Clean supply

[NurseStephRN]

Am I the only one who has ever wondered how much our supplies cost? Not because I would ever compromise safe care in order to save on supplies, but just out of curiosity.

[itsmejuli]

Well, they must cost so much that over the weekend we were running out of alcohol swabs and nobody had a key to get into central supply. The DON had to come in on Sunday to get us some.

[heartflutter, ADN, BSN]

My S/O was hit by a car at 35 mph and nearly died (long story short, got shafted by the legal system and barely got a settlement). The ambulance bill charged her $1.45 for a pair of latex gloves.

So yes, I DO wonder how much supplies "really" are.

[makes needs known]

It does seem that supplies are in short supply, but so is food. We have had some evenings where there is no coffee for patients, no sugar, no soda. I know these are not really important food items, but ..... One night we had no snacks for our diabetic patients. A CNA brought some in for us. our dietery department has become very slack. We are supposedly working in a premier facility. We had a major issue because of weight losses. We have Dr. orders for patients to recieve nutritional supplements. The dietery department does not deliver these items to the floor when we ask for them and sometimes it is discovered that there are none. Cold soup, undercooked food, food served on dirty dishes.

And the SV of dietery has been verbally attacking the nurses who try to right this situation. It seems, we have to be careful how we handle this department.

[Belle Epoque]

It does seem that supplies are in short supply, but so is food. We have had some evenings where there is no coffee for patients, no sugar, no soda. I know these are not really important food items, but ..... One night we had no snacks for our diabetic patients. A CNA brought some in for us. our dietery department has become very slack. We are supposedly working in a premier facility. We had a major issue because of weight losses. We have Dr. orders for patients to recieve nutritional supplements. The dietery department does not deliver these items to the floor when we ask for them and sometimes it is discovered that there are none. Cold soup, undercooked food, food served on dirty dishes.

And the SV of dietery has been verbally attacking the nurses who try to right this situation. It seems, we have to be careful how we handle this department.

I don't think your examples have anything to do with lack of supplies due to the cost factor but rather because of lazy workers. In general my experiences with dietary and housekeeping departments in hospitals is shoddy work habits. We could never get away with slacking off, I wonder why they are able? When we don't have a well stocked patient kitchen it's because THEY haven't refilled supply, when we have nothing to feed our diabetic's lows, it's because we ran out and THEY didn't bother restocking. When we run out of toilet paper or paper towels, it's because THEY didn't checking if it needed more. I don't know how many times I've had to waste my time running around borrowing from other floors, this is unacceptable, and they seem to be able to get away with murder even when you have a good nurse manager on your side.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

supplies are expensive. But when you get your next hospital bill look to see how much you were charged for the nurse care, or Respiratory, or dietary ----. Zero. So there is a factor built in to each charge to cover the expense of all those people.

[GHGoonette, BSN, RN]

The average "lay person" would be shocked to the core to know what certain items cost. Alcohol swabs and the like are pretty cheap (the last time I checked, a couple of years back, the Webcol swabs cost about 1200ZAR for a carton of 20 boxes-that's about $180-$200 at current exchange rates.) Some items are chargeable to the patient, but do yourself a favor and try to find out what some of the non-chargeables cost. Then try to find out what some of the equipment costs. Any comparisons I can give you won't really reflect your own situation, because we import most of our supplies, and consequently there are import duties included. It doesn't alter the fact that the moment there is a "medical" application attached to virtually any article, an enormous "surcharge" is added to the price.

On the whole, most people have absolutely no idea what it costs to set up and maintain a health care facility.

[RNperdiem, RN]

My manager once did a poster on the 10 most used items and how much things cost per unit.

[linearthinker, DNP, RN]

Classic has got it right, the cost to the patient comprises much more than the tangible item. Start charging for nursing services separately, and then the aspirin can go back to being only 5x the actual cost instead of 10 (because you still have to pay for the 4 other people getting ASA that can't/wont pay). I do try to conserve supplies. There is no reason to have separate cylinders for every drainage tube, lol. urine and stool go into the same toilet bowl at my house, I don't have separate toilets for #1 and #2,and the patients don't need individual measurement cylinders for foley and ostomy. No one I work with seems to understand the ridiculousness of the waste. Having done medical missions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America I have a strong appreciation for making do with the least of anything necessary.