Medical slang

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Medical slang is a form of slang used by doctors, nurses, paramedics and other hospital or medical staff. Its central aspect is the use of facetious but impressive-sounding acronyms and invented terminology to describe patients, co-workers or tricky situations. It serves, in other words, as a convenient if often gruesome code between medical professionals. Medical slang is to be found in numerous languages but in English, in particular, it has entered popular culture via TV hospital/forensic dramas such as Casualty, Holby City, ER, House MD, NCIS, Scrubs and Green Wing.

1 Limitations on use
2 Non-English
3 Annual round-up of medical slang
4 Terms
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading

Limitations on use

In many countries, facetious or insulting acronyms are now considered unethical and unacceptable, and patients can demand access to their medical records. Medical facilities risk being sued by patients offended by the descriptions. Another reason for the decline is that facetious acronyms could be confused with genuine medical terms and the wrong treatment administered.

In one of his annual reports (related by the BBC), medical slang collector Dr. Adam Fox cited an example where a practitioner had entered “TTFO,” meaning “told to fuck off,” on a patient’s chart. When questioned about the chart entry, the practitioner was quick-witted enough to say that the initials stood for “to take fluids orally.” While this may or may not be true, it indicates the danger of using informal — and frequently insulting — acronyms.

As a result, medical slang tends to be restricted to oral use and to informal notes or E-mails which do not form part of a patient’s formal records. It may also be used among medical staff outside of the hospital. It is not found on patients’ charts and, due to growing awareness of medical slang, often not used in front of patients themselves.

Non-English

Although online medical slang dictionaries are primarily from English-speaking countries, non-English medical slang has been collected by Fox from elsewhere. Brazilian medical slang includes PIMBA ("Pé Inchado Mulambo Bêbado Atropelado" meaning "swollen-footed, drunk, run-over beggar"), Poliesculhambado (multi-messed-up patient) and Trambiclínica (a "fraudulent clinic" staffed cheaply by medical students).

Annual round-up of medical slang

There is an annual round-up of the usage of medical slang by British physician Dr. Adam Fox of St Mary's Hospital, London. Fox has spent five years charting more than 200 examples, regional and national terms and the general decline of medical slang. He believes that doctors have become more respectful of patients, which has contributed to the decline. While its use may be declining in the medical profession, several dictionaries of the slang have been compiled on the internet.

Terms

6PFP - 6-pack and a fishing pole, as in "this patient doesn't need chemo, he needs 6PFP." - Usually referring to an end-stage patient who should go die somewhere else.
#NOF - Fractured neck of femur
404 moment - The point in a doctor's ward round when medical records cannot be located. Comes from HTTP 404 error "Not Found".
AGMI - Ain't Gonna Make It
Agnostication - A substitute for prognostication. Term used to describe the usually vain attempt to answer the question: "How long have I got, doc?"
Appy - a person's appendix or a patient with appendicitis
ART - Assuming Room Temperature (dying)
Ash cash - UK peculiarity of house officers obtaining payment for signing cremation forms
ATS - Acute Thespian Syndrome (the patient is faking illness)
Baby Catcher - an obstetrician
Bagging - manually helping a patient breathe using an Ambu bag attached to a mask that covers the face
Bash cash - UK peculiarity of Registrars obtaining payment for medical reports on patients who have allegedly been assaulted
Blamestorming - Apportionment of blame after the wrong leg or kidney is removed or some other particularly egregious foul-up.
Blood Suckers/Leeches/Vampires - those who take blood samples, such as laboratory technicians and Phlebotomists
Bounceback - a patient who returns to the emergency department with the same complaints shortly after being released
Bury the Hatchet - accidentally leaving a surgical instrument inside a patient
CNS-QNS - Central Nervous System - Quantity Not Sufficient.
Code Brown - a faecal incontinence emergency. Often used by nurses and medical technicians requesting help cleaning up an unexpected bowel movement.
Code Yellow - a patient who has lost control of his or her bladder
CTD - "Circling The Drain" May also mean "Certain To Die"
DBI - Dirt Bag Index - multiply the number of tattoos by the number of missing teeth to give an estimate of the number of days since the patient last bathed.
Departure lounge - geriatric ward
Dermaholiday - dermatology, considered to be a less-busy department. See rheumaholiday
DFKDFC - Don't fucking know, don't fucking care - a diagnosis often applied to a surgery's most regular visitors. Most often treated with a low-dosage course of Amoxycillin.
DIC - Death Is Coming, Death In Cage - used by veterinarians describing the complications of Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation
Digging for Worms - varicose vein surgery
Disco biscuits - refers to the nightclub drug ecstasy. Usage: "The man in cubicle three looks like he's taken one too many disco biscuit". Also means the drug quaaludes.
Doc in a Box - a small health-care center, usually with high staff turnover
Donorcycle - nursing slang for a motorcycle, so named due to the amount of head trauma associated with motorcycle accidents, but less so with the body, making the perfect candidate for organ donation
DRT - Dead Right There
EFT - Eleventh Floor Transfer (in a 10 floor hospital; refers to patient who is very close to death)
FUBAR - Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition
F.BUNDY - Refers to slowly dying patient who is Fucked, But Unfortunately Not Dead Yet. Also TF.BUNDY: Totally fucked but unfortunately not dead yet.
FLK - Funny Looking Kid - used to indicate a child (usually a newborn) whose habitus or overall appearance, while normal in gross anatomy, suggests a need further medical investigation for congenital and genetic anomalies. "Funny", in this sense, means strange or unusual, not laughable.
FOS - diagnosis given to patients that are likely not telling the truth (full of shit), alternatively a patient with a bowel obstruction.
Freud Squad - the psychiatry department
FTD - Fixin' to Die
Gas Passer - an anesthesiologist (also Gasser, Gas Man or Gaswallah)
GI Rounds - medical staff taking a break to eat lunch/dinner
GOMER - "get out of my emergency room" - a patient, usually poor or elderly, in the emergency room with a chronic, non-emergency condition. The name was popularized by Samuel Shem in his novel The House of God.
GLM - good looking mum (MILF in the US)
GPO - "Good for Parts Only
GROLIES - Guardian Reader Of Low Intelligence in Ethnic Skirt.
Frequent Flyer - Patient who calls ambulance multiple times usually when they could seek help in better ways.
Handbag positive - confused patient (usually elderly lady) lying on hospital bed clutching handbag
Hasselhoff - a term for any patient who shows up in the emergency room with an injury for which there is a bizarre explanation. Original Source: Baywatch actor David Hasselhoff, who hit his head on a chandelier while shaving. The broken glass severed four tendons and an artery in his right arm.
HP - Hispanic Panic, used to describe a Hispanic patient who believes their condition is worse than it actually is. This is generally a result of the perceived over-dramatic and theatrical nature of many Hispanic cultures.
JFDI - Just Fucking Do It - an order from stressed registrar/resident to argumentative know-it-all junior medical staff who are complaining and seriouly underperforming during busiest on-call night from hell.
LOBNH - Lights On But Nobody Home
M & Ms - mortality and morbidity conferences where doctors and other health-care professionals discuss mistakes and patient deaths
Milk Of Amnesia - Propofol - an anesthetic drug with a milky white color.
NAD - Not Actually Done
NFN - Normal For Norfolk, (a rural English county stereotypically associated with inbreeding.)
O-sign - A patient is "giving the O-sign" when very sick and lying with mouth open. This is followed by the Q-sign - when the tongue hangs out of the mouth - when the patient becomes terminal.
Oligoneuronal meaning someone who is thick (not smart).
PAFO or PFO - Pissed And Fell Over
PGT - Pissed and Got Thumped
Polybabydadic - The state of having illegitimate children by several fathers, known or unknown.
Pumpkin positive refers to the idea that a person's brain is so tiny that a penlight shone into their mouth will make their empty head gleam like a Halloween pumpkin.
Q-sign - see O-Sign
Rear Admiral - a proctologist
Rheumaholiday - rheumatology, considered by hard-pressed juniors to be a less busy department. See dermaholiday
Rule of Five - means that if more than five of the patient's orifices are obscured by tubing, he has no chance of survival.
Slasher - surgeon
Shotgunning - ordering a wide variety of tests in the hope that one will show what's wrong with a patient
Status Hispanicus - An overly agitated Hispanic patient (often Caribbean, seldom Mexican) who cannot stop screaming about their condition without providing useful information.
Testiculation - Description of a gesture typically used by hospital consultant "when holding forth on subject on which he or she has little knowledge". Gesture is of an upturned hand with outstretched fingers pointed upwards, clutching an invisible pair of testicles.
TEETH - tried everything else, try homeopathy.
Tox Screen - toxicology screen, testing the blood for the level and type of drugs in a patient's system
TTFO - Told To Fuck Off.
TTR - Tea Time Review
TUBE - Totally Unnecessary Breast Examination, often used to refer to an EKG done with the sole purpose of looking at a female patients breasts
UBI - "Unexplained Beer Injury"
UDI - "Unexplainable Drinking Injury"
Vitamin H - A Haldol injection, used in the ER setting to rapidly sedate patients who display dangerous or destructive behavior that threatens the safety of hospital staff and other patients.
Woolworth's Test - Anaesthetic term (if you can imagine patient shopping in Woolies, it's safe to give a general anaesthetic)

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa (18 August 2003)"Doctor slang is a dying art". BBC. 18 August 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3159813.stm. Retrieved 2008-02-05.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t (December 21, 2007)"404 moment - new medical slang". Agence France-Presse. December 21, 2007. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22958556-2,00.html. Retrieved 2008-02-05.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r Howstuffworks "Decoding 28 Medical Slang Terms"
^ ^a ^b ^c Fox, Adam; Cahill, Pauline; Fertleman, Michael (2002). "Medical slang". http://archive.student.bmj.com/issues/02/07/education/225.php. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Doctors deny insulting patients with slang
^ Transwiki:Donorcycle
^ "The Free Dictionary". http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/Fixin'+To+Die+(EMS+slang). Retrieved 2008-03-12.
^ Michael Quinion (2001-09-15). "Gomer". World Wide Words. http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-gom1.htm.
^ Panda Bear Dictionary http://www.studentdoctor.net/pandabearmd/pandictionary/
^ "ER Stories". http://erstories.net/?p=63.
^ Cipriani A, Rendell JM, Geddes J. Haloperidol alone or in combination for acute mania. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2006, Issue 3. Art. No.: CD004362. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD004362.pub2. http://mrw.interscience.wiley.com/cochrane/clsysrev/articles/CD004362/frame.html

Name

Medical slang

Contents

Limitations on use

Non-English

Annual round-up of medical slang

Terms

See also

References

Further reading