History Main / PatientoftheWeek

'''Turk:''' Well, his name is “hernia patient,” but we’ve gotten close, so I like to call him “hernia.”
-->-- ''{{Series/Scrubs}}'', “[[Recap/ScrubsS1E4MyOldLady My Old Lady]]”

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* ''Series/{{ER}}''. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], as it's set in an emergency room, where it's expected that patients are either cured, killed, or moved to another department. Doesn't explain why they usually only have one patient a week, though.
** Actually, ER is ''not'' known for employing this trope. In fact, it often portrays a chaos in which the doctors have to treat multiple trauma patients ''at the same time'', running back-and-forth between trauma rooms. Also not following the trope in that quite a lot of the running time of ER episodes is used to portray personal drama of the staff members. Whenever ER ''did'' run an episode entirely devoted to one patient, such as Season 11's Time of Death, it was a departure from the norm and presented as such.
** Subverts the trope even further by having patients appear across multiple episodes, often with mini story arcs that intersect with that of a staff member. Other patients return in later episodes to sue, or threaten to sue, their doctors for malpractice; Greene in Season 2, Corday in Season 7, and Kovac in Season 13 (though in this case, the actual incident that prompted the malpractice suit is shown in flashback).
* Fellow MedicalDrama ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' follows this trope almost religiously, only deviating from it on special occasions. Typically, the cast will split into halves (or thirds, or fourths, depending on how many subplots are the episode has), each group tackling a single patient who'll provide some perspective or wisdom that can be easily applied to whatever problem a character has, then disappear and never be heard from again. Patients who last longer than one episode tend to have multiple issues, and may end up getting rotated through various specialists as their condition worsens.

* ''Series/{{House}}''

* ''Series/NipTuck'' by and large followed this format. Almost every week the two main characers, who run a plastic surgery firm, would handle a unique case, sometimes pro bono. Their opening line in every episode was "Tell us what you don't like about yourself".
* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'', though it's not as bad as the others. That's because ''Scrubs'' isn't a medical mystery show. It is a work comedy that centers purely on the doctors. The patients only show up when it's plot important. It's very apparent that they wanted to stand out from the others.

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* While not exactly a medical drama, ''Manga/DrRamuneMysteriousDiseaseSpecialist'' combines this with WoobieOfTheWeek. Each episodefocuses on a patient who are struggling with various emotional/spiritual problems that manifest as "mysterious diseases", and Dr. Ramune helps them get over these issues to cure them of their disease.

* While not exactly a medical drama, ''Manga/DrRamuneMysteriousDiseaseSpecialist'' focuses on a single patient per episode, and each afflicted individuals have their own personal problems that they need to resolve in order to be cured of their "mysterious disease".

* ''Series/{{House}}''
** The show is based on the premise that House and his team only take patients who have been examined by multiple other doctors and are still missing a diagnosis. The show also deviates from the formula comparatively often, especially in later seasons.
** [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] in several episodes; once when new administrator Edward Vogler wanted to fire House because only treating one patient a week isn't cost-effective, and again when House confessed to a patient that he chooses to take only one case at a time, often leading to unfortunate results for the twenty-odd files he passes up.

* The ''Series/DrKildare'' TV series, which aired from 1961-66 almost exclusively uses this trope. Each episode is structured with [[TwoLinesNoWaiting a main plot revolving around one patient (usually a celebrity guest star) and their personal drama, and a subplot centering on different patient and...different personal drama]]. [[PlotParallel The subplot often parallels the main plot]], and in the end, a central {{Aesop}} unites the two.
* ''Series/{{Casualty}}'': Characters will show up with horrendous injuries and be diagnosed/cured within the space of one afternoon. Then they never appear again, no matter how interesting, and about half of the next episode is devoted to the introduction of a new Patient of the Week. Like ''ER'', it is set in an A&E department.

* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'', though it's not as bad as the others. That's because ''Scrubs'' isn't a medical mystery show. It is a work comedy that centers purely on the doctors. The patients only show up when it's plot important. It's very apparent that they wanted to stand out from the others.

* In ''Series/{{Doctors}}'', the doctors ended up solving their patients' life troubles so often that the writers started having people seek them out for psychological aid.

* ''{{Series/Emergency}}'' had two or three of these an episode, starting either with Johnny and Roy rescuing the patient or occasionally the patient coming into the hospital on their own and rotating between chunks of the storylines and scenes of station time.
* ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'' is weird example when viewed as medical drama because the patients arrive with Gamer disease that is spred by resident monsters, Bugsters. Treatment involves playing a video game that centers around defeating the MonsterOfTheWeek that spawns from infected patients. Also, all the heroic riders are doctors with various fields of residency. It makes much more sense, when viewed as a Kamen Rider series with a theme of medical drama. It is never brought up why only one patient at time, but on the single occasion more people were infected, things got complicated.

* ''Series/CallTheMidwife'' mostly follows this format (with some aversions of patients appearing in multiple episodes). This is justified for a programme about midwifery; the amount of time spent as a patient is fixed for pregnancy and childbirth. The case of the week is often a unique complication in pregnancy or the family background of the patient.

* Fellow MedicalDrama ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' follows this trope almost religiously, only deviating from it on special occasions. Typically, the cast will split into halves (or thirds, or fourths, depending on how many subplots are the episode has), each group tackling a single patient who'll provide some perspective or wisdom that can be easily applied to whatever problem a character has, then disappear and never be heard from again.

** Subverts the trope even further by having patients appear across multiple episodes, often with mini story arcs that intersect with that of a staff member. Other patients return in later episodes to sue, or threaten to sue, their doctors for malpractice; Greene in Season 2, Corday in Season 7, and Kovac in Season 13 (though in this case, the actual incident that prompted the malpractice suit is shown in flashback). Patient care in ER has real consequences.