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To: elmatador who wrote (44609)	1/13/2004 1:50:03 AM
From: marek_wojna	Respond to of 74559

Just don't THINK about it. Why would you worry how much anything cost? Administration will be always ahead and if ANYTHING raise in price they will match it with the wage hike and the backpay.

To: elmatador who wrote (44609)	1/13/2004 1:15:49 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

LOL--Hospitals buy more extra-large gear January 13, 2004 BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN Staff Reporter Advertisement Americans are so heavy, hospitals are buying more "super-sized" medical equipment and designing plus-size rooms, officials say. Scales that tip 1,000 pounds, wheelchairs that can carry two normal-sized adults and blood pressure cuffs as big as some people's thighs are just some of the tools Chicago area hospitals are turning to. Without such special equipment, it's not unheard of for some patients to be taken to the morgue or loading dock if they can't be weighed on regular equipment. "Could you imagine the humiliation?" said Dr. Robert Kushner of Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Demand for the heavy-duty medical supplies isn't surprising, given figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that show that 64 percent of the U.S. adult population is overweight and nearly a third are obese or roughly 100 pounds overweight. And people in this group are going to hospitals in droves: The number of gastric bypass surgeries in the country skyrocketed from 40,000 in 2001 to 120,000 is 2003, according to the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council. Besides, "As you increase your weight, you increase your chances of getting sick," said Elisa Stamm Kogan, director of the Nutrition and Wellness Center at the University of Illinois Medical Center. "There's a growing demand for hospitals to accommodate the overweight patient,'' she said. "I don't think hospitals want a patient coming into the ER only to find they can't take their blood pressure because the [blood pressure] cuff is too small." Eighty percent of hospitals nationwide reported treating more severely obese people within the last year and 17 percent said they had to remodel to accommodate them, according to a recent national survey by Novation, a group purchasing organization for hospitals. Local hospitals could not provide complete figures but said the trend hasn't eluded Chicago. The Nutrition and Wellness Center has seven bariatric scales and nine "thigh-sized" blood pressure cuffs. There were only two of each when the clinic opened in 1998, Stamm Kogan said. Bariatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the causes, prevention and treatment of obesity. The wellness center treated 500 new patients in the first 18 months after opening. In 2003, they treated more than 1,000 new patients, although not all of them were there for obesity. Northwestern Memorial Hospital doubled the number of bariatric beds from 2002 to 2003 and their use in that time has increased by 78 percent, spokeswoman Kelly Sullivan said. The hospital also has purchased 50 oversized wheelchairs within the last three years, at $1,000 a piece. It also incurred extra labor costs for personnel to work with the heavier patients. And bigger equipment means a bigger price tag. The bariatric tools cost up to four times the price of the regular-sized equipment. For example, Sullivan said, a walker for a thinner patient is around $25 while a walker for the severely obese can cost up to $100. Kushner is the medical director of Northwestern's Wellness Institute, which opened in 1998. The clinic's bariatric facility, like the University of Illinois', features waiting room chairs lacking arm rests. Kushner and his colleagues agreed the large equipment also gives the obese the sensitivity usually afforded to their skinnier friends. "It's truly a safety issue. It's a comfort issue. It's a respect issue," added Karen Thomas, a clinical nurse specialist and bariatric coordinator at Evanston Hospital. Thomas' concern is also personal, because she was once obese -- at 400 pounds -- before her gastric bypass surgery. Thomas places additional orders for extra-large gowns to make sure others don't suffer the humiliation she endured in a doctor's office several years ago. "It was just so horrifying that I was so exposed, sitting there half naked. I finally had to beg for a sheet to cover myself," Thomas said. "I never want to see a patient walking around in a gown that doesn't fit them appropriately." suntimes.com