- Disposable everything (good for sanitary care, but super bad for the environment)
- Not being able to use the patient's own medications when they are admitted. Instead, patients must use the hospital dispensed medications, and hugely inflated prices. ($6 for a Tylenol anyone?)
- Overpaid executives (we just got a new one this month in addition to the rest of the overpaid execs!)
- Free food for physicians (doctor's lounge -- free food all day long). Seriously? Of all of the people employed in a hospital, these people can afford to cough up the dough to buy their own food. Or (gulp!) bring it in from home!
- Multiple items in packs of instruments/delivery packs/c-section packs/epidural packs. Not everything is used when a pack is opened. The rest that's unused? Thrown in the trash. Very wasteful.
- Full bags of IV solution disposed of in the red bag (biohazard) trash. That stuff is charged by the weight. Hello? IV fluid left in the bag before you toss it? Pour it down the sink. Little things like this add up.
- People who don't pay their medical bills/co-pays etc. Then it goes to collection (costing more money to the hospital/health provider). Prices get jacked up due to non-payment of accounts, to cover this loss. Thus, in turn, the insured are billed higher and higher amounts for the same services. Not like the insurance companies are willing to pay full price for services, but anyway...
- Coming in to the hospital for things that do not need hospital evaluation. Hi! A regular outpatient charge on Labor and Delivery --- just to walk in the door and be evaluated --- is $900+. Add on other charges (NST = another several hundred bucks). Multiply this by several visits per pregnancy. Oh wait, the "insurance" pays for it. Think again. It's all pro-rated. The hospital eats up the leftovers. After they pay the nurses for hours worked to provide your non-essential/not hospital needed care. And Medicaid? It pays pennies on the dollar for services billed. More than likely, the hospital pays out more to employ the nurse, and doesn't recoup enough of the nursing per hour cost to break even.
Any other fine examples of waste and irresponsible spending?
