I’ve been in the health care industry for over a decade. Starting a few years ago, I embarked on a new project: building a case scheduling platform specifically for anesthesia staff.

I’ll be the first to say that I never envisioned myself becoming a so-called “health care entrepreneur.” From my perspective, I’m just an anesthesiologist who stumbled upon an unaddressed pain point—the tedious process of building OR case schedules—and after looking for a salve to remedy this problem, I discovered an empty niche waiting to be occupied. Along the way, I found many other anesthesiology teams facing similar challenges.

As it turns out, I’m also not the kind of person to keep a secret. I’ve learned a lot through my research and real-world interactions with anesthesia groups across the country, and by taking a “squeaky wheel gets the grease” approach, I’m hoping to make dated case scheduling processes a relic of the past.

Common issues with case scheduling

To better understand why creating a daily case schedule can be tough and how the associated challenges impact providers and health care organizations, we first need to understand a few components of scheduling for anesthesia staff.

First, there are two different kinds of schedules to consider—daily and monthly. Monthly schedules dictate things like who’s on call, who’s working every day, and who’s on vacation. As you’d expect, they’re usually built a month or two in advance. Technology that builds these schedules already existed when I got into the business.

For anesthesia staff, the other kind of schedule involves assignments for daily OR cases, and no tech capable of auto-generating schedules existed for this unique need. Even today, manual schedule creation for your average group usually lands on the shoulders of a senior anesthesiologist. Problems with this process are numerous:

Time. Creating daily schedules by hand can take an hour or more. In my group’s experience, it took as long as 55 minutes, but for some groups, the process ate up as much as two hours each day. Think about it: 55 minutes times five days a week times 52 weeks a year. It adds up!

Mistakes. Even when created by smart, well-meaning people, schedules made by hand are prone to error. Maybe a physician isn’t credentialed for a certain facility or doesn’t have the appropriate specialty qualifications. As details and complexity increase, so does the likelihood of error and oversight.

Extra work. The anesthesiologist building the schedule is typically doing it after working a full shift. In my case, as soon as I finished a typical day around 5 p.m., I picked up a pencil and a stack of papers to dive into the next day’s schedule. To say the least, it’s not a boon for provider wellbeing.

Efficiency. A complete schedule isn’t always an efficient schedule. Schedules created manually can leave too much downtime between cases, and they may also task anesthesiologists with an excessive amount of same-day traveling from location to location.

After taking on the role of scheduler for my group—a job that I more or less fell into—these problems confronted me every day at work. I was the guy making minor oversights that required edits after sending out what I thought was a completed schedule. I was the guy getting home to my family later than I would’ve liked. I knew there was a better way.

Algorithms and automation

I think it’s fair to say that every medical professional is confronted with at least a few frustrating processes and administrative obstacles every day. Maybe it’s a lab tech waiting for a call back from an ordering provider. Maybe it’s a provider asking for some much-needed time off, only to have her request (seemingly arbitrarily) denied after a long delay. Maybe it’s a nurse who simply doesn’t have time to make 25 phone calls to remind patients about appointments.

We all feel it, but thankfully, technology can fix many of these problems—or at least alleviated. Algorithms are all about using rules and processing data to solve problems, and it turns out their power can be marshaled in a repeatable way to automate previously manual workflows.

And that’s the trick with case scheduling. Using technology built with powerful algorithms, we can:

• Auto-generate better schedules (read: no mistakes) in a fraction of the time, even for the most complex groups.
• Instantly distribute completed schedules.
• Regularly pair staff together based on established teaming preferences.
• Allow for human oversight and manual overrides as a failsafe.

I won’t say “it’s as easy as that” since it’s pretty complicated under the hood, but the most effective health care technology does remind me of a car engine in one important way. It’s got a lot of moving parts, but all the driver has to do is turn a key or push a button to start it up. The complexity is there, but the end user reaps the benefits without having to think about it. It’s like having your very own “easy” button.

Busting burnout

Automation is a game changer for the provider spending hours each evening on the next day’s surgery schedule. It means more time with family and friends, more time to unwind away from work, and one less grueling process to stress over.

To put a finer point on it, the risk of burning out has only increased for medical professionals in recent years.  For anesthesiologists, the burnout range is anywhere from 10 percent to 41 percent on average. It’s no longer enough to offer platitudes and empty promises—we have to find ways to fix, change, or eliminate processes that regularly sap too much time and energy.

By nature of my specialty and a bit of random chance, the dreaded OR case schedule just happens to be my first dragon to slay. You’re certainly welcome to join me in the fight against this particular enemy, but I welcome anyone who challenges old ways of thinking to make health care a better place for us all.

Michael Bronson is an anesthesiologist, Providence Mission Hospital of Mission Viejo, CA, CEO, Ketamine Wellness Clinic of Orange County of Laguna Beach, CA, and founder and CEO, AnesthesiaGo, which was acquired by PerfectServe in January 2022.