Unbelievably, with so many people that have been in the hospital, many hospitals in the country are just scraping by.

And even though health care costs have been going up and up, so have hospital operating expenses. And COVID has made things worse.  Hospitals make the bulk of their money on different surgical procedures.  All but the most serious have been put on hold due to the virus.

So, this means hospitals must cut costs to stay solvent, especially now.

Here are some surprising ways they can make this happen:

Forget overnight shipping. Some vendors automatically ship supplies to hospitals overnight.  However, unlike retailers that serve consumers, the costs to overnight hospital supplies are often added to the shipping costs.  Order supplies well in advance of running low.  Standard shipping, which may be free and take a few days, should suffice.

Buy when they cry. Again, related to supplies, too many hospital purchasing departments put ordering on automatic pilot: the hospital's computers automatically order supplies when they need to be replenished.  A much better option is to have the computer signal purchasers that it might be time to start shopping – and compare prices - for individual items. Take advantage of distributor or manufacturer discounts.  According to one hospital administrator, “we buy when they cry” – meaning when the vendor is hungry to make a sale.

Start a wellness program. Health insurance to cover hospital employees is going up just like everyone else's.  A hospital in Ashville, North Carolina, started a wellness program, coaching its staff on watching their weight, preventing diabetes and asthma, and ways to lift and carry to protect their back and ligaments.  The result: their health insurance costs went down 15 percent in a year. Why? "Our employees were better able to take care of themselves and their health,” said a spokesperson with the hospital.

Create a Kaizen team. A hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., started a "Kaizen" team.  Kaizen, in Japanese, means “continuous improvement.” Their job was to walk the entire hospital campus once per month, looking for plants and vegetation that could be swapped out for native plants that use less water. Doing so helped them "turn off the sprinklers¸ and that saved [us] 500,000 gallons of water every year, along with the costs of that water,” said Kay Winokur with the Kaizen team at the hospital. "Unless you go out and walk, you won't notice these things,"

Go waterless.  While there are no "averages," let's say a hospital has three men's rooms per floor, each with three urinals. The hospital is ten stories high.  That means there are 90 urinals in this hospital.  If each of those urinals is replaced with a waterless urinal, the hospital will save more than three million gallons of water annually - a massive water saving - which quickly translates into dollars-and-cents savings. The Michigan hospital mentioned earlier, replaced all inefficient urinals, sinks, and toilets.  The cost savings: $257,000 annually.

Turn off the coffee pots. While looking for water savings, the Kaizen team found that the hospital had 110 commercial-sized coffee pots, all with heated water and all running 24 hours per day.  That might have been helpful during the day, but by evening and over the weekend, half the hospital staff had gone home. "The Kaizen team suggested using timers on all coffee pots," said Winokur. "Now, coffeepots are shut down when employees leave for the day, and they restart an hour before employees arrive in the morning. This saved us $34,000 a year."

Winokur also advises hospital administrators to look around, looking for savings. "We wouldn't have gotten [these savings] if we didn't go and observe. Look at everything that is plugged in, draws energy, or uses water. There are always ways to save."