Out with them, out with them all!
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that a health care group got an early jump on Spring cleaning:
Administrators at SMDC Health System saw them as virulent, insidious and cause for an all-out eradication campaign in its four hospitals and 17 clinics throughout northern Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Germs?
No, pens and note pads.
Nexavar pens. Combivir note pads. Vioxx mouse pads. Advair and Levitra clipboards A disembodied stuffed nose from Allegra that exclaims, "That's snot funny!"
As part of a new policy that experts say is one of the toughest in the nation blocking pharmaceutical companies from influencing doctors, the Duluth-based health system recently got rid of nearly every freebie with a drug company name on it.
"We're part of a leading trend that's trying to get away from the pharmaceutical companies essentially controlling what's prescribed in this country," said Dr. Kenneth Irons, chief of community clinics for SMDC. "This shows people we're not in the pharmaceutical companies' back pockets."
OK, so you get a few boxes and drop the stuff into the trash, right? It turns out the job was a little bigger than that (emphasis added):
In all, SMDC employees have turned in more than 18,700 items, including clocks, mugs, surgical caps, calculators, tape dispensers, and a stress-relieving squeeze toy made to look like a red blood cell.
Administrators plan to donate the 20 shopping carts full of stuff to a hospital in Cameroon, where supplies of all types are desperately needed -- and most of the advertised drugs aren't available.
Presumably, the "That's snot funny!" nose won't be making the trip to Cameroon. Transporting such an item might violate international humor laws.
Later in the article a PhRMA VP called the Minnesota sweep "a bit draconian." Maybe he's just miffed this his industry's now stuck with a bunch of tchotckes and pens they can't give away.
(via Jim Fossett and the WSJ's Health Blog)
-Greg Dahlmann
Earlier on blog.bioethics.net:
+ One more time -- should docs take freebies from drug companies?
+ OK, who hasn't taken money from drug companies?
+ Days of styrofoam cups and M&Ms
+ Stanford: No More Small Gifts
+ No More Free Lunch
From AJOB:
+ All Gifts Large and Small
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