OK. This is disgusting…

I posted a question in Twitter where I asked people what they thought was growing on top of those hand gel dispensers. And a whole bunch of people sent me back some disgusting stories.

Not a week later… a friend of mine sees this (below) and sends me a picture from his iPhone. He had just finished seeing a patient in isolation for C.diff and almost swiped his hand across the top of someone’s drink that was resting on the isolation cart.

It got me thinkin’… maybe I should make pre-formatted PDFs for printing on stickers. Sure, we can write policy after policy… we can clean all of the cups up when the Joint Commissioners are on another floor… but if you really want to reach someone, do it with humor. I bet putting a C.diff sticker on that drink would do two things – (1) it would make them laugh, and (2) it would make them think.

If you have any ideas for stickers, let me know. In the meantime,...

Medical malapropisms are bloopers of medical jargon. We call them Chart Farts ® – a term GiggleMed coined to capture the way a malapropism can punctuate a serious moment in healthcare. When doctors or nurses are taking a history, when reading through the medical record, and even when professionals are discussing their work. We all make mistakes, but sometimes (even in normally serious times) these medical errors can be quite funny. We have recorded thousands of them. All real stuff, all real charts.

Here’s an introduction to Chart Farts ® we posted on YouTube…

The response to our Chart Farts ® collection continues to be overwhelming… Tons of funny submissions, words of appreciation, and even a question or two from a rare disbeliever.

All of our Chart Farts® are original and all are actual malapropisms found in charts, uttered by healthcare professionals, or said by patients. Chart Fart Art ™ is simply one of these funny malapropisms put to comics. We have chosen some of our favorite chart bloopers from our Chart Farts ® collection and made corresponding healthcare funnies.

Here’s the latest…

… watching diarrhea is probably better than watching paint dry… well… if you’re into that sort of thing.

(not that there’s anything wrong with that)

The power of gloves is a curious thing
Make one doc safe, and another nurse clean
Reduces risk from things you didn’t think of
More than policy, that’s the power of gloves

You don’t want MRSA, or C.diff
Don’t want fluids or a really big whiff
Takes time to wear ’em. It’s annoying sometimes
But it might just save your life
That’s the power of gloves
That’s the power of gloves

(full audio coming soon… tons of medical humor songs)

OK. Because we’ve received such an overwhelming response to our Chart Farts ® collection, we’ve decided to put some of the actual malapropisms in pictures – Chart Fart Art ™. We have chosen some of our favorite chart bloopers from our Chart Farts ® collection and made corresponding comics.

In all cases of Chart Fart Art ™, the quotes come from real medical charts or from patients. The picture or cartoon was made to accompany that quote.

Here’s the first of hundreds…

This short, one-minute long, funny video parodies that internal competitive streak found among all of the healthcare professions. Doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, OR techs, house staff, and EMTs all have this phenomenon of “one-upmanship” when telling stories. Whether it is telling funny stories or recounting the events of a code or bragging about accomplishments, there’s always someone with something a little funnier, a little more disgusting, or a little more alarming. Check out this comical video:

Lots of people are facing hard financial times. And while everyone is reporting depressing news of layoffs and bankruptcies, I wanted to touch on some news that’s a little more practical (and funny). If you work in a hospital – nurses, techs, doctors, interns, administrators, NPs, PAs, etc – you should be aware of these “9 Signs that the Hospital is in Financial Trouble“. If you see anyone of these bad boys going on at your workplace, start looking for another job.

• Rent-a-catheter program
• The nurse and the physician ask for their portion of the bill each day.
• Discount on surgery in exchange for semi-permanent tattoo – “Like my CABG? Call 1-800-
• We-Cath1″
• When patients bring medicines to the hospital, the pills are collected, counted, and added to the hospital formulary.
• The 64-slice CT scanner is operated by a technician and Vinny, the “billing supervisor”.
• Triage includes collecting your bank routing number in addition to...

I’m not sure where it started… maybe from a mixture of words like botanicals, herbal, and pharmaceuticals… maybe from those network marketing folks using new words like nutriceuticals. I don’t know.

But lately, I’ve heard way too many health care professionals using words that do not exist, like “diabeticals” and “diureticals”. I expect it from an occasional patient, but not people that work in health care.

Anyway, here’s a comic I made about diureticals…

Get medical humor, nursing jokes, funny doctor stories, and health care bloopers by following @GiggleMed on Twitter. You can "follow" these funny micro-blog posts whenever and how ever you want. Here are some sample posts:

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