10 Funny Healthcare Stories (For your Laughing Pleasure)

Healthcare jobs are very stressful, sometimes it takes a toll with all the crazy patients, doctors, and other staff placing demands on you.  So I am giving you some relief, it’s time to laugh.

Here are some funny stories and memes that I think you will like…

1.  With Americans becoming more and more stagnant this one says it best.

 

2.   During a patient’s two-week follow-up appointment with his cardiologist, he informed me, his doctor, that he was having trouble with one of his medications. “Which one? ” I asked. “The patch. The nurse told me to put on a new one every six hours and now I’m running out of places to put it!” I had him quickly undress and discovered what I hoped I wouldn’t see. Yes, the man had over fifty patches on his body! Now, the instructions include removal of the old patch before applying a new one. —Submitted by Dr. Rebecca St. Clair to Ridiculously Funny Medical Stories

3.  Waiting times are increasing due to many factors… More patients, less doctors, and the need to make a steady stream of revenue to cover the high cost of running a practice (Setting appointments back to back)

 

4.  I was caring for a woman and asked, “So how’s your breakfast this morning?” “It’s very good, except for the Kentucky Jelly. I can’t seem to get used to the taste,” the patient replied. I then asked to see the jelly and the woman produced a foil packet labeled “KY Jelly.” —Dr. Leonard Kransdorf

 

5.  Now thankfully this story did not result in death but goes to show you how sloppy handwriting can be a major problem in healthcare.

A woman in Arkansas brought her baby in to see the doctor, and he determined right away the baby had an earache. He wrote a prescription for eardrops. In the directions he wrote, “Put two drops in right ear every four hours” and he abbreviated “right” as an R with a circle around it. Several days passed, and the woman returned with her baby, complaining that the baby still had an earache, and his little behind was getting really greasy with all those drops of oil. The doctor looked at the bottle of eardrops and sure enough, the pharmacist had typed the following instructions on the label: “Put two drops in R ear every four hours.” – From Cafe Mom

 

6.   Related to number 5, Patient referrals are on the rise in the United States and many physicians are making many a lot of referral mistakes (See 5 physician referral mistakes you do not know you’re making).  Not only are you making mistakes but there are some shocking referral statistics about specialist referrals.

So to lighten the mood…

7.  A man comes into the ER and yells, ‘My wife’s going to have her baby in the cab!’ I grabbed my stuff, rushed out to the cab, lifted the lady’s dress, and began to take off her underwear. Suddenly I noticed that there were several cabs — and I was in the wrong one. —Dr. Mark MacDonald

 

8.   An elderly patient became irate during a medical examination when he peaked at the doctor’s chart and saw that the doctor had written Major S.O.B. underlined at the bottom. The physician stopped him in mid-rant by saying “Major Shortness of Breath. But now they both apply.”

 

9.  The internet and all the new healthcare companies that want to help you “find a doctor” or “help you find a diagnosis for your problem” are growing at leaps and bounds. But the main issue is can you trust them?  I would not put my life in the hands an online forum or a virtual doctor, nor should you.

 

10.  When I was doing home health, I had a patient who was very demanding and could be outright rude at times. At one point she had a terrible stomach virus which made her a daily patient for a while – of course, I got stuck with her while she was daily. One morning I went in and she was sitting at the kitchen counter looking positively green around the gills. I said, “Are you alright?” She looked me dead in the eyes and said, “Hell NO! That Dr. is going to have to do something about these damn pills he gave me. They are too big to swallow and I have to cut them in half and to top it all off, they are slimy and make me gag when I try to get them down!!” I nearly died laughing when I realized that the “pills” were glycerin suppositories.