Editor’s note: The University Medical Center at Princeton has announced that it’s changing its name to University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro. The name change prompted this discussion by Herbert W. Hobler.
1. Using the name Princeton and university will influence many people near and far to believe it is related to Princeton University, which it is not. On one hand you don’t want to lose the name Princeton. On the other, like it or not, many will assume a formal relationship with Princeton.
2. While I understand there are affiliations with one or more university medical schools in New Jersey, the hospital is not an integral part of a university medical school as is, for example the University of Pennsylvania’s Medical School and its hospital.
While these affiliations are worth promoting as special assets, the institution already has a corporate name that would solve the problem: the Princeton HealthCare System. It’s a good, meaningful name that automatically implies something beyond a hospital or even a medical center. In some confusion, the recent foundation report jumps back and forth between the name Princeton HealthCare System and University Medical Center.
To an actual or potential patient of one or more of the services under the Princeton HealthCare System umbrella, I suggest the name “HealthCare” suggests more to the layman than medical center.
It’s not too late to make it simple, accurate, not potentially misleading and just make it Princeton HealthCare System (PHS or PHCS), Princeton HealthCare Medical Center (PHMC), or Princeton HealthCare of Plainsboro, assuming they would like people to know where they are located.
Certainly the hospital can be proud of its several university medical school associations. But it should keep the name pure and simple for one and all.
by Herbert W. Hobler
