[lbo-talk] Patients Are Not Consumers

[shag carpet bomb]

actually, the terminology took root in the late 70s/early 80s with new 
managerial ideologies. The idea was, if your IT department which creates 
software for the HR department, treated the HR department as a customer, 
things would be more efficient. In other words, instead of HR saying "we 
need new new hire intake management system, make one for us" and then not 
having to "pay" for the service, if there were charge backs, etc. etc. and 
HR had to pay for the software, then they wouldn't be efftards about 
requirements, scope creep etc.

Also figured that, seeing other departments as customers and using a set of 
_measurements_ that coule be employed to gauge the quality of that service 
would improve quality - in the lexicon of total quality management and 
continuous quality improvement.

This language was dominant in business ideology through out the eighties 
such that, by the early nineties, it had largely infected every university 
system where, increasingly, professors were told to see students as 
customers, etc. (there was a small cottage industry devoted to publishing 
professorial gripes about these developments).

Finally, simply trace the change in fucking name tags at chain stores. 
Started in the mid-80s as well. Clerks became associates, etc. etc. The 
change in terminology came about for the same reason: new managerial 
ideologies associated with TQM/CQI.

At 11:31 PM 4/23/2011, 123hop at comcast.net wrote:
>Possibly because if you modeled the interchange in a computer program, as 
>you often have to do, these would all be clients consuming services. And 
>also, so much easier to identify with the buyer aspect of your persona. 
>Any other relationship would be tainted with social and historical 
>inferences. J. ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Wesley" 
><godisamethodist at yahoo.com> That's the new terminology: We're all 
>"clients", "customers", or "consumers" of things! Even prison inmates are 
>sometimes referred to as "clients" in Corrections Depts. mission/vision 
>statements! Mike G ________________________________ From: fernando cassia 
><fcassia at gmail.com> To: lbo-talk <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Sat, April 
>23, 2011 1:27:06 AM Subject: [lbo-talk] Patients Are Not Consumers "How 
>did it become normal, or for that matter even acceptable, to refer to 
>medical patients as “consumers”? The relationship between patient and 
>doctor used to be considered something special, almost sacred. Now 
>politicians and supposed reformers talk about the act of receiving care as 
>if it were no different from a commercial transaction, like buying a car — 
>and their only compplaint is that it isn’t commercial enough. What has 
>gone wrong with us" 
>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/opinion/22krugman.html?_r=1&src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB 
>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/opinion/22krugman.html?_r=1&src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB>  
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