>Hi Arly, > >5 Million in formula per year? Yikes! When one considers that a can of 32 >oz of formula costs the company about 27 cents to make, thats a lot of >formula! I think someone figured that at retail prices, each bo. fed baby >consumes about $3 worth of formula tops. Think about it; one bo of glucose >water, and 6-12 bo. of formula during a typical stay. If you have 3000 >births per year, and even if you paid .50 per bottle of formula (it's less >than that, even in the grocery store, I'm sure), you would only be paying >$18,000/year for formula if you bought it at the Jewel here in Wheaton. I >think there is more to this scenario than that. Has your hospital been doing >any building lately? Architectural plans? Lots of goodies for the docs? > Hmmm.... > >I'm concerned because I don't think that most administrations that say "we >can't afford to pay for the formula" even look realistically at how much it >would cost the hospital if they had to pay for it, even at top retail prices! > It wouldn't be that much! > >Cheaper than hamburger that the moms are fed, that's for sure..... > >Jan B. Hi Jan: I never stopped to think about it before. I'm not sure how many births, but I ought to be able to look it up without too much problem. Now, this covers a large percentage of the births in Utah (our corporation owns several hospitals along the Wasatch Front, where 86.7% of Utah's births occur). And, of course, most babies are formula fed in our hospitals. :-( The number of births in our corporation therefore will be a great deal more than 3,000. Even the middle-sized hospital where I work has 2,000/year, and several of our hospitals in Salt Lake/Ogden area are bigger. But it never occurred to me before to question this figure. And yes, the hospital I work in is revamping the maternity wing... Arly Helm [log in to unmask] (Arly Helm, LC)