The “Mikeys” of the hospital

Working in an ED, I like to refer to our humble department as the “Mikeys” of the hospital. Remember that cereal commercial? I think it was for Life cereal where the tag line was “oh Mikey will eat it?” insinuating that Mikey was a character of little culinary aptitude and non-discriminatory taste buds? In short, Mikey would eat anything.
Sometimes I feel like the hospital thinks of the ED like that…new policies, the “ED” will try it first. New equipment, new computer system, new performance improvement projects…surely, the ED will eat it.

Maybe it is because hospital administrators know that if it can work in the ED, it can probably work house wide…maybe it’s their extreme faith in us, maybe if it fails, they take solace in the fact that they irritated an already irritated group of people. No harm, no foul.

Sometimes, however, it does work in our favor. Like when there is leftover food from a meeting or something? It inevitably works its way down to our level where it is devoured quickly…in record time. It could be the strangest combination of food (yesterday it was roast beef, mashed potatoes, salad, spaghetti, peach cobbler and egg rolls) and it will be consumed.

So all you ED staff out there, raise your egg-roll and your latte and here is a big cheers and kudos to being the “Mikeys” of the world. While we are eating the leftover food, trying out the new computer system, learning the new equipment, we are also saving lives. Every day, 24 hours a day, it doesn’t matter what you throw at it. And I bet if you did a “where are they now” expose on Mikey and his brother right now, Mikey is the rock star.

What was that brother’s name anyway?