In our hospital, formula is something we have to order from the kitchen,
along with the food we serve to parents.  We have 2000 births per year.  The
one or two percent of babies who are artificially fed are generally children
of mothers with various complicating factors, thus not the typical
candidates for early discharge, and may be in hospital for five days or
more.  I think we order up about two packages of powdered formula every
month, for a total cost per annum of less than three hundred dollars in US
currency.  Each package has two vacuum sealed packets of powder and we never
use up an entire one in a week.  In addition comes the cost of staff time
and electricity to mix up portions for individual babies, and washing up all
the equipment needed, probably a bit more than three hundred dollars yearly
but as you can see by our consumption levels, it is a negligible part of our
operations.

Even if we were to get the formula for free, we would never notice the
effect on our budget.  Three hundred dollars barely covers the costs of one
staff person to work one complete shift.  

Are US hospitals operating with completely different prices to what
consumers pay at the supermarket?  How can formula be so incredibly
expensive compared to our prices, in Norway, which is one of the most
expensive countries in the world?  How can hospital administrators keep a
straight face while claiming that the costs of supplying food to people who
consume total of a pint (or half liter) of food during their entire stay,
would break the back of the institution if they had to purchase it at market
price?   I hesitate to ask who bids for the monopoly on supplying food to
the adult patients for free, for surely this would be a more lucrative way
to save money for the hospital?  Dollars to doughnuts says McDonald's and
Burger King would be able to stage negotiations that would make the formula
bidding rounds look like Sunday school.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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