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

I’m a radiologist and it’s typically the opposite of what OP is saying. MRI machines are very expensive to run and maintain. The best way to stay ahead of these costs is to *always* be scanning patients. Any time spent not scanning patients is time spent not making money/staying ahead of those costs.