Not to excuse Villages Health Care, but in "the old days" the way flu shots worked was that you placed your order with the manufacturer months ahead. And the kicker was of course that the product is not returnable. At say $10/dose if you ordered 1000 doses you now had $10,000 in vaccine in your refrigerator. If the CDC announced in October that the flu shot seemed not to be a good match or that it was going to be a lighter than average flu season, or there was a national news story about someone dying after getting a flu shot... you were stuck and ate the cost. Or there could be a story of 10 kids dying of influenza in a week and everyone wanted protection NOW.
It was very hard to judge demand. You could get a new shipment but that took a bit of time. So the goal was to order what you were fairly sure you could deliver to your patients. The kicker of course was that the carriers only paid a couple dollars more than my costs for the shot. Low profit, high risk.
|