Health
Discover facts about health. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Health
Knitting and crocheting have their own medical code
The code is for documenting an emergency connected with knitting or crocheting, not for diagnosing a knitting-related disease. A chart can record what someone…
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Adjustable hospital beds were patented in 1909
Willis Dew Gatch’s 1909 bed design used hand cranks to change a patient’s position and improve drainage. Staff could raise the bed frame instead of lifting…
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There’s a medical code for chicken pecks
The code describes an injury caused by a chicken peck, making the unusual circumstance searchable in a medical record. It’s a way to document what…
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Macaw attacks have their own medical code
Medical billing codes label the circumstances of an encounter as well as the injury or illness being treated. So a macaw-related code doesn’t mean the bird…
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Why a clinic is linked to reclining
A clinic’s name reaches back to the Greek klinein, meaning “to slope” or “recline.” The link is the bed: patients reclined for examinations, and the word…
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Hospital gowns sacrificed patient dignity
The open back let medical staff reach a patient quickly for examinations or procedures. But the design traded that convenience for coverage, leaving patients…
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A therapist's dog became an unexpected way into a conversation
Psychologist Boris Levinson described a child who began interacting with his dog, Jingles, and then with him through the dog. The experience helped shape his…
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US healthcare admin grew heavily since 1970
Since 1970, administrative roles in U.S. health care have grown by more than 3,000%, while practitioner numbers have risen steadily. The striking contrast is…
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Hospitals track injuries in art galleries
An injury record can include where an accident happened, not just what was hurt. If a visitor walks into a glass partition at an art gallery, the location can…
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Iatrophobia is the formal fear of doctors
For someone with iatrophobia, a doctor’s visit can trigger intense fear, not just ordinary reluctance. Avoiding care may bring immediate relief, which can…
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'Under the weather' once meant more than feeling sick
Early uses included being in difficulty, before the expression settled into its familiar illness meaning. Bad weather became a compact way to describe a bad…
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There’s a code for getting hurt on a squash court
Some medical codes record not just what was injured, but the activity or setting linked to the injury. A squash-related code can therefore help describe…
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There’s a medical code for fighting with your boss
The code turns a difficult work relationship into something a clinician can note in the health record. That can matter because workplace conflict is part of a…
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Medical jargon stat means immediately in Latin
When someone says “stat,” they are using a shortened form of statim, the Latin word for “immediately.” The compact command is built for urgency: quick to say,…
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Knowing the words isn't the same as knowing how a conversation works
Social communication disorder involves persistent difficulty using language in context: taking turns, interpreting implied meanings or adapting to a listener.…
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Code V06.00XA logs nonmotor vehicle crashes
V06.00XA is a medical billing code for a pedestrian injured in a collision with another nonmotor vehicle. That category can include an oddly specific…
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An 1888 bedside chart gave every hour its own line
A physician's record described in JAMA provided space for a patient's history and 28 days of observations, with hourly entries for clinical measurements. The…
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There is a medical code for a pig bite
The code is for paperwork, not because pig bites have a special medical treatment. Providers use it to record the cause of an injury and handle billing,…
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There is an injury code for a prison swimming pool
A medical code can specify that a swimming-pool incident happened inside a correctional facility. It records the setting of the injury, not a diagnosis unique…
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Medical records can say you were baking when it happened
The U.S. ICD-10-CM activity code Y93.G3 records cooking and baking. It adds context to an injury rather than naming the injury itself: a burn and the activity…
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The word patient began with suffering
The word patient traces back to the Latin pati, “to suffer” or “endure.” It names someone undergoing care, though the history of the word doesn't mean anyone…
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Why doctors once hated pagers
Before smartphones, a pager could summon a doctor with a short alert even when the doctor was away from the hospital. Administrators valued that reach;…
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Code R46.1 diagnoses bizarre appearances
R46.1 is a charting code for an unusual personal appearance. In other words, it gives clinicians a way to record what they observe; the code itself does not…
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Ancient patients went to sleep hoping for a god's cure
At the sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus, ritual sleep was part of seeking healing. Patients hoped the god would appear in a dream with help or…
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