Does the Sitcom House Have an Ounce of Reality in It?

I was reading an article the other day that was talking about the new series House. It said that House was a much more reality based medical show then Grey’s Anatomy. Trying to say that House is a reality based medical show and trying to compare it to Grey’s Anatomy (which the plot isn’t patient driven to begin with. 

However, what medical situations that do arise in the show are at least in the realm of reality) is comparable to saying Desperate Housewives is a reality based show about suburban housewives. Oh come on! There is nothing even resembling reality in either one of them.

I worked in the nursing field for more than a decade and I have never seen a hospital that has the luxury of allowing a doctor with a team of young researchers to devote all their valuable time to one or two patients with an incredibly rare diagnosis in the slip shod manner in which the patient’s condition is both discovered and treated. 

The scene where Dr. House was drinking shots of alcohol and getting drunk with the patient (who was a man who had been admitted to the hospital off of death row) red-lined even my credibility meter and I am pretty liberal when it comes to TV entertainment. Once they were both drunk enough House tells the patient that he knows the patient was drinking the copy fluid at the prison (trying to commit suicide) and that the alcohol they just drank combined with the chemicals making them virtually harmless. 

Even I had to say, “oh come on, talk about an easy out.” I can’t even begin to count how many of the patient’s rights the man violated legally not to even mention hospital protocol, patient bill of rights, and professional ethics. I’ll stop going on about that particular episode because there are several that they really skim the rim with scenes that in the real world would be enough to make their malpractice insurance go through the roof.