Jun. 29, 2009 at 9:52am

What does chronic mean?

Posted by Kurt Jacobson in Strategic Communications, Talking to Members
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What does “chronic” mean? Or “20 percent chance of rain?”

It turns out that a large percentage of us—20 or 30 percent—don't understand what a 20 percent chance of rain means in a weather report. My point: Lots of people don’t understand much of what is being said to them.

We professional communicators may be using words and phrases that aren’t understood by many people. Take Providence, a fairly well-used name for hospitals and credit unions. We know it as the name of a city, but what does “providence” mean?

First, let’s look at health care. A lobbyist complained about how much money is spent treating chronic health care conditions. Do most people know what chronic means? I couldn’t give you a dictionary-correct definition. And I bet most non-medical people can’t either. Do most people know what cardiac, pulmonary, co-pay vs. co-insurance means? What about end-of-life care? At what specific point does the 27 percent of health care spending start becoming end-of-life care?

What’s the difference between a health entity called a center and an institute? Is it a building, a free-standing nonprofit or for-profit corporation, or just a fancy word in an ad? What's a catheter? What is catheterization and why doesn't spell check recognize it? What is an internist? A hospitalist? What’s a RN compared to a LPN and why does it matter to me?

Credit union words are just as bad. Many of them avoid using the words bank and banking, the terms real people use, because they don't want to be perceived as banks. But in fact, to consumers, they are pretty much like banks, just cooperatively owned. Do you know what a credit union share draft is? Do you know what an audit committee is and why you should care? What does the “union” in credit union mean? Banks talk about customers and credit unions talk about members. Do people know why? Do they care? And do most people know what reward points are? Are they points in your interest rate? Do most people know what basis points are?

I assume that communicators at health care and financial institutions use words that too many people don’t understand because it makes those communicators seem like the experts. You and I have never done that, of course. And some may just be unwilling or unskilled at communicating clearly. When they use words and concepts that aren’t understood, they increase the distance between themselves and the audiences they need. Do real people feel a kinship with organizations that are deliberately trying to talk, act and appear superior and different than the real people?

OK, my simplistic idea of chronic is a condition that will never get better, no matter what attempts are made to fix it, like my chronic whining about high-falutin’ phrases. But those who work toward more understandable language are showing providence.

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