Day vs Night?

[Wenatchee Willie]

I'm still new to the game, so please forgive my simple question. When I am just starting a new hospital and funds are tight, when should I begin staffing for the night? And why? With a 1 or 2 doctor clinic, will 1 janitor just at night clean things well enough? Anything else?

Thanks.

[katiem]

dont open night clinic until hospitalization/ambulances it'll just be a huge drain of wages

[Wenatchee Willie]

Gotchya, thanks. I've only gotten to figuring out how the janitors work and an X-Ray department.
If I'm serious about developing a keeper hospital thru multiple stories, would I be best off getting the pharmacy expansion right now and putting it in early?

[Silent Ember]

Originally posted by 🐾𝕭𝖔𝖇🐱:

Originally posted by ~kt:

dont open night clinic until hospitalization/ambulances it'll just be a huge drain of wages

That's not always the case. I open up 24/7 right from the start. It's all about management, and increasing patients. For the night-shift, I shop for the cheapest personnel, with decent perks/skills. You can always change them later, or create your own for $10 K.

1 Doctor (around $200 - $300)
1 Pharmacist (around $200) I get the pharmacy open as fast as humanly possible for more $$$
1 Lab Tech (around $200 - $250)
1 Radiologist Tech (around $200)
1 Janitor (Second night around $100 - $150)

That comes to about $1,100 max per night in expenses.

So, starting at 8 pm - Midnight, I may see 4-6 patients, and get close to half the above salaries.
Midnight - roughly 3 am, it's pretty dead, maybe 1 patient..
From 3 am - 7 am, I'll see another 4-6 patients. Typically, that will cover the night-shift expenses.

The Insurance Rewards more than make up for what you might lose, and it progresses pretty quickly after day 2. Even if you lose some money at night, that shouldn't be too much of a concern, because your day shift will more than make up for it, if you manage correctly. The game tallies daily earnings from both the day, and night shift. That's the number I look at.

Typically, my night shift is between -$200 to +$200 for a couple of nights. Then it's always in the black.

As you bring in more, and more patients by advancing with Insurance Rewards, slowly keep building with a balance of Personnel, and Departments, I don't even think about Hospitalization until my second Department, but that's just me.

I've done this with, and without mods, and even with mods, I don't use OP Cheat ones. I try to keep things as real, as I can.

I'll second this. Opening the night clinic early on is definitely not a wage drain and you certainly don't need to wait until hospitalization.

If you are at an early stage of the game (before opening specialized departments), you don't even need the tech and the radiologist. Maybe not even the janitor. The pharmacist is expendable, but if you get a cheap one with a loyal trait it's usually worth it even if you don't have that many patients. Just one antihelmintic prescription will net you $300+. A single doctor will do the job. If you hire an expensive one with advanced diagnosis, you can fast forward through the night and only have to worry about the odd contusion that your doctor can't pick up by herself. Alternatively, you can create an intern with the Loyal trait (which will be super cheap in terms of wages) and just take over with Doctor Mode. Your biggest issue will be Athlete's Foot vs Nail Fungus, but there's no penalty for misdiagnosing as the treatment is the same.

In my opinion, the biggest advantage of the night clinic is that it takes some load off your day shift as you move through the first insurance objectives very quickly and start getting more patients.

If your patient intake is 30, it's 30 for the entire day. If you have a night clinic, you can spread that intake over the course of 24h. If you don't, all 30 patients will come during the day shift.

[Silent Ember]

Originally posted by 🐾𝕭𝖔𝖇🐱:

Indeed. What I wrote isn't written in stone, and is based off of my last start. True, you may not need a Tech, or Radiologist on the outset for night, but the room is ready to be staffed for that inevitable "Can't Treat" notice that somehow seems to find me. When I see that, I staff the appropriate office.

As for the janitor... well, like I said, I don't bother with that until the second night, depending on how dirty the floors get, and until I get bigger, 1 usually cleans everything in one night. In-fact, they'll leave by 4 am sometimes.

Absolutely. There are actually many things that can't be diagnosed without labs and radiology. If you're playing the game as realistically as possible, as you mentioned, you need them early.

I am just banking on the fact that it's possible to game the system early on to solve diagnostic issues (apart from Athlete's Foot vs Nail Fungus), because every "can't diagnose" situation will be like one ER condition vs a specialized department condition, and you can't have a patient with those unless you open the specialized department.

For example, if you only have the ER, and your doctor cannot decide between Arm Contusion and Simple Fracture of the Arm, it's always Arm Contusion, as the fracture belongs to the Orthopaedy department. If your doctor can't decide between Giardiasis and Lactose Intolerance, it's always Lactose Intolerance, because Giardiasis is an Internal Medicine disease, and so on...