When I was working in the medical field in California,
I used dozens of these pre-packaged and printed
sterile 4 by 4 gauze pads daily.
Product shown without printing or brand names.
They cost in the ballpark of $0.16 each.
($3.99 for box of 25)
Here at Cruz Roja Mexicana Chapala,
we make our own.
We buy gauze by the bolt and
roll it out on a gurney about 6 lengths in each direction.
Then we snip off the ends and cut each 6 foot length
into 10" X 10" squares.
Then they are wrapped in brown paper and
go into the autoclave.
They come out sterile 4 X 4s.
Here's Nena, one of our nurses,
packaging soon-to-be-sterilized
4 X 4s between patients.
Our sterile 4 X 4s cost approximately
1.5 centavos each.
That amount of money is so infinitesimal
I can't even calculate it in US $$.
Just saying. . .
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It boggles my mind to see what the costs are for medical supplies NOB. I use to buy SaniStrips which were great for closing wounds that we would get working in the field, on towers or other sharp metal objects. It saved going into town somewhere for miles to get stitches, a pack of those which had about 12 strips, cost about 15 dollars. If you look at the materials that made them up, it would not amount to more than 1 dollar. But, I imagine the liability insurance and other stupid costs, along with the Johnson and Johnson corporate jet requires that kind of markup.
ReplyDeleteThat's right, Tancho! And lawyers, lawyers, lawyers.
ReplyDeleteWow, just wow... that's all I´v got.
ReplyDeleteThat's enough. Amazing tho, huh Amanda! And they wonder how the costs got so out of hand. This is only one VERY small example of how.
ReplyDelete