Willow,
First, my disclaimer: all of this occured a long time ago. This is how I
remember it to the best of my ability.
About 4 years ago I was involved in the creation and implementation of an
entirely new department of the local Regional Medical Center.  We called
ourselves the Lactation Resource Center, and saw moms and babies before
discharge, had a telephone hotline,and an out-patient support group.  We also
had an out-patient clinic and breastpump rental station, both of which helped
support the program financially.  In addition, the LRC staff taught the
prenatal breastfeeding classes, and all nurses were required to pass a 3 CEU
basic breastfeeding class.  We were frequently invited to speak to the
medical residents, and spent a portion of each day in the NICU and
participated weekly in NICU multidisciplinary rounds.  Needless to say, it
was my perfect job.  I learned ALOT about ABM companies and hospital
politics.  One of the protocols we established was that mothers identified as
breastfeeding would receive no ABM in their gift pack, and Ross did provide 2
different packs.  Unfortunately, the bfdg pack contained the Ross
breastfeeding video (talk about your oxymoron!) and a packet of powdered ABM
conveniently was placed inside the video's packaging.  No problem, my partner
and I simply carefully slit the shrink wrap and removed the packet.  It was
no secret, the department head knew, as did the Ross rep.  For a while all
went well, and the nurses go into the spirit and would remove packets if we
were too busy.  One day the regional rep showed up with our rep, and in very
politically correct language explained that the hospital was under contract
to provide a certain percentage of our patients with their product, and that
by removing the packet we were violating the contract.  All our printing for
the department was paid for by Ross as well as a VERY generous donation for
the building of the beautiful new LDRP wing that was recently opened. While,
as you stated, most of the provided information was correct, they did include
a list of dietary dos and don'ts that left very little for the mother to eat,
and in many instances was just wrong.  We sent a *corrected* version to them
to consider, and no changes were made.  As in your case, the contract was
never available for viewing, regardless of how many times we asked and were
told of course we would be provided with a copy.

A few days later I was called into my supervisor's office and told to leave
the videos alone, that we were under contract-that phantom contract never did
appear- and that certain higher ups felt that we were being *too militant* .
We secretly were very proud of the label, although very annoyed at the
situation.  We used to check if our paychecks were signed by Ross Labs.

Our only recourse was to ask each pediatrician if they would write standing
orders for no gift packs.  Of course most of them didn't care one way or the
other, and wanted the patients to be satisfied with their hospital
experience, apparently a gift pack was part of the satisfaction.  If anyone
wants to contact me privately about this, please do.
Val Banarie, RN, BSN, CLC