Hollywood loves healthcare dramas. General Hospital, ER, St. Elsewhere, and New Amsterdam are just a few examples. But there is much more to healthcare than the patient-facing clinical side. There are plenty of other departments and areas of healthcare that Hollywood could explore.
On the recent #hcldr tweetchat, the community had a little fun on this exact topic. Here was the question that was posed: If Hollywood were ever to do a TV show that highlighted non-medical staff, what department would you focus it on? What would your pilot pitch be? Who would star?
My response was a comedy (a la Scrubs) that centered on the IT Department of a mid-western hospital. The show would focus on the mishaps and chaos caused by “bizarre” IT issues that would arise daily. The pilot episode entitled “Hard Drive” would feature a doctor who accidentally dropped a Viagara pill into his desktop computer that then melted and coated the disk drive.
The IT department would be called and a trusty support technician would be dispatched to fix the problem. Upon opening the computer he is surprised to find a second “baby” hard drive in the computer that still has data on it. For the rest of the episode the technician would go around trying to find the original “father” or “mother” of that drive.
The show would star Kunal Nayyar (Raj Koothrappali from Big Bang Theory) as the head of the IT Department and a rotating cast of doctors with guest stars from 80s family comedies.
I wasn’t the only one who had the idea of an IT-department comedy.
T4 The focus would be on patient registration, it would star Tiffany Haddish & Christopher Evans. And I would pitch it as, “He said it wouldn’t hurt; then they tried to register for the appointment.” #hcldr pic.twitter.com/amAgRj2dBt
— Shereese Maynard, MS; MBA 😷 (@ShereeseMayMba) June 23, 2021
Scrubs X The IT Crowd
A zany patient advocate tries to befriend a quiet, nerdy EPIC sys admin, much to her chagrin. The other staff say she should just give up and focus on her patients, but she can’t stand someone not being her friend.
Ft. Selena Gomez & Zoe Saldana#hcldr https://t.co/HrbN0c3o49
— Victoria (she/her/ella) (@aggievic14) June 23, 2021
Health information management. In the pilot they mistakenly merge records for different people & struggle to avert a lethal drug error. Subplot: the fax machine runs out of ink. Starring Larry David as the patient wanting his health record but has questions on the app. #hcldr https://t.co/oy5cpQQ8Jp
— Ben Moscovitch (@benmoscovitch) June 23, 2021
There was also this gem of a pilot featuring the food service department of the hospital.
T4 FOOD SERVICE!! A brave newcomer tries to transform the patient experience to one of love and shared values as shown through food, and the EVIL ADMIISTRATION focuses only on the bottom line 🙂 Good wins by organizing all the operational (food, janitorial etc) teams!!#hcldr https://t.co/N8M7IZQ3Wd
— Richard W Mockler (@RWMhealth) June 23, 2021
There was also this pitch for a horror-themed show, although I think we’ve all lived this – so maybe it should be a reality-TV show?
#hcldr T4 I have a vision of a horror movie in which I can’t figure out which of the Zoom meetings I am on is real. I think I could be portrayed with a character similar to Lucy on Peanuts. Bossy, sassy…but maybe more empathetic…
— Dr. Gail Beck (@GailYentaBeck) June 23, 2021
And finally there was this Columbo-meets-CSI-meets-Law&Order concept:
T4 #hcldr
Just passing by and saw the question.Hospital (IDN) security department.
Getting a report from a doc that something suspicious was going on with the guardian of a child admitted to emergency department.
Investigation, false leads, child slavery, happy resolution.
— Bob Brown (@ReasObBob) June 23, 2021
What would your show pitch be?
