Churning up Work

To churn is to invent new work. An attorney might drag out work on a patent application to extract the maximum amount of money for a minimum amount of blow back from the client. This a very planned and methodical strategy. But, this defines churning

Churning also includes billing for time and materials on say a construction job. Here, a contractor might exaggerate the need for more construction requiring more lumber and labor on the job. Another example might be that a hospital finds it does not have the right blood vessel sent while a surgeon is in the middle of an operation. So, instead it uses two stints* instead of one to make up for the right one that should be in stock if the hospital was run by competent management. A stent might cost $1200. So, because the hospital was behind in stocking supplies the patient has to pay for two stents and the time to install two of them. This happens time and again in all descriptions of business. It is to the advantage of an ethically questionable business not to stock all the needed materials and products because it adds costs and billable hours to the job.

*www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4721