The Schedule-Tools anesthesiology personnel scheduling tool suite was designed and tested by nationally-recognized web application software developer Herb Guenther of Lanex, LLC based in Brookfield, Wisconsin, in association with a team of anesthesiologists led by Philippe J. Cooper, MD.

Dr. Cooper, a graduate of the University of Chicago Hospitals' residency, quickly recognized the need for more advanced tools to help manage the complicated process of developing on call schedules for anesthesiologists when he began his career as an anesthesiologist at forty-member Associated Anesthesiologists, S.C. in Peoria, Ill. With a strong background in computer programming, Dr. Cooper created a simple suite of custom desktop scheduling tools based on Microsoft's Excel application in 1994 for the group anesthesiology practice.

However, the program did not fully integrate every piece of the scheduling puzzle since it was not designed to work over the internet. In addition, the program was not equipped to handle scheduling for practices with multiple clinic sites, like Summit Anesthesiology based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the practice Dr. Cooper became associated with in 2001.

Fed up with scheduling complications and snafus, Dr. Cooper recruited and led a team of anesthesiologists committed to developing software to remove the burden of scheduling from practitioners and allow them greater freedom and flexibility in managing their own schedules. They wanted a system that would take advantage of the Internet by allowing physicians the ability to request time off and manage their schedules from any personal computer.

The expertise of Lanex, LLC was soon brought on board to undertake the task designing and creating the suite of web tools based on the anesthesiologist's requirements that would free them from the overwhelming burden of manually creating on-call schedules. Lanex has extensive experience in developing customized, web-based tools for a variety of applications specified by top executives and business leaders at Fortune 500 companies around the world, and quickly rose to the challenge of creating the extensive rules and exclusion calculations that the call schedule tool would need.

Within 18 months, Schedule-Tools was up and running in Dr. Cooper's practice. Tasks that used to take the schedule administrator all weekend to complete could now occur with a few clicks of the mouse. A once harrowing process was now no more of a chore than checking e-mail. With Schedule-Tools exceeding everyone's expectations, at Summit Anesthesiology, Lanex is now offering this tool to others. Click here to find out more about how Schedule-Tools can help your practice.