No joke, how can a discussion be had about medical shows without mentioning the show most true to what really goes on in hospitals? I know Scrubs is over but, despite the musical numbers and imaginary sequences, it was the most accurate medical show ever. Realistic issues covered: hospitals are a huge bureaucracy, whether you have insurance influences how much care you get, patients die despite heroic efforts, sometimes patients get cured on accident, surgery vs medicine, at first the nurses know more than the interns about patient treatment but then the interns surpass the nurses, I could go on.

You beat me too it. I too was going to mention Scrubs. As is normally the case, when seeking realism look to comedies. Night Court was often sited as having the most realsitic courtroom setting of any legal show in the 80s.

Scrubs was a great show (we'll see how the JD less sequel works). And you're right it did display the hospital environment a light we rarely see in dramas. In addition to the insurance issues and the creatively plausible ways the staff worked around them, they had good end-of-life care episodes, the yo-yo relationship between nursing homes and hospitals etc etc.

I was thinking of writing the same thing. I have several close friends who are doctors and they've repeatedly told me the exact same thing regarding Scrubs.

Of course since there was an entire article on Slate about how Scrubs is the most accurate medical TV show, <link> , means I won't actually give any of your friends credit for saying that. And the author of this article gets knocked even more for not mentioning it.

Scrubs' main writer/creator was roommates at William and Mary with a pre-med who is an adviser to the show and also some of its inspiration.

OK, docs everywhere were saying that waaaay before the Slate article. Who do you think told the writer of the Slate article that Scrubs was the most accurate medical show ever? I'm gonna guess it was a health care worker.