Next time you’re at a hospital, listen for staffer’s code slang like suitcase sign, meaning “the patient is determined to check himself in no matter what,” or a gown sign, meaning they suspect a patient of getting ready to “elope,” that is, “to leave without telling anyone.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Hospital Lingo”
We asked for examples of workplace jargon, and we got some great stuff from Jill Foreman, who lives in Ventura, California, and works in medicine.
She says that in her line of work, the word sign is often used to mean a response to a maneuver that gives the examiner information as to the presence or absence of a condition.
For example, if a doctor is looking for Murphy’s sign, the doctor is examining a person for upper abdominal pain.
And if they happen to kind of catch their breath when they’re doing this little procedure, then just with the hands, then it’s a possible indicator of gallbladder disease.
But anyway, Jill says that in her line of work, they develop their own whimsical signs.
And here are two great ones.
One term that they use is suitcase sign.
Can you imagine what that is?
And this is in the medical field.
Yeah, yeah, like at a hospital.
Somebody who’s going to leave early, check them out, starts out early?
You’re close.
A suitcase sign indicates a patient who’s arrived with a fully packed bag, declaring that they just know they need to be admitted, you know, or they want to.
So someone like Jill might say, “Hey, Martha, just letting you know that bed 8 is showing a positive suitcase sign.”
So this is somebody who really wants to be admitted to the hospital.
And then the other one is a gown sign, and that means she says that the patient is tired of us or they’re scared of a shot or just decides that they don’t want to be there anymore.
And they elope.
That’s the term they use.
The person elopes.
And they don’t say anything to anybody.
It’s like ghosting at a party.
Right.
And then the first sign that they see of the person having left is a gown right there on the gurney.
So they might say, “I don’t know where bed one went, but we have a positive gown sign.”
Nice.
Isn’t that good stuff?
Yeah, and the elope is really interesting because it does mean to depart kind of like in secret.
So just like the wedding elope, it just means to escape from a nursing home or a hospital without full permission of your caring physicians.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, we’d love to hear the workplace jargon that you’ve got.
The fun stuff, the boring stuff, share it all, 877-929-9673 or email words@waywordradio.org.
