Why do they say “it costs the hospital to use the machine” when the hospital owns the machine?

Question

It always confused me. A hospital has an MRI or some other machine, and you hear they try to use it as little as possible to cut costs, because it costs them this or that amount per usage. But why would that be if they own it?

In: 379

Answer 1

An MRI costs $1m. That cost then has to get spread among the patients who use it. Say it can do 10,000 scans in its lifetime. That’s $100 per patient. Plus electricity, repairs and maintenance. And the staff to run and read scans, on duty 24/7 for emergency purposes.