Procedure costs that are estimates because the stock was never counted

Procedure pricing in most clinics is set by reference to what others charge, adjusted by instinct. The inputs — consumables, disposables, the time of a nurse — are known to exist and not known in quantity.

The cupboard problem

Consumables sit in an open cupboard because access has to be fast during a procedure. That is correct clinically and fatal for records: anything taken without being recorded reduces stock without attribution.

The result is that stock counts never reconcile, so eventually nobody counts.

Recording without slowing the procedure

Not item-by-item at the point of use. A procedure template that lists expected consumption, confirmed or adjusted after the fact, gets most of the accuracy for a fraction of the friction — and it is completed when the clinician is no longer holding instruments.

What the number is for

Deciding which procedures are worth offering. Clinics frequently find that one or two are priced below cost once consumables are counted properly, and that the loss was being covered by consultation revenue nobody had connected to it.