After four decades in gastroenterology, Dr. Clifford Tillman still lights up when a tough case lands on his desk.
Today, that excitement comes from locum tenens work.
“I love a challenge, and I love learning new things,” he said. “Locum tenens gives me the opportunity to see new cases I never would have been a part of otherwise.”
Dr. Tillman still runs his private practice, but he’s been easing back, taking on more temporary assignments instead. “This is honestly the best time I’ve ever had in medicine,” he said. “Locums has made me feel like I’m living my best GI life.”
How Family Sparked Curiosity
Dr. Tillman’s interest in locums started close to home. His son-in-law took a locum tenens job in Hawaii, and the whole family joined him. They had such a great experience that Dr. Tillman decided to look into it for himself.
“That’s what got me curious,” he said. “I began looking into opportunities online, and it turned out there was a lot of demand for GI.”
For him, the draw wasn’t just travel. It was the work. “For me, medicine is like other people watching a football game,” he said. “That same thrill they get from sports is what I get from solving a case.”
The First Assignment
Dr. Tillman’s first locums assignment was just a short drive away at a large hospital with an urgent need for GI coverage. The facility had gone weeks without a dedicated gastroenterologist. Once he arrived, the team’s relief was clear.
“They were so glad to have me,” he said. “I’ve always been good at my work, but hearing people say, ‘We’re so glad you’re here,’ made me feel good about the work and encouraged me to keep doing it. That positive reinforcement hooked me.”
Locum tenens gave Dr. Tillman a fresh start. He takes jobs close to home, stays active in patient care, and still spends time with his six children and fourteen grandchildren.
“It’s not isolating at all,” he said. “When I cover nearby hospitals, it’s close to home, which makes it convenient.”
He credits modern tools like Epic and Dragon Dictation for helping him focus more on patients and less on paperwork. “With locums, I can focus on the parts of my work I love,” he said.
A Lifelong Commitment
Even after 40 years, Dr. Tillman still thrives on the clinical side of GI care. “Just the other day, I did 17 colonoscopies,” he said. “And I could have done 17 more right after. I still feel energized by it.”
But his schedule also leaves room for the rest of life, like raising and breeding horses, flying his personal helicopter (which he occasionally uses to get to assignments), and trying out new restaurants.
For Dr. Tillman, the key to sustaining his locum tenens lifestyle has been strong agency support and flexibility. “I’m credentialed at several hospitals and rotate between them,” he said. “[Interim Physicians] does a great job with placements, so it was easy to create a schedule on my terms.”
Would he recommend locum tenens to other physicians? “Absolutely,” he said. “The demand is there, the work is meaningful, and the lifestyle is freeing. You get to focus on patients, skip the administrative load, and enjoy more control over your time.”