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I am all for having nurses and doctors work 6 hour days for regular pay. The idea that doctors should pull 24-48 hour shifts in hospitals is insane. The cost of

I am all for having nurses and doctors work 6 hour days for regular pay. The idea that doctors should pull 24-48 hour shifts in hospitals is insane. The cost of this is virtually nothing compare to other expenses in hospitals.

humanrebar 10y ago
They say the reason is to minimize handoffs and communication snafus (double-administering meds, for instance). That's a good point, and maybe a reason to have longer shifts for now, but long-term, there should be significant investments in hospital infrastructure so unforced errors are harder to make.
- nnq 10y ago
  That's retarded. "communication snafus" happen when people are overworked, underpaid (relatively), and generally stop giving a fuck about doing their job because of this. A doctor working 6 h a day would have a significantly higher change of "giving a fuck about you as a patient". Let's stop glorifying overworking people in the name of efficiency. Modern technology and planning should allow 2 people working 4 hrs a day to do the same work as 1 working 8. If this doesn't happen, ignore what you've been told in business school, and fire your manager and hire a better one (hint: most managers are incompetent so you'll have to burn through a dozen or so until you find one gifted enough to extract productivity from part-timers, which your business probably can't afford... and this is why the world is how it is).
- Coding_Cat 10y ago
  People are always asking on here "what are some inefficiencies a startup needs to tackle" and I think this is a great example: Hospital support software. From what I've heard and seen it's a total nightmare across the globe in almost every use-case. Just having a way for doctors and nurses to put all information in one clear place while also combining with the infrastructure to enforce certain information (e.g. when medication is retrieved from storage, for who is it, and was it pre-approved) to help prevent things as double-dosing (or forgetting to dose). Doesn't sound easy tbh, but if you want a challenge here it is.
DanBC 10y ago
> The cost of this is virtually nothing compare to other expenses in hospitals. Staff costs are far and away the most expensive running costs for hospitals. Moving from a 2 * 12 hour shift pattern to a 3 * 8 hour shift pattern has significant cost implications, and some safety implications.
manarth 10y ago
The cost of this is virtually nothing compare to other expenses in hospitals. In the UK, the health service wage bill makes up a decent chunk of the total cost - around 39% (£45.3 billion against a total spend of £115 billion) [1]. [1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/11718631/Aspirin-loo-roll-and-surgery-true-cost-of-the-NHS-revealed.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/11718631/Aspirin-loo-...

humanrebar 10y ago

They say the reason is to minimize handoffs and communication snafus (double-administering meds, for instance). That's a good point, and maybe a reason to have longer shifts for now, but long-term, there should be significant investments in hospital infrastructure so unforced errors are harder to make.

nnq 10y ago
That's retarded. "communication snafus" happen when people are overworked, underpaid (relatively), and generally stop giving a fuck about doing their job because of this. A doctor working 6 h a day would have a significantly higher change of "giving a fuck about you as a patient". Let's stop glorifying overworking people in the name of efficiency. Modern technology and planning should allow 2 people working 4 hrs a day to do the same work as 1 working 8. If this doesn't happen, ignore what you've been told in business school, and fire your manager and hire a better one (hint: most managers are incompetent so you'll have to burn through a dozen or so until you find one gifted enough to extract productivity from part-timers, which your business probably can't afford... and this is why the world is how it is).
Coding_Cat 10y ago
People are always asking on here "what are some inefficiencies a startup needs to tackle" and I think this is a great example: Hospital support software. From what I've heard and seen it's a total nightmare across the globe in almost every use-case. Just having a way for doctors and nurses to put all information in one clear place while also combining with the infrastructure to enforce certain information (e.g. when medication is retrieved from storage, for who is it, and was it pre-approved) to help prevent things as double-dosing (or forgetting to dose). Doesn't sound easy tbh, but if you want a challenge here it is.

DanBC 10y ago

> The cost of this is virtually nothing compare to other expenses in hospitals. Staff costs are far and away the most expensive running costs for hospitals. Moving from a 2 * 12 hour shift pattern to a 3 * 8 hour shift pattern has significant cost implications, and some safety implications.

manarth 10y ago

The cost of this is virtually nothing compare to other expenses in hospitals. In the UK, the health service wage bill makes up a decent chunk of the total cost - around 39% (£45.3 billion against a total spend of £115 billion) [1]. [1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/11718631/Aspirin-loo-roll-and-surgery-true-cost-of-the-NHS-revealed.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/11718631/Aspirin-loo-...