By 2016, the average list price was more than $50,000, including the surgeon and anesthesiologist.
During an 18-month review, an efficiency expert trailed doctors and nurses to record every minute of activity and note instruments, resources and medicines used. The hospital tallied the time nurses spent wheeling around VCR carts, a mismatch of available postsurgery beds, unnecessarily costly bone cement and delays dispatching physical therapists to get patients moving. The actual cost? $10,550 at most, including the physicians. The list price was five times that amount.
