Hospitals, while necessary to have, can also end up being literal wormholes that will literally vacuum out all of the financial resources that you thought were otherwise stowed away for safekeeping. Seriously, one surgery can bring with it haunting debt ripples that can follow one around for years on end.
Take a peek behind the operating curtain and learn more about some of the biggest wastes of money that nurses have ever witnessed, as shared on Reddit.
An Entire Hospital Building To Please One Surgeon.
We’ll kick things off with a comment from a Redditor who has since removed their account, but they wrote, “Building an entire building to keep a surgeon happy. Capital construction takes time. Money raised, building approved, permits pulled, construction begins…surgeon leaves town. Was supposed to be for VIP / Cardio pts as this surgeon was well renowned now and would bring clients from overseas with $$$ … Surgeon leaves a year or so before completion. So now it’s filed with regular joes, Medicare/aid and the homeless patients.”
The Unreliable “High Tech” Vitals Machines.
Now you for sure know that you’re not alone when it comes to falling prey to a purchase that claims itself to be high tech, and then ends up being a shiny, aggressively flashy mess of a machine.
Redditor u/Lizardd06 writes, “The last place I had my placement at bought all new “more high tech” vitals machines. They have to be plugged into a wall to work or they die within 15mins and beep “low battery” almost as soon as they’re unplugged. They also give inaccurate readings more often than the old ones, and their thermometer is always reads too low (not user error, the nurses confirmed this too — they try to use the two old ones they still have left). They’re also touch screen which is a nightmare if you’re wearing gloves.”
Related: The Secret to Negotiating a Lower Medical Bill
Medication Waste Is No Joke.
You’re not alone if you didn’t see this one coming, but apparently medication waste is obscenely sizable. Redditor u/magslou79 writes, “Medication waste. It literally amounts to almost three BILLION dollars per year in the US. It’s insane.”
Related: 15 Medical Mistakes You Won’t Believe
Hiring Travel Nurses And Being Surprised When They Leave To Travel.
Well, in this case, the writing was kind of literally on the wall, no? Redditor u/Brocboy writes, “Hiring travel nurses at x3-4 the pay rate of a standard employee and then acting shocked when the staff nurses leave to go travel… causing a bigger need for travel nurses lmao.”
Related: The 5 Most Common Misdiagnoses Made in Emergency Rooms
When They Want To Spice Up The Unit With A High Class Aesthetic.
Some people can get terribly carried away with a desire to make the aesthetic of a work space look “high class” and end up sinking ungodly amounts of money into the “project” in the process. Take it from Redditor u/Achillesanddad, who writes, “I’m on a neuro unit and one of the head neuro surgeons wanted to spice up the look of the unit to make it seem more high class. They installed these monster automatic 24” thick glass that’s broken down 85% of the time. Plus some fancy silver and gold trimmed lettering to introduce the unit upon entrance. The final ticket priced was around 25k.
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