physician staffing bottlenecks.
Soroosh Kermani
Clinical Operations & Field Validation
Leads field discovery and stakeholder research across hospital chief medical officers, credentialing directors, and locum physicians to identify the root causes of temporary staffing delays and vacancy costs.
Drawing on clinical preparation and healthcare systems research at Purdue University, Soroosh focuses on aligning economic incentives between rural facilities and clinicians, eliminating opaque brokerage markups while ensuring continuous patient access.
Zachary Pitroda
Technology & Systems Architecture
Directs the technical architecture for AirDoc, engineering the reusable credential dossier infrastructure, automated compliance monitoring, and direct schedule matching engines.
Drawing on engineering background at Purdue University and proven experience building complex biomedical data platforms and accelerated knowledge graphs, Zachary builds the infrastructure that transforms fragmented staffing coordination into secure, auditable digital workflows.
Grounding Architecture in Frontline Operational Realities
The founding team conducts structured field interviews with medical staff professionals, hospital staffing coordinators, and practicing locum physicians across the Midwest. Rather than building speculative software in isolation, every capability is shaped by real credentialing cycle times and actual coverage budgets.
Participate in Customer Discovery & Validation
We are scheduling structured interviews and pilot intake reviews with hospital leaders, credentialing coordinators, and active physicians.