Your Money Down the Toilet

My dad is a physician at the VA hospital. He has been working there for about 3 years or so. This past week, he just received his fourth brand new pc. Yep! You read that right...his FOURTH new computer for his office.

Can you believe it? What the heck does a doctor need with a brand new computer every year? I realize that computers are virtually obsolete the day you purchase them (probably the day they hit the shelves), but I can't see that my dad needs the most up to date system when all he's using is his MS Outlook for e-mail, and the occasional powerpoint presentation. It's not like he's doing graphic design in some huge privately owned firm....which brings me to my next point. Recall he is working at the VA hospital. Where do these hospitals get their funding? You guessed it... And where does good ole Uncle Sam get his big bucks? (Three chances and the first two don't count) Right again! We lowly taxpayers are funding the purchase of a new computer for our VA physicians and staff every year.

So my dad and I did a quick calculation and came up with some interesting numbers. There are approximately (and this is on the conservative side) 2000 computers in the hospital where my dad works. Each year these computers get replaced. Figure on approximately $1000 average per computer (again on the conservative side). This equates to approximately $2,000,000.00 per year spent solely on the purchase of new computers.

But it doesn't just end there. There are approximately 50 VA hospitals in the state of California alone. If each hospital is under the same policy, quick multiplication gives us $100,000,000.00 dedicated to the purchase of new computer systems hospital-wide.

This is not to mention the labor involved in installing these systems and maintaining them. The IT department is responsible for this end of it all and they have employees working to get all the systems up and running. I can't even begin to estimate the cost of labor here.

There is absolutely no reason why computers need to be replaced every year. What I haven't mentioned yet, is that not only is it a brand new computer, the monitor is a brand new 19" flat panel monitor. Does the word overkill mean anything to anyone?

Is anyone else outraged that our tax dollars are going to such frivolous purposes? We continue to have overcrowded classrooms, overworked teachers, increased tuition costs at state schools, yet we continue to cut the education budgets in order to fund...what....computers? This is a ridiculous expense that needs to be evaluated and adressed. I don't even know where to begin.

Some people are wanting my dad to be appointed chief of staff. Those at the top are a little frightened of that prospect. Hmmm...makes sense. Money is going somewhere and it is obviously not in the hands of the right people. Besides, they may not get their new computer every year.