Is your hospital struggling with throughput? Patients in the hallway in the ER? Residents taking waaaay too long to come to admit patients? Medical attendings being difficult to reach? Or hospitalists fighting admissions?

Well, watch this hilarious Medicine vs ER Star Trek parody video by ZDoggMD. If you understand the jokes in it, you are a step ahead in understanding some of the unspoken truths of hospital throughput:

Check out Z Dogg MD’s YouTube channel and his blog.

Courtesy of NYMC Follies 2011, here is a very well done parody of the movie Inception. This time, of course, involving the bowels.

Intussusception was performed by medical students at New York Medical College. They shot the complete trailer in one day.

It’s clean (well, as clean as intussusception could possibly be). It’s funny. I laughed, I cried, it was better than Cats. Check it out:

Medical educators update their materials to mirror the familiar educational videos of childhood for the current student:

• Finding Pneumo
• Blue’s Wheezes
• Dora the Practionora
• Mickey’s Observation Unit
• Curious George and the Cirrhotic Man
• Ten Patients About to Drop – Time Management from Dr. Suess
• Beauty and the Yeast
• Conflict resolution with Bert and Ernie

Life is like a box a box of chocolates… sure… we all know that from Forrest Gump. But, now, Dr. Gump weighs in on what shift work is like.

Check out GiggleMed.com’s Hello Agency Nurse – a short nursing humor book about a day in the life of an agency nurse.

Without question, the most famous quote from A Few Good Men came from the dialogue between Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise in the court room. Well, here’s a similar conversation, but this time, in an ER:

ER nurse: You want answers?

Intern: I think I’m entitled to them.

ER nurse: You want answers?

Intern: I want the truth!

ER nurse: You want the truth?! You can’t handle the truth! Son, we work in an overcrowded ER that has patients in the halls. And those halls have to be cleared to make room for more sick people. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Mr. Brand New Intern? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for weekly hour requirements and you curse the Policy. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that the speed with which patients are admitted, while inconvenient for you, probably saves lives.

And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives…You don’t want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don’t talk about in the resident’s lounge, you want me in this ER. You need me in this ER.

We use words like rapid response, code, DNR/DNI, triage… we use these words as the backbone to a night spent defending something. You use ‘em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to an intern who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very security I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it! I’d rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a syringe and draw that stat blood yourself. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you’re entitled to!

Intern: Did you cancel the code blue?

ER nurse: (quietly) I did the job the patient needed me to do.

Intern: Did you cancel the code blue?

ER nurse: You’re damn right I did!!

In the midst of an emergency it is important to break things down for easy understanding. Instead of analyzing each morsel of minutiae… sometimes we just need to say it like it is. No pontificating… no lengthy sit-downs with medical journals… no procrasterbating about what to do or what it all means… Say it like it is and make a decision.

Healthcare bears many similarities to the Star Wars saga… and the proof is in the pudding (see Types 6 and 7 below).

GiggleMed.com finally caught up with Admiral Ackbar and asked him to give us his thoughts on the Bristol Stool Chart. And, well… He answered immediately… There was no constipation of thought.

Nor was there any diarrhea of words. He was succinct. He said only three.

Other Star Wars Parody Sites:

• Robot Chicken Star Wars Parody Videos
• Admiral Ackbar on Twitter
• Scrubs Star Wars Parody on YouTube
• Got more? Send me your links.

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Oh… and here’s the original “It’s a Trap!” Scene (but I’m not so sure he’s not saying, “It’s a Crap!”… Listen for yourself):

CT scan: Intra-abdominal ewok or panda?

Is that a panda in your abdomen or are you just happy to see me?

Some people look and see it right away. Others have to stare at it for a while. Once you see it, it’s kinda cute… in a liver-on-your-head sort of way. This real CT reminds me of that ewok that had the bandage on his head in Return of the Jedi. Others think it looks like a panda.

If you see something else, post a comment below.

ET's pinpoint pupils in the ER prompt a tox screen

It has been said by middle school boys throughout the states, that ET’s eyes were so big because he was actually sitting on his own family jewels. That’s all well and good, but what is little known now, is that ET has become heavily reliant on opiates for pain control. Thus, the pinpoint pupils.

This, of course, is another real CT scan… this time, it’s an obese lady’s scan, just below the hips. The femurs on either side make up ET’s pupils.

Got a funny radiology image?… Send it our way. (No patient identifiers, no copyrights, and we can do with it whatever we want.)