We would be ashamed if our local hospitals ran ads with “specials / discounts / or “coupons,” wouldn’t we? Open the paper and you see a coupon, for “1 cardio-cath, get the angioplasty free” – or, half off mammograms until Labor day… Perhaps the ads would reminded us that hospitals are most often for profit businesses. We distrust car dealers when they say it is a deal you can’t miss, and do not want to create an industry of distrust regarding the prices set by hospitals.
So I am glad no such ads exist, but when I opened my local paper this morning, there was such an ad for a local assisted living facility. Sign a 1 year contract now, and get a free HD TV and a 1 month free! Wow I thought – who is that supposed to entice? My relatives who could benefit from 24 hour monitoring, medication management or food prep, wouldn’t be all that impressed by a free tv – but a younger generation would be. Is this supposed to be a ploy so the 30 and 40 year olds encourage their folks to move into an assisted living facility? It makes me sad – for more reasons than I can express here.
Hey Assisted Living Facility – your goal is to provide care – can’t you at least pretend it isn’t to make money?