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Getting stuff for the OR, and five things we can all do to make surgery less expensive
For the last 12 months, I have worked for a federally funded hospital. When I came to this hospital, I immediately noticed that the GYN surgical equipment was very outdated, most likely because the primary focus of the hospital until fairly recently had been the care of men. Wanting to bring hospital up to snuff, I requested about $100,000 worth of new equipment, including a hysteroresectoscope, new hysterectomy clamps, uterine ablation equipment, a laparoscopic morcellator, and a modern laparoscopic power source. When I put in the order for these things I was assured that we could get these things in short order, as the hospital had upgrading GYN surgery on its priority list.
As time went on, the equipment never arrived. It was held up in committee. It needed further approval. We needed more competitive bids. After further investigation, it seemed that the hospital just didn’t have enough money to do anything non-critical.
Academic OB/GYN 