Business Notes NEW PRODUCTS

Disposable razors have long been a consumer staple, and throwaway cameras are a new photographic fad. Now the latest items to use and lose are telephones. Several companies, including Mini-Phone, Diversified Communications and International Connectors, are selling an estimated 100,000 lightweight, disposable phones a year, and the market is growing fast. The best customers are not individuals but hospitals, which sell the phones to patients as a moneymaking venture.

Health-care institutions pay a manufacturer about $9 a phone, then charge patients about $12 to use the instrument during their stay. And since many patients formerly walked off with standard-issue phones (average price: $75), the theft of a disposable phone is less costly. Says Kendall Gallagher, a Mini-Phone vice president: "A patient confronted with a hospital bill might feel he's entitled to everything in the room, including the phone." Philadelphia's Mercy Catholic Medical Center estimates that it saves between $50,000 and $75,000 a year by installing the discardable devices. Indeed, they have proved so popular that throwaway phones will soon be sold in the hospital's gift shop -- at 30% over cost.