if you add everything up, a hospital stay really shouldn’t be that costly.

The ER doc probably spent at the most an hour for a stroke patient. they get paid at $200/hour. (that’s $430k yearly, so I’m not shortchanging any professional fees here)

The radiologist interprets the CT and MRI, takes a trained radiologist half an hour per study, that’s basically $200 as well.

The internist pulls in $100/hour, he/she comes and see your dad once a day, let’s say your dad was admitted for 5 days, that’s $500.

there was probably a neurologist, paid at $150/hour, saw your dad for an hour the first day, and half an hour for the next 4 days, so that’s $450.

that’s all of the doctor fees, a grand total of $1350.

an RN cost about $300 per day, but they divide their time with 4 patients, so that’s $80 per day, or $500 for the whole admission.

Let’s just assume everyone else involved from the speech therapist to the physical therapist to the radiology tech to the phlebotomist and the cleaning lady added up to another $500.

So all of the support staff cost $1000.

5 days of medications at best say another $1000.

assuming $200/day hotel fee for room and board, that’s $1000 for the 5 days.

so the total is $4350, plus $650 for administrative cost, $5000 is about right.