Nurse's business is feeling no pain.

• Position: People - Ludy Strother - Biography

Nurse anesthetists administer 65% of the 26 million anesthetics given to U.S. patients each year. And in any given week, Ludy Strother dispatches about 200 such nurses to fill temporary positions at hospitals around the country.

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A 54-year-old registered nurse, she is owner and president of Kernersville-based United Anesthesia Associates Inc. She had no formal business background--and wasn't a nurse anesthetist--when she formed the company in 1979 to supply hospitals short on certified registered nurse anesthetists with temporary ones. But she spied a gap in the medical industry: Hospitals kept asking her CRNA friends to cover shifts. Strother decided to play matchmaker. Within five years, United Anesthesia was supplying nurse anesthetists to hospitals from coast to coast and was profitable.

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The company still looks healthy. Along with providing temps, it makes permanent matches, placing nurses in full-time positions at hospitals. United Anesthesia has 16 Kernersville-based employees--including Strother's daughter, Tracy Strother-Mayer, who heads human resources and marketing. The company's registry of clients includes 15,500 temporary CRNAs and 5,000 hospitals and surgical centers. United Anesthesia collects placement fees from the hospitals where...