In the fast-paced world of healthcare, efficiency and accuracy are paramount. For anesthesiologists tasked with creating and managing complex schedules, coordinating patient care and ensuring safety during surgeries, every minute counts. Enter AnesthesiaGo—a revolutionary software solution designed to streamline and optimize anesthesiology practices. From scheduling to reporting, this innovative platform offers an array of tools to modernize the scheduling and management of anesthesia groups.
A HISTORY
As a busy anesthesiologist in a growing group, I became aware of an all-too common issue: the struggle to find the time to maintain the paperwork associated with daily patient care. At the end of each workday, which consisted of caring for patients, my management work would just be beginning. In order to prepare the daily schedule for the following day, I’d be in the OR poring over a stack of papers that had a list of all of our cases across the different sites for the next day, a list of the call order and a pencil.
To make the next day flow smoothly, I then had to spend time manually assigning an anesthesiologist to each case, making sure: (a) they were credentialed at those locations, (b) had the specialty requirements (cardiac, pediatric, regional, etc.), and (c) weren’t already scheduled somewhere else, among many other considerations. This process usually took over an hour and care had to be taken to eliminate errors like double-bookings, scheduling staff to a case at a time they don’t service or forgetting to schedule someone’s cases altogether. Frequently, the process of correcting the mistakes created more mistakes, leading to more time spent and a lot of confusion the night before.
It didn’t take long doing it this way to look for a more modern approach to the daily scheduling process. These struggles led me to search for a solution. When one didn’t exist, I put together a team of computer programmers and data scientists to develop a mechanized process for OR scheduling. We fine-tuned various iterations until we came up with a system that met our needs. We called it AnesthesiaGo. This program has been a tremendous time saver for us. We have been using it since 2018. PerfectServe acquired the platform in 2021. It is used across the country and internationally, as well.
I share this article as an attempt to assure others in our specialty who are struggling with scheduling issues that there is an answer, and this is how our group at Mission Viejo Anesthesia Consultants worked to solve it.
TIME SAVINGS IN SCHEDULING
One of the most significant advantages of AnesthesiaGo is the time saved in creating schedules. Traditionally, scheduling can be a time-consuming and cumbersome task, often prone to human error and miscommunication. With AnesthesiaGo’s intuitive interface and automated features, scheduling becomes a breeze. The software takes into account various factors such as call order, specialty requirements, surgeon and anesthesiologist preferences, as well as inter-site travel time where applicable. The system also allows for the aggregate scheduling of hospital and non-hospital sites by integrating with the EMR for case retrieval or allowing for manual inputting in non-EMR settings. This not only saves valuable time for anesthesiologists, but also ensures that all scheduling conflicts are minimized, leading to smoother operations and improved patient outcomes.
Once all of the cases and personnel are in the system, the application will generate a suggested schedule based on each group’s rules. The user will then have the opportunity to make any edits by dragging and dropping cases to other providers, if desired. If undesired conflicts are manually created, the user will be alerted to those potential errors.
EFFICIENCY IN SCHEDULE MANAGEMENT
Beyond simply creating schedules, AnesthesiaGo enhances efficiency in schedule management. The software allows for easy updates and modifications, accommodating last-minute changes or unforeseen circumstances with ease.
Anesthesiologists can quickly adjust schedules, reassign tasks or add new cases without disrupting the workflow. This flexibility is invaluable in a dynamic healthcare environment where adaptability is key. Those practices already using a monthly call scheduling program like LightningBolt can have each day’s providers automatically pushed into the AnesthesiaGo platform for daily schedule creation. In turn, once the AnesthesiaGo schedule is created, those individual schedules are pushed back into the LightningBolt phone app.
COLOR-CODED BOARD RUNNER REPORTS
Many years ago, if I was the “board runner” the next day, I used to spend 15-20 minutes each night scribbling a map of where everyone was going to be the next day so I could identify potential conflicts, overlaps or gaps where I could accommodate an add-on.
With AnesthesiaGo, once the schedule is made, I (and my group members) now immediately receive a color-coded board runner report. These reports offer a visual representation of the schedule, highlighting critical information I used to try to ascertain with pen and paper. I have also discovered that our gauge of “being busy” has gone from a subjective sense to seeing the actual hours of the group’s aggregate case times each day, a more objective measure of workload.
VALUE TO DATA, REPORTING, AND ANALYTICS
AnesthesiaGo not only facilitates day-to-day operations, but also provides valuable insights through data, reporting and analytics. By saving data as schedules are created, the software offers a comprehensive view of anesthesiology practices, going as granular as into each anesthesiologist’s individual statistics or as wide as a view of the group’s caseload at each location.
The application can assess data across specialties and can show workforce utilization information, allowing groups to be more intentional with how many providers to schedule each day. Anesthesiologists can analyze trends, identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to optimize performance and enhance patient care. Moreover, robust reporting capabilities allow for easy retrieval of information from past schedules.
AnesthesiaGo represents a paradigm shift in anesthesiology practices, offering a host of benefits for the busy anesthesia provider. From time savings in scheduling to efficiency in schedule management, from color-coded board runner reports to valuable data insights, this innovative software empowers anesthesiologists to deliver optimal care while maximizing operational efficiency. As healthcare continues to evolve, solutions like AnesthesiaGo play a crucial role in driving excellence in patient care and clinical outcomes.
Michael Bronson, MD is a UC-San Diego trained and board-certified anesthesiologist working in Orange County, California. Aside from his role as a full-time physician, he has built and scaled multiple healthcare businesses and currently serves as the CEO of the Wellness Clinic of Orange County (therapeutic infusions for mood and pain disorders). He co-founded and served as the CEO for AnesthesiaGo (scheduling software for anesthesiologists) prior to its acquisition by PerfectServe in 2021. He serves in various leadership roles within his private practice group, notably on the Board of Directors as well as the Orthopedic and Neurosurgical Service Line Director. At the hospital level he has served on a number of committees with experience on a Multidisciplinary Peer Review team and as a member of the Medical Executive Board. Dr. Bronson also functions as an advisor and consultant to various software and medical device companies that seek his expertise and opinion at various stages of development. Prior to gaining experience in business development, as a Chief Resident at UCSD he worked closely with world renown anesthesiologist, Jonathon Benumof, and authored several chapters in his textbook, Clinical Anesthesiology. In his free time Dr. Bronson enjoys spending time with his wife and three children, cooking, reading, traveling, picnics at the beach and attending sporting events. He can be reached at michaelpbronson@gmail.com.