my department heads

These guys are the big bosses and wield extraordinary power and influence. They're kind of like the dragon at the end of super mario brothers. Notice the lack of ironic flair and what a pussy I sound like.

We are throwing away lots of things that have to be refrigerated and that aren't. More often than not they're expensive.

I've heard [one of you] jest you've been looking around for a briefcase containing a few million dollars and while this might be less appealing, I think it would be worthwhile to pursue a means of teaching people how much money they're throwing away. [One of our retired coworkers] was famous for writing prices on envelopes and making sure you knew how bad it would be to blow it on a dose of zenapax. I'm not advocating we adopt "the [retired coworker] method", but it was effective in getting me and other people to pay closer attention.

Someone here had to throw away six vials of Alteplase yesterday that were warm in a bucket. No one knew how long they'd been sitting there. This is one of the things I'm not sure anyone tells you about, and losses this big and this regular should not be ignored. Someone's just handed me another vial of it just now, and after I check to see if it's hazardous waste or not, it's going in the appropriate trash receptacle, as well. I turn it over in my hand and wonder how many of them I would have to prevent the discarding of to justify my spot on the payroll. Then there's the octreotide and darbepoetin that on so many occasions have also died on the proverbial vine. I could go on, but it would only be for effect and we're all needing to get important work done.

I've considered that you don't need me telling you this; I'm sure you have spreadsheets that stretch beyond my imagination.

If we're holding back on overtime in order to save less money than we're throwing away in expired refrigerated meds as a result of not having people here long enough to get their drugs put away, it strikes me that this seems like bad way to do things. However, I'm nearly positive it's not an issue of people not being here long enough to do it. I think it's that they're unclear on expense and are ignorantly spending dollars to save dimes.

I could have made this shorter and just said we could use a sort of guideline that goes something like :
No aspirin tablets should ever be put on the shelf until all the refrigerated meds are refrigerated.
But I didn't want to be so messianic without an explanation, which I now feel satisfied I have provided.