How does YOUR hospital waste its money?

Published

Like most hospitals, we are overwhelmed with busy work courtesy of the state and JCAHO. Not to mention the resident families, some of whom are more work than their patient. But we can't get enough staff to cover all this so that the nurses can nurse. Costs too much. So it drives me WILD when I think about how much money they throw away every day. To name a few: carefully prepared supplemental nutrition shakes that get thrown out because no-one has time to feed them to the patients, silly little contest prizes to make their employees feel "loved", employee surveys (that nobody will answer honestly because too much identifying data is asked for) to prove everyone is deliriously happy, and of course the ridiculous advertising wars with the other hospital in town. How does your hospital waste its health care dollars?

Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.

Love Despair.com:

worth.jpg

Somehow, I think quite a few staff nurses think this is admin's take on them.

Then there's this gem:

giveup.jpg

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC, case mgmt, agency.

Spent $ 3 million plus on adding a cardiac building and some really nice interior decorating to make it look high end. Lots of advertising, bill boards, radio and tv ads. And they are so far in the hole they are laying off RNs and have increased the nurse to patient ratios and CNA to patient ratios to save money.

To top it off they are redecorating the cafeteria. Supposed to start that renovation this summer.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Cardiac.
Love Despair.com:

Where has this website been all my life, did you see the Valentine's Candy??

But, back to the OT.

My hospital wasted tons of money on travelers. Instead of wasting it on: retention, recruitment, training, education, etc, etc...

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ED, Cardiac Medicine, Retail Health.

Interesting thread. Will have to investigate how my facility wastes money.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surge, Private Duty Peds.

valet service at the er!

no transporters on nights

hiring travel rn's instead of paying staff or giving pay-raises!

cutting down the 2yr old shubbery(sp) and planting new ones

watering the side walks

cutting staff but creating new management ( director of med/surg needs assistants for 1-med and 2-surg)

and the list goes on!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
if this is your main concernand you are in nursing, then you should get out. if you are curious about how the hospital spends money then you should get a job in their business department, and then you can come back and complain. the grass is always greener on the other side.

you know, this could be an interesting and fun thread. why step on it like this?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

my hospital wastes a ton of money on huge bonuses for upper management. no money for staff nurse raises however.

decorating the entire place for christmas with hundreds of poinsettias and dozens of christmas trees.

ordering two extra patient trays for each meal -- when most of our patients don't eat their trays anyway. the nurses and surgical fellows scavenge the meal cart and eat the extra trays.

rather than cleaning ecg cables, transducer cables, etc., some of the "support associates" just toss them in the trash.

paying salaries of al the support associates who spend the entire shift on the internet, chatting with their friends, texting, etc. instead, they could hire someone who is actually going to do the work.

commissioning study after study to rate employee satisfaction, "safety", etc.

press gainey.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in trauma, ortho, burns, plastic surgery.

Hey...yes TRAVELING NURSES! Always I asked my self.... what reasons are behind that?

Is a balance beetwen not paying benefits for a travel nurse and how much you spend hiring her by an agency?

Why hopitals hiring travel nurses instead to hire a regular one?

Is somenthig that I don't know ;) or I could not understand yet?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Everyone has the right to health care whether they are documented or not. No such thing as an illegal alien, they are undocumented immigrants. If someone is suffering, refusing to provide them healthcare just because they don't make enough money is immoral and unethical.

No, they are ILLEGAL ALIENS, and they are CRIMINAL INVADERS. They are also the final nail in the coffin for a lot of Western and Southwestern health care systems (how many hospitals and ERs have closed in the last few years?).

If you like them so much, YOU pay for them.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

Want a list?

Shrubs in front of the hospital. To replace the previously planted and growing shrubs. While we've only got 1 VS machine that's reliable -- 2 died, they bought two more, only to find out the reason we got a "deal" on the new ones is that they've been recalled for not accurately reporting BPs ---and I'm on a Tele/ICU stepdown floor. I love using my own cuffs to do manuals....:banghead:

Advertising for the hospital. Hello, we're the only game in town, and we're on diversion 45% of the time....

Getting rid of 15 year veterans of the ICU who happen to be LPNs, and then finding out you can't get experienced ICU RN nurses in our area (see above), and our 15 bed ICU going down to 4-6 beds, and people who should be in the ICU end up on our floor instead. They hired two travelers...yeah, that's cheaper than keeping the 6 experienced LPNs you had that let us keep all the beds open.

Being told we're 1.5 mil in the red d/t charity patients, and then having a "spring gala" for "friends of the hospital" -- which cost more money than we had donated to the hospital from the "friends"

Putting in a new "tracker" system, which doesn't work d/t the water pipes interfering with the signal in 1/3 of the rooms

Spending 2 mill on a computerized physician order entry system....which the docs refuse to use.

I'm gonna go lay down and take an advil...or 4....

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Peds Hem, Onc, Med/Surg.
No, they are ILLEGAL ALIENS, and they are CRIMINAL INVADERS. They are also the final nail in the coffin for a lot of Western and Southwestern health care systems (how many hospitals and ERs have closed in the last few years?).

If you like them so much, YOU pay for them.

I would like to see you go and do all the work they do for the pay they get.

Back to thread:

The hospital just spent a boatload of money on building a new building that can't be finished because they ran out of money so we have a semi finished building that no one can use. great. just great.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in SRNA.
Hey...yes TRAVELING NURSES! Always I asked my self.... what reasons are behind that?

Is a balance beetwen not paying benefits for a travel nurse and how much you spend hiring her by an agency?

Why hopitals hiring travel nurses instead to hire a regular one?

Is somenthig that I don't know ;) or I could not understand yet?

I think a lot has to with what the company is willing to do to retain their own nurses. Where I work, they offer premium shifts that pay 2x your base to cover shifts that are short staffed. This encourages staff to sign up for extra shifts instead of hiring travelers. We have 0 travelers in the ICU I work in. Whereas at my last facility, the majority of RNs on night shift were travelers. Although staff could sign up for extra shifts, the facility typically hired enough travelers to push staff out of even getting OT and that caused strife.

That's only 1 solution - still though, paying double time is cheaper than paying a traveler.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion