The Hospital Game Show Network

For those who love game shows, here's the latest from the team on Med 14, coming to a hospital service near you in 2020:

The Price Is What?

Four contestants vie for coverage of a surgical procedure. Whoever gets closest to guessing the charge without going over gets a free operation (professional fees not included). The winner also qualifies for the bonus round, in which the cost of a prolonged stay for patient safety events and hospital-acquired conditions is up for grabs. In the latest episode, the lucky contestant has to decide which event will cost $38,514. Is it a broken hip from a fall out of bed, a central line infection, or perhaps the sentinel event behind curtain number three?

Pharmacy Feud

Two teams face off in this intense battle for medication management. On one side is the patient care team. Opposing them is a crack group of insurance company representatives. See them go head to head over the standard of care in your community and what will be covered. The audience says it's tier 2 with a copay. No matter which team wins, the patient will probably lose.

Diagnosis or No Diagnosis

In this wacky diagnostic challenge game, patients choose one of 40 clinical cases by its number, and then the diagnosis is revealed. Perhaps it's a small bowel obstruction. Players can stay with that disease or take a chance and go for another number. Will they hope for appendicitis but end up with a diagnosis of colon cancer?

Are You Smarter than a First-Year Medical Student?

Attending physicians must test their knowledge against a group of first-year medical students. Humorous surprises happen when senior staff are asked to explain the mechanism of action of quinolones, or to draw out the coagulation cascade. Perhaps they'll be asked to give the Latin name for a fish tapeworm. The students are sure to know the answer, especially if it has no clinical relevance. The physician can play the “Look it up yourself” card once and can press the “Page me out of the room” button twice. The students almost always win.

Beat the Shift

The hospitalist arrives at 7 am. In the next 12 hours, she must round on 18 patients, discharge five, admit four more, hold two family conferences, attend a mandatory EHR update meeting, go to multidisciplinary rounds, and call an insurance company to help overturn a denial. And to make matters even more exciting, she must spin the RRT wheel. Perhaps one or more patients will decompensate before the shift is over. Hilarious entertainment ensues as the clock ticks away.

Hospital Ninja Warrior

It's a quiet night on call. The contestant is comfy in the call room with his feet up, nearly napping, when the code beeper goes off. Up many flights of stairs, down long hallways filled with stray carts, resuscitation equipment, and buffing machines. He throws on an isolation gown with too-small gloves, then gets paged. Can the doctor make it to the patient before coding himself?

Name That Tumor

Two oncologists from world-famous medical centers go head to head in this game of diagnostic acumen and nerves of steel. With only a few clinical findings, images, or path specimens to go by, they see who can make the call with the least amount of information. Can you name that tumor in one node?

Hospital Survivor

Fifteen patients are admitted to a hospital ward with fifteen different diagnoses. Some will discharge, some will go to the ICU, some will die. Who will be the lone survivor with the longest length of stay?

In development for 2021

Cafeteria Fear Factor: You bought it, you eat it. What were you thinking?

Wheel of Diagnosis: Guess the letter to make the diagnosis for fabulous diseases.

$10,000 Copay Period: Can the contestant make it to the top of the pyramid?

Win, Lose, or DME: How will you get that bedside commode?

The Bachelorist: You can't round alone your whole career. Choose your dream multidisciplinary team.

Who Wants to Be an Administrator?: Nobody seems to want to participate.