Hi all,

I think I've posted something like this a long long time ago (how long ago
was March??), but regarding buying formula.  I don't understand how on earth
it can cost the hospitals so much money.  I have a sneaking suspicion it is
all the other goodies they are getting free from the formula co, and/or the
formula co is telling them that is how much it would cost retail.  But think
about it for a minute.  Consider the number of babies born in your hospital
per year.  Now consider the percentage of those that are bottle fed, needing
formula.  Let's assume a 3000/year birth rate, with 50% bottle feeding. (1500
babies/year).  Now lets assume a 25% C/Section rate, so those babies are
staying 3 days; the rest are going home in, oh, 36 hours.  Now, 375 of those
bottle feeding babies will need 18 feedings (round high to 24 feedings) while
they are there -  9000; the remaining 1125 will need 12 feedings = 13500 per
year.  Now, just for the sake of argument, lets say the remaining 50% of
babies that are breastfeeding need, for some reason 4 bottles of formula
apiece (urgh) = 6000.    Let's see how many bottles of 3 ounces RTF that is:
 That is a total of 28,500 bottles of formula for the year.  Let's say each
little bottle retails for $0.25/ounce or $0.75 each (which is the equivalent
of Similac RTF in the 8 ounce cans at the grocery store) because the hospital
went to the local grocery store to buy it, and didn't get it in bulk (foolish
hospital) The total cost for formula alone for this is $21,375 for 3000
deliveries per year.  Now, I have deliberately figured really high, but even
at that ridiculous figuring, it doesn't come anywhere near a quarter of a
million dollars.  Parkland Hospital in Dallas does 15,000 births per year.
 At the same rate, they would spend in the neighborhood of $100,000 per year.
 I realize the formula companies offer a few other goodies too; volufeeds,
nipples, free pacifiers, what else?  Let's really look at the figures and
find out exactly what it really WOULD cost for hospitals to buy formula the
way they buy Tylenol or diapers or blue pads, or bread to make sandwiches for
the moms.  Think about the little plastic glasses of juice that all patients
get -- how much are those?  And yet the hospital buys them and gives them
out, not only to mothers, but to all patients.  Ask anyone on a liquid diet
-- they get tons of those.  Does the hospital quibble about buying those?  I
don't think so -- they simply look at little glasses of juice as all in the
day's work.  If they cost 0.25 apiece (cheap), and the hospital runs, lets
say, 120,000 people through it's inpatient facility in a year, and each
person only had 2 glasses of juice while they were there, it would cost the
hospital $60,000 per year just for juice.  I don't get it.  Why are they not
lobbying the juice companies to get free juice?  They would save a lot more
money than on formula, and wouldn't be in violation of the WHO code.

Jan B, who hates math, but finds the way hospitals defend free formula
ridiculous, and who is dreadfully tired of this unutterable stupidity and
marketing ploy that everyone has fallen prey to.  Have a merry.....