Here’s a novel idea…

Why don’t you try to reduce hospital acquired infections with campaigns that actually work?

Too often, hospitals and healthcare organizations just pump out generic posters, corny phrases on stickers, and plant some “champions” among us to try to motivate us. But generic messages only add to the Sign Fatigue we all experience. (Kind of like those annoying banner ads on web pages. After a while, we don’t even see them anymore.) Plus, we’re always a little cautious… can’t be too racey… can’t be too controversial… don’t wanna rock the boat… what would marketing say? or worse, what would legal say?

Well, sometimes you just have to say, “WTF?” (Why The Foley?)

Click on the icons to see other WTF – Why The Foley? gifts, signs, shirts, and more:

Medical humor can sometimes tick people off, even if it rings true. Take this funny pay for performance commentary on the state of nephrology, for example… 

Feel free to use this image in your talks and presentations (as long as you include the attribution to GiggleMed.com). Just right click on the image & choose “Save As…” (PC) or “Save Image As…” (Mac).

Check out these funny nephrology humor gifts:

• I’m Too Sexy For My Kidneys
• My Nephrologist Can Beat Up Your Nephrologist
• Ask Me About My Catheter
• Got Foley?

Typhoid Mary, we miss you. Well, not really… we just miss the fact that there was only one of you. These days we have a whole fleet. (And no, I’m not talkin’ enema, here. I’m not sure why GiggleMed readers always revert to middle school humor, but c’mon… I’m trying to be serious here.) If you thought Typhoid Mary had issues, check out C. diff Clarice.

It’s time to spice up your infection control campaign with humor. One of two things is happening for you: (A) Your hand washing numbers are still in the toilet, or (B) You are having awesome success. If your numbers are in the toilet, what you’re trying isn’t working. Try humor. And if your numbers are awesome, it undoubtedly came with some effort – so show a little appreciation to the people in the trenches.

In short, show them this:

Feel free to use this image in your talks and presentations (as long as you include the attribution to GiggleMed.com). Just right click on the image & choose “Save As…” (PC) or “Save Image As…” (Mac).

Hand washing is, of course, a major concern in the healthcare setting. Too often, though, the infection control campaigns that hospitals and large organizations role out are boring, dry, or even counter-productive (when using negative social proof – “Only 40% of our physicians are using proper hand washing techniques”).

If you really want to control infection, improve hand washing technique, increase compliance, etc… then stop being so stuffy about it. You can be boring or you can be effective.
If you want effective infection control, try something people will remember.

Feel free to use this image in your talks and presentations (as long as you include the attribution to GiggleMed.com). Just right click on the image & choose “Save As…” (PC) or “Save Image As…” (Mac). By the way, watch for the new GiggleMed.com exclusive members only area. Coming very soon. (Why am I mentioning it here? (1) To get all of the people asking me about it off of my back, (2) You will have access to hundre...

Medical humor print captures the reality of the first twenty minutes of a hospital admission. Feel free to use this image in your talks and presentations (as long as you include the attribution to GiggleMed.com). Just right click on the image & choose “Save As…” (PC) or “Save Image As…” (Mac)

Something we all wonder about when it comes to kids’ shows… ZDoggMD looks into some of the psychopathology on Sesame Street. An astute diagnostician, I’d love to see what he’d say about Tele Tubbies. Uh Ooooh.

Anyway check out this funny video from ZDoggMD & then go check out his blog.

Saw this sign in a hospital hallway, just outside the ER.

Demerol-Free Zone… not to be confused with Free Demerol Zone.

Naturally, I turned around and left.

Nurses, doctors, techs… really all of us in healthcare have had our late nights studying. In med school, it was not uncommon to string together a few all-nighters. I could see something like this emerging at the end of one of those strings…

Umm, yeah… I’ll have two anaphase… uh… one late prophase… and, oh! does the telophase count as one or two?

The original artwork comes from a 2005 photo series by Kevin Van Aelst. And for you quacks who didn’t study… this is a model of cellular mitosis.

OK… The medical literature is too rich with (unintentional) humor, that I can’t help but start a series about it. Medical Literature Classics – some funny things from our glorious past.

This one happens to come from DeGowin & DeGowin, 1977… which is actually not that long ago.

Do you know of some funny stuff from past medical literature? Share it. ==> Tell me about a funny reference from the literature and get a free medical humor report <==

Just when you thought you heard of everything… GiggleMed goes and puts a Throckmorton app out there for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

For those of you in the dark on Throckmorton’s Sign, it is a somewhat fictitious radiographic sign that clinically astute radiologists use in determining the highest yield portion of a radiology image to focus on.

Here’s how it works… You’re reading an Xray or a CT or something… so far it’s pretty unremarkable. But then you notice… the male organ (yes, the one of spam filter fame) is pointing toward one side. Logically then, if something is pointing there… well, you look over there.

Throckmorton’s Sign says that whichever side the Spam Filter Organ is pointing towards, that’s the side of the lesion.

Well, thinking that’s a little unfair, GiggleMed decided to even the playing field and make this important radiographic sign available for use in all patients… male and female… and in all studies… whether the bottom half of the body is imaged or no...