Cost for diagnostic services

[nDeavor]

Hey devs,

I really enjoy the game so far, but there are some areas (some nit picking) that can be improved.
Here I'd like to talk about the fact that diagnostic services do not bring in any revenue. In the US, where I currently reside, all those scans, tests and analysis are extremely expensive and are only covered fully if you have a good and expensive insurance.

I am not saying you should model it completely as the US system (which sucks anyway), but at least bump up the treatment costs a bit when they involve scans.

It would also help if the cost could be broken down in the finance overview so that it indicates if part of a treatment revenue is coming from radiologi or other diagnostic departments.

Thanks for listening and congrats again on the launch.

[Laiders72]

Originally posted by nDeavor:

Hey devs,

I really enjoy the game so far, but there are some areas (some nit picking) that can be improved.
Here I'd like to talk about the fact that diagnostic services do not bring in any revenue. In the US, where I currently reside, all those scans, tests and analysis are extremely expensive and are only covered fully if you have a good and expensive insurance.

I am not saying you should model it completely as the US system (which sucks anyway), but at least bump up the treatment costs a bit when they involve scans.

It would also help if the cost could be broken down in the finance overview so that it indicates if part of a treatment revenue is coming from radiologi or other diagnostic departments.

Thanks for listening and congrats again on the launch.

Conversely the scans etc. in the game have minimal running cost. Only the wages of the technician and you do not need specialised technicians beyond general radiology/radiograpy. This is not the case in real life where MRIs are hideously expensive to run due to energy and cooling costs. It's hard to get accurate figures on the running costs of this type of equipment but a modern MRI scanner costs in the region of £100,000 per annum to maintain. Plus staff wages and maintaining other equipment and supplies used for scanning such as contrasts and emergency resus equipment etc.

This BTW is part of the reason MRI scans cost so much in the States. They are expensive to run with very high capital costs but yield good diagnostic results when used properly. Hence, insurers offer very favourable reimbursement rates to encourage hospitals to procure MRI scanners and keep up to date with advances in MRI imaging. In my native UK it's why MRI scans are used sparingly and the NHS used to (I don't know if they still do) have travelling MRIs to help provide the service in areas without a large enough hospital to merit funding for a permanent one.

Including all of this in the game, especially for a small team, is going to be simulation overkill and not as fun necessarily. It's easier to have imaging earn you money by allowing faster diagnosis and diagnosis of more dangerous and difficult to diagnose conditions that earn a lot more money. The costs of tests are in-game are basically just time. If you cannot run tests fast enough, you either have to admit the patient or send them home undiagnosed. Either way your payment is delayed or lost and if you admit you have the additional cost of patient, who may not be that sick, taking up an observation or ward bed. Thus you may have to transfer a sicker patient with a higher insurance payout later on.

[nDeavor]

Fair enough, but I am not asking to have this hyper realistic either. It's just when you open your finance tab you see no income in radiology or cardiology etc. It would be nice to either split the treatment costs across those or have some small cost per scan. Just some way to reflect the cost of those advanced diagnostic services.

Saving time is one thing, but I doubt that it is saving a lot of time as the patient needs to be transported back and forth between departments for diagnostics.

[Laiders72]

Originally posted by nDeavor:

Fair enough, but I am not asking to have this hyper realistic either. It's just when you open your finance tab you see no income in radiology or cardiology etc. It would be nice to either split the treatment costs across those or have some small cost per scan. Just some way to reflect the cost of those advanced diagnostic services.

Saving time is one thing, but I doubt that it is saving a lot of time as the patient needs to be transported back and forth between departments for diagnostics.

On the contray, a single chest x-ray can immediately diagnose a range of respiratory illnesses that would otherwise require extensive examination and lab tests to diagnose. The same with barium swallows for gen surgery. They save you a lot of time and, more importantly, ensures you do not have to consider manually hospitalising them.

Fair enough. Personally I think it keeps things cleaner have radiology (which is not a treatment department in this game) cost money. Makes it easier to see where you are earning money (hint general surgery is a real breadwinner).