The importance of language and communication in healthcare cannot be overemphasized. Our use of language directly influences patient care, services, and the overall healthcare experience. It affects health literacy, communication between staff and patients, patient compliance with medical instructions, and other vital areas. Words matter.
Business Language in Healthcare: A Double-Edged Sword
Healthcare has advanced significantly in the last forty years, giving patients more control over their care. Along with these changes, the language of healthcare has also shifted. Terms like supply chain management, process, and workflow reflect efficiency and business practice trends.
However, replacing words like “patient” with “customer” to reflect the changed healthcare system presents several challenges. For example, using the word “customer” may work in low-acuity situations, but in other settings, it does not. The challenge of using words like “customer” is particularly evident in high-acuity settings such as emergency departments, where patients are severely ill or injured and sometimes do not have decisional capacity. People receiving care in these critical areas and many other settings are not customers; they are patients.
The Impact of Business Terminology
When considering healthcare’s goal—to help, heal, and reduce suffering—we must consider the impact of business terminology on the people involved. This includes the patients who receive care and the clinicians and support staff who provide it. We should question whether labeling patients as customers or consumers considers the work and environment, whether it meets the needs of patients and staff, and whether it fosters trust in medical care. People in need of care are our patients, and we, as healthcare workers, are entrusted with their care and service.
Reimagining Healthcare Language
We need a critical reassessment of the language we use in healthcare that looks beyond past and current business models. We can start by listening to clinicians, non-clinicians, patients, and partners from other sectors. This will spur a new way of thinking about language and its use and ensure that the words we choose respect healthcare’s unique characteristics and place the highest value on relationships with people. The urgency for this change has never been greater, as the decisions we make now will shape the future of healthcare delivery.
A Call to Action
Is it time to partner with our colleagues in linguistics and literature to seek a new, more global, and aligned approach to the language we use in our healthcare delivery systems? I believe it is.
How does our language in healthcare settings affect patient care and service quality? Have you experienced any changes in care due to how terms have evolved?