Imagine you are in the emergency room waiting for a blood test, you are already nervous because you don't like needles. You hear a knock on the door with an announcement that “A” the phlebotomist is here to draw your blood. You kindly tell him to come in. As she walks through the door, you notice a series of colorful tubes with labels with your name on them. Don't you wonder why all this is for you, and only you? The emergency room of any hospital is usually the busiest department; many people enter for treatment while many exit the center. Hospitals are always finding ways to cut their budgets to save money, whether it's cutting costs for treatments, medications, technology, or cutting salaries. What many people don't realize is that when they go to the emergency room, you may be paying for something you knew nothing about. Have you ever wondered what all those expenses are on your bills? Cynthia Seaver, CCSSBB, CLE, BSMPH, BSC and Alexis J. Gray, MT (ASCP), BSM address the issue of a specific additional cost in their article. In this essay, I will summarize all parts of Seaver and Gray's observations and then respond with my thoughts on why I think this is absurd. Seaver and Gray wrote an article “Collecting Additional Blood Tubes in the Emergency Department Reexamining a Common Practice.” ", published in Medical Laboratory Observer in December 2012, claiming that additional tubes of blood are being drawn each day because it is believed that patients will need follow-up that will require more blood tests, or that they may have need more testing. Seaver and Gray observed lab staff at a Midwestern hospital to see their process. As they observed, they raised their own questions: "How many more tubes were coming into the lab?" middle of paper ... hey, they were saving patients from having to do more than one blood test until they realized what it was costing them and their patients The expenses exceeded the. two hundred thousand dollars a year, and the only thing it really did for patients was hurt their bank accounts The staff reached a reasonable consensus that seemed to work in everyone's favor, which had an impact on. medical costs on both sides. While they may have reached a consensus, I am personally still baffled by how much money was wasted on this issue. In my experience, I have seen mixed test results and confused patients. Once I read this article it was an eye opener. Have you ever been told you have something and you don't?, or vice versa? If not, do you think you have the right to know why? Ask questions, take control. It's your body, your life, and you have the right!