In January 2023, Captain Ibrahim Traoré’s government ended Burkina Faso’s defense agreement with France and ordered roughly 400 French special forces out of Camp Kamboinsin. The last troops left in February. In June 2026 the same government cut the remaining diplomatic channel. Traoré had taken power in September 2022 citing the same reason his predecessor had used eight months earlier: the insurgency was not contained. Ending the partnership did not end the attacks. The security problem was never the same object as the partner assigned to it.
A hospital, FQHC, jail, or rural clinic that ends a locums group, a telepsychiatry vendor, or a named covering psychiatrist runs the same arithmetic. The contract can close on Friday. Psychiatric boarding, jail sick call, court dates, MAT panels, and the rural catchment that already had no second psychiatrist do not leave with the invoice. Sovereignty over the program is not the same thing as coverage on Monday.
This article is for administrators who just terminated a staffing relationship — or are about to — and still own the patients. It is not a geopolitics brief. It is not backup coverage for a named clinician who is out sick. It is not rebuilding the week after a lasting break. It is not why you switched vendors. Those pages own those jobs. This page is the narrower clock: what is live in the 72 hours after the last contracted shift, and what is still standing at day 90.
FasPsych staffs licensed psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners into your program on secure, real-time video. We do not treat individual consumers. The useful question after a partner exit is which of those clinicians can open this record before the next arrival hits the door.
Key Takeaways
- Ending a coverage contract ends the vendor. It does not end ED boarding, jail screens, residential med pass, or the rural panel that was already one person deep.
- A local termination does not shrink the mental health shortage map. Demand stays in your rooms.
- The 72-hour hole is operational: who sees Monday clinic, who answers the ED cart, who signs the hold, who continues the buprenorphine.
- The 90-day hole is whether anyone is privileged, payer-enrolled, and live in your EHR. A name on a slide is not a 9:15 visit.
- Write the coverage plan before the last contracted day.
- Video can bridge the gap inside the program you still own. Standing up a second clinic brand is a different job — see virtual clinic versus a staffing network.
What the exit names — and what it does not
Administrators fire partners for real reasons: missed SLAs, a clinician who would not document in the house EHR, a night panel that went dark, a price that no longer matched volume. Sometimes the vendor walks. Sometimes the work is “coming back in-house” behind a hire whose start date is still a season away.
None of those facts cancel the next arrival.
Three exits get filed as the same event:
You fired the vendor. The contract ends on a date. After that date the partner’s clinicians usually lose your EHR, your e-prescribe, and your after-hours line.
The vendor walked. They could not staff the block. The assigned psychiatrist left their network. Your site fell off the board. You did not choose the date. The date still arrived.
You took the work back in-house. A new hire is “coming.” That is not coverage until the person is licensed, privileged, live in the record, and on the published week.
All three feel like control. Only the third can become coverage, and only after the start date is real. Until then the reason you hired help is still in the building.
Leave the comparison there. The rest of this page is a coverage plan.
What the exit does not name:
- It is not proof the service was unnecessary.
- It is not a recruiting season. A hire that starts in five months does not cover Tuesday.
- It is not after-hours coverage as a product, and it is not the first four hours of boarding. Those clocks still run. This page is who is on them after the old badge stops working.
A planned termination is the one advantage this break has over a sick day. You chose the date. Use the notice period.
What left with the partner versus what stayed
| Left with the partner | Still in your building |
|---|---|
| Their clinicians’ licenses on their roster | Your patients, your census, your EMTALA and jail-screen clocks |
| Their scheduling software, if you never owned it | Your EHR, your rooms, your nurses |
| Their after-hours number | Court dates, MAT dosing, follow-up measures on your file |
| A phone tree that rang their call center | The ED cart, the residential med pass, the rural Tuesday clinic |
| Institutional memory in one locums notebook | Quality numerators that still have your CMS number on them |
A table is a routing map. If the right-hand column is full and the left-hand column is empty, you have a calendar with holes. If the panel left with the vendor, you did not fire a partner. You closed a clinic. That model choice already lives on the virtual clinic vs. staffing network page. What happens to the rate if the contract ends is already on the value-based measures page.
Rural sites feel the right-hand column first. An RHC that ends a covering group because “we should own this” still has no psychiatrist in the county. Ownership of the program is the right instinct. An empty week is not a staffing model.
The 72-hour hole
The first three days after a last contracted hour are a census window, not a strategy window.
Name, in writing, who sees:
- Monday clinic. Someone licensed in your state opens those charts, or the panel cancels.
- The ED cart. Request-to-eval still needs a name. The clock is on the boarding page. This page only asks whether anyone is scheduled after Friday.
- Jail and intake screens. On-demand intake is a setting requirement, not a courtesy the old vendor invented.
- Residential and MAT doses due this week. Who prescribes on day one. Treatment protocols stay on the MAT page.
- Friday-night call. If nights were in the old contract, they need a sentence in the new week — or they become an after-hours panic purchase.
If the answer is “we’ll call around,” the termination was early. Backup video is the tool while the relationship still exists. This hole is different: the relationship itself is gone.
The 90-day hole
Seventy-two hours keeps the building from failing open. Ninety days is how you avoid doing this again in November.
A slide that says “we have a replacement” is not coverage. The work that turns a name into a visit — privileging, payer enrollment, EHR access, a tested room — already has a mechanism on the backup page. Start that work during the notice period, not after the last shift.
What this page adds is the chosen end date:
- Who owns the week for the next 90 days — one administrator, not a committee.
- Whether last month’s template still matches the sites the old partner touched. If it does not, stop and go to reconstruction.
- What happens if the next partner also fails. That sentence belongs in the RFP, written before you need it.
What to write before you terminate
Do this on one page, signed, before the letter goes out.
- Last hour. Date, time, time zone, and which sites die at that minute. “End of the month” is not an hour.
- Work that cannot wait 72 hours. ED evaluations, jail screens, holds, MAT, court dates, the rural Tuesday clinic.
- Who is already privileged. A replacement still in credentialing is not coverage.
- Who owns the record. Encounters, e-prescribe, after-hours numbers, video-room licenses stay with the facility.
- The slip plan. If the replacement start date moves two weeks, who covers those days.
- Who tells the panel. Name the next clinician and the number to call. “Your doctor is leaving the company” is different from “your clinic is closing.”
If you cannot fill those lines, you are not ready to fire the partner.
Score the next partner on the staffing-RFP grid. Do not use an RFP to staff tonight. Why the last relationship failed is already on goal misalignments. This page is the week after you act on that diagnosis.
Telepsychiatry when the partner is already gone
Video is a good fit when the patient is still your patient, the note goes in your EHR, and on-site staff can carry out the plan. It is a poor fit when the only video path dies with the vendor’s license, or when the coverage is a call center that has never opened your record.
Before the first visit after the exit: confirm the room, the emergency number, and that the incoming clinician can see yesterday’s note and today’s med list. Decide whether the block is on-demand, a scheduled clinic, or after-hours. Mixing all three without naming them is how night staff call the wrong number.
After the visit the note should say one of three things: bridge with an end date, durable block in this program, or cannot staff this site this week. That last sentence belongs to the medical director the same day.
How FasPsych supports a partner transition
FasPsych staffs licensed psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners into the program you still own — hospital, FQHC, CMHC, jail, rural health clinic, residential unit — on interactive, real-time video. The visit is not a second clinic door.
For a termination week that means a defined bridge for the 72-hour list, scheduled blocks behind it so day 90 is a roster, documentation in your EHR, and backup behind the incoming named clinician so the next sick day is not a second termination. Replacement language for the next award lives on the RFP page.
Keep psychiatry inside the program the patient already uses. Do not open a second door labeled “interim vendor.”
Call (877) 218-4070 or start at Partner With Us.
Related FasPsych reading
- Backup Psychiatrist Coverage Through Telepsychiatry Video Visits — the named clinician is out; this page is the vendor is gone.
- Rebuild Psychiatric Coverage After a Disruption — last month’s week no longer matches who is left.
- How to Write a Telepsychiatry Staffing RFP — score the next partner before the next exit.
- Virtual Clinic vs. Psychiatry Staffing Network — keep the program; do not rent a competing door.
- How to Choose a Telepsychiatry Firm: Goal Misalignments — why the last relationship failed; not the 72-hour roster.
- After-Hours Telepsychiatry — nights as a named service.
- Psychiatric Boarding: The First Four Hours — the ED clock that does not pause.
- Behavioral Health Value-Based Measures — what happens to the rate if the contract ends.
- Rural Health Clinics — catchment that remains after the covering group leaves.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is “you fired the partner” a clinical diagnosis?
No. It is an operations sentence. Evaluation, medication, holds, and follow-up still have to happen in the rooms you already run.
Does ending a telepsychiatry contract save money?
Sometimes the invoice falls. Boarding, overtime, missed encounters, and a panic locums rate often rise in the same quarter. Count both columns.
Is this the same as backup coverage?
No. Backup is a second privileged clinician while the relationship still exists. This page is the week after that relationship ends.
Is this the same as rebuilding the program?
No. Rebuild is the decision that last month’s week is the wrong week. This page insists that some coverage exists while you make that decision.
Is this the same as switching vendors?
No. Goal misalignments is why you left. This page is who sees Monday after you leave.
If we fire a vendor on Friday, can telepsychiatry cover Monday?
Only if someone is already licensed for your state, privileged or privilege-ready, and able to open your record.
What if the old vendor owned the panel?
You did not fire a staffing partner. You closed a clinic. Read staffing versus virtual clinic before you sign the next agreement.
Does FasPsych take the patients if the contract ends?
No. FasPsych staffs into the organization’s program. The organization keeps the record, the brand, and the panel.
If you or someone with you is in crisis or having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988.