12 cost-cutting measures. Hospitals use creative ideas to gain control of expenses

With operating costs ever rising and reimbursements ever tightening, hospitals are looking for ways to cut costs at every turn. The good news is that there are a lot of innovative, imaginative approaches being tried in every area of hospital operations--approaches that don't require massive financial investment, organizational restructuring, or teams of outside consultants. The examples we've found through talking with hospitals across the country are a fair sample of the types of opportunities out there. They range across the entire hospital, from the laboratory to the pharmacy to nursing to waste management to the medical staff to the operating suite. In other words, something for everyone.