I don’t eat there often, but this most recent trip to McDonalds with my family was not without humor. My wife came prepared with green leafy vegetables and tomatoes… and me?… well I came prepared with a Flip Mino HD video camera and some pens.

Here’s the result…

Tony Below-Knee is a GiggleMed character whose name is derived from the GiggleMed authors’ favorite medical chart malapropism (chart fart)… “Baloney amputation”. Tony Below-Knee is a puppet made from a sock. His name is “Tony”, thus the voice.

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)

It’s time for a mid-month dose of hospital chart bloopers… Here’s another set of funny medical malapropisms for you. Can you control your urine? Chart Farts® (: real stuff. real charts :)

• Psychiatric Admission Diagnosis: Screamer
• He demonstrated a 9 kilogram weight loss with corresponding diuresis
• Patient sees his urologist for prosthetic enlargement
• a trail of morphine
• Admission Diagnosis: Diagnosis needed
• LE tenderness was solicitable by palpation
• Hx of lung fibroids
• Pain under left breath
• Estimated RV pressure 335mmHg
• Angina with prior myocardial infarction s/p myocardial infarction
• Medicine consult: I will be happy to follow the patient with you on my service.
• Nutrition note: Pt eating 0-100% of renal diet.
• intermittent heart beat
• History of high cholesterol 6 months for which he takes once a day cholesterol.
• He is followed by a GERD doctor.
• This is a 54 YO white African American
• Nephrology recommended dietary restriction of urine protein and creatinine.

Get hilarious Chart Farts® on Twitter:

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, I’ve posted a bunch of medical humor products that could serve the same purpose at the GiggleMed Store.

I toyed with the idea of a C.diff humor St. Patty’s Day promotion, but then came to my senses. Anyway, here’s the link:

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 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 video is a little predictable, but funny nonetheless. The bedside manner and the hair cut (or lack of one) add to the humor. But, it’s also a tad disturbing in that this guy doesn’t wash his hands.