WEBVTT

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One, oh, one, fifty.

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That's about how much it costs to stay one day in a hospital.

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About one hundred dollars.

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Sometimes more, sometimes less.

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A lot of money.

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Of course, if you're willing to settle for less, we can cut it back.

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For instance, we can shorten the hours of your hospital around the clock emergency department.

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Make it nine to five Monday through Friday, ten to two on Saturday, and close on Sunday.

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Anytime you drop a few shifts of highly trained hospital people, you affect quite a savings.

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How about your hospital's blood bank?

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We can trim costs by shutting it down.

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And you'd be surprised.

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Most people will never miss it.

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Here's an expensive department with a lot of sophisticated diagnostic machines.

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Actually, the round-the-clock staff that operates all this equipment is more costly than the machines.

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I guess you know how to save money here.

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Surgery is another costly service.

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If you could just eliminate one nurse and one technical assistant from each surgical team, you would cut costs several dollars a day per patient.

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Every hospital has emergency respirator equipment.

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This one costs over $5,000.

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It's idle most of the time between emergencies.

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Let's idle it permanently and watch the average cost of one day in a hospital drop further.

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Now we're coming to the average hospital's most dramatic department, the coronary care unit.

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Crammed with machines to monitor every patient's heart beat by beat, with emergency equipment to stimulate anyone that falters, and with skilled specialists constantly on the alert.

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It's your hospital's most impressive team of men and machines.

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It has doubled the survival rate of coronary victims.

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But it's among the most expensive to maintain.

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Many lives begin here each day, and each one is like no other before it.

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But you know, maternity services and facilities never pay for themselves.

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Another simple cutback, rehabilitation services like physical therapy.

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It's a lot cheaper to turn the job of retraining patients over to their families.

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How about nurses? Hospitals are full on.

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Registered nurses, practical nurses, nurses' aides.

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Eliminate some of them, and it stands to reason you eliminate some of the costs.

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Only trouble is, you might just eliminate someone when you need them.

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But wait a minute, is that what you really want?

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A hospital that costs way under $100 a day by being understaffed and under-equipped?

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A hospital that lowers costs by cutting services?

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Your American Hospital Association and your local hospital know it isn't.

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We also know there are no easy answers to rising costs.

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Are we working on them?

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You bet your life we are.