The basic schedule is going to be the same every day, as the Anesthesia department has to staff 4 rooms (3 ORs, 1 Endoscopy Suite) every day. The weekday schedule will include 5 CRNAs in the building every day, 1 will be off as a post call day, and 1 will be on vacation. They always have 1 more provider than rooms that are running, this float provider will do most of the epidurals, be there for emergent C-Sections & give breaks throughout the day. The hours each CRNA will work can vary and is on an egress schedule based on the surgical volume for the day. Everyone starts at 7:30am and the template room availability is below (this can always change, depending on surgical volume):
Cases start at 7:30am.
4 rooms from 7:30 – 3pm
3 rooms from 3pm – 5pm
2 rooms from 5pm – 7pm
1 room from 7pm
On a rotating basis, which the schedule is derived via their EMR to make it as equitable as possible, below is the standard daily hours worked for the team:
1 Provider works an 8-hour day.
2 Providers work a 10-hour day.
1 Provider works a 12-hour day.
1 Provider works a 24-hour day (Normal Day + Night Call)
Whoever is going to be on call that night will usually be the first person to go home if the schedule is light so they can get some rest before having to be on call each night.
The call is going to be 1:7, and equally distributed throughout the group. Weekday call is Monday – Friday & Weekend Call is Saturday & Sunday. Everyone will be scheduled for 7-8 weekends a year and 3 total weekdays per month.
Weekday calls will be 7pm – 7am, Weekend calls are Saturday 7am to Monday 7am and you always get a post call day off. CRNAs are always the 1st call with the Anesthesiologist always on back-up call. When I asked Geoff Kuzmich, CRNA, about how call works he said; “I function 100% by myself, but if I have a kid or a difficult airway, or somebody who's unstable, I always call them, and they have always been available to come in and help me out.”
The team estimates that 1 out of 3 nights on call you get called in, a lot of that happens weekdays between 7pm & 10pm but it is less frequent to be called in after that. The scopes of practice covered when on call are just emergent cases from the ED that require the Orthopedic Surgeon, General Surgeon, or ENT to be called in and OB department.
Weekend calls are seasonal; during the summer and winter, it can get busy as many visitors come to enjoy the outdoor activities and end up with blunt trauma or orthopedic injuries.