Reducing the High Cost of “The Meeting Culture”

August 26, 2002

Reducing the High Cost of "The Meeting Culture"

We in the behavioral health­care industry like to call meetings and convene blue ribbon panels, but we need to rethink our predilection for meetings. The shrinking behavioral healthcare dollar underscores this need. We have to realize that every minute spent in a meeting can mean a loss of direct service and, thus, a loss of income.

For example, the direct salary cost per hour of one agency's management team is $349.83, or $5.83 a minute. If we annualize this cost . . .