Seen In The Emergency Department

Go to pretty much any Emergency Department, and you will see some version of “The Board.”

Usually a big whiteboard, often a swanky electronic display, The Board usually lists the patients and their respective rooms (usually initials only, to protect confidentiality), the doctor and nurse assigned to that patient, and status updates on their current condition, such as “awaiting CT results” or “admit to ICU Bed 16″ or some such.

Last night, one of our Emergency Departments had the following status update posted for no less than four patients:

Heh. “Metabolize to freedom.”

That’s a nice medical euphemism for it!