Do more with less? Nurse says that's nonsense

The need for a pulse-ox device becomes extreme in the hospital when a patient who had been stable suddenly gasps for breath and begins to turn blue. A pulse-ox is a small piece of equipment that clamps onto a patient's finger and registers her oxygen level. Some cost a couple hundred dollars, but the cheapest retail for around $20. When I worked at a teaching hospital in the UPMC system in Pittsburgh, my hospital floor usually had two or three of these devices, and though we nurses begged for more, we were always told the money wasn't "there" in the budget, despite our hospital system's obvious wealth (operating revenues of $14 billion in the first nine months of 2018).

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