- Joined
- Mar 19, 2003
- Messages
- 98
- Reaction score
- 3
I've worked now at a number of hospitals, both before and during medical school, all of them in the state of New Jersey. I used to think this was a quirk of the first place I worked, but then I saw it over and over again. Please won't somebody explain to me why this archaic, annoying, overpriced way of delivering media survives so robustly.
Each morning, a surly worker who wouldn't look out of place working at the DMV arrives in each patient room from "TV and Telephone Service". For five dollars a day EACH for the telephone and the TV, cash only, she'll use a cheap aluminum key on a janitor's keychain to turn a switch on a cathode ray tube with imitation wood sides from the 1970s, complete with a strong iron frame to discourage theft. That gets you maybe 10 channels. I assume it's a private company that provides this service to the hospital.
But why?? In an age where US hospitals are filled with the highest-tech medical equipment, wireless internet permeates the premises, and people can make doctors' appointments and watch patient education videos online, who has taken in this anachronistic company and their business model and protected them as a sacred cow? Would it be all that hard, or expensive, for hospitals to just cut out the middle man and outfit their patient rooms with flat screen TVs with a massive group cable rate? I have a hard time believing any hospital offsets its losses to any great degree with money generated by "TV and Telephone Service", especially if it's a private company that's taking the largest cut.
Did this company sucker a whole bunch of hospitals into a 50-year exclusive contract or something? The whole business reminds me of commuter trains that are still outfitted with tinny, inaudible live station announcements due to conductors' union contracts, despite the fact that clear, recorded station announcements are both affordable and technologically easy.
Each morning, a surly worker who wouldn't look out of place working at the DMV arrives in each patient room from "TV and Telephone Service". For five dollars a day EACH for the telephone and the TV, cash only, she'll use a cheap aluminum key on a janitor's keychain to turn a switch on a cathode ray tube with imitation wood sides from the 1970s, complete with a strong iron frame to discourage theft. That gets you maybe 10 channels. I assume it's a private company that provides this service to the hospital.
But why?? In an age where US hospitals are filled with the highest-tech medical equipment, wireless internet permeates the premises, and people can make doctors' appointments and watch patient education videos online, who has taken in this anachronistic company and their business model and protected them as a sacred cow? Would it be all that hard, or expensive, for hospitals to just cut out the middle man and outfit their patient rooms with flat screen TVs with a massive group cable rate? I have a hard time believing any hospital offsets its losses to any great degree with money generated by "TV and Telephone Service", especially if it's a private company that's taking the largest cut.
Did this company sucker a whole bunch of hospitals into a 50-year exclusive contract or something? The whole business reminds me of commuter trains that are still outfitted with tinny, inaudible live station announcements due to conductors' union contracts, despite the fact that clear, recorded station announcements are both affordable and technologically easy.
