Pond Scum or Citron: What color is your hospital?

Sometimes we get so close to our own industry's jargon that we forget that those outside the healthcare system don't always speak the same lingo. Every industry does it. Car dealers don't sell used car anymore—they sell certified pre-owned vehicles. Grocery stores don't stock prunes, they sell dried plums. Catalogues don't describe a garment as green, they call it jade, emerald, fern, mint, citron, peridot, or stem. When you see a sweater in a catalogue described as "stem," what do you think?

Now put yourself in your customer's shoes. Do they know oncology means cancer and that neurology covers the spinal cord in addition to the brain? Do they know what you mean when you call your cardiac service line a heart academy or your ortho program a bone and joint institute or either one of them a center of excellence? Do you think that most people know the difference between a medical center and a hospital?

I'm guessing the average person either doesn't know or doesn't care. And those who do know the truth—that there really isn't a difference at all—think hospitals are just calling themselves a fancy but meaningless name, like saying they're stem when they're really just green.

So why do it? There are several reasons: to add cachet to the product, to avoid negative connotations, to instill consumer confidence in the service, and to stand apart from the competition. It's so much nicer to eat a dried plum than it is to eat a prune. And it's so much less frightening to get care at an academy than it is to be admitted to the hospital.

http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/220571/topic/WS_HLM2_MAR/Pond-Scum-or-Citron-What-color-is-your-hospital.html