Top 10 Ways a Hospital Is Like a Prison — and What It Teaches About Marketing.

By Matt Gerrell

Founder & President Gerrell Collective and strategic advisor helping organizations evolve their message from what they do to why it matters.

Let’s start with a clarification before anyone reaches for their stethoscope or badge. This post isn’t meant to disparage hospitals or prisons, or the hardworking people who make both function (often on caffeine, courage, and way too little sleep). Healthcare workers, safety officers, and first responders are heroes, plain and simple. The world runs better because they choose to show up.

No, this post is about something entirely different: messaging.

Because sometimes, in the rush to “tell our story,” organizations unintentionally start describing themselves in ways that sound a little… institutional. That’s when things get interesting. Especially for marketers who suddenly realize the brand experience they’re promoting might feel less like a place of healing and more like a minimum-security facility.

This realization hit many years ago during a strategy session when I was serving as Director of Marketing for a Florida-based, three-hospital system. A conversation with a senior executive changed everything.

The discussion was about positioning whether hospital advertising should highlight the impressive buildings or focus on patient outcomes. Coming from retail, I quickly noticed most of our advertising used imagery of our hospitals and facilities. This was different than my experience as emotional connections had proven to connect more with audiences than architecture. When suggesting we should transition from promoting our facilities in our pictures, the Vice President confidently replied, “People love hospitals. They’re destinations.”

This single word — destination — revealed a powerful truth about perception. Most organizations think they know what their customers want because they’ve been seeing it the same way for years. But real marketing leadership begins when we challenge the familiar and look through the eyes of those we serve.

I did not give up on the position and decided to take a different approach in the next conversation. To make the point stick, humor helped open the door. The next day, this list was shared with the team:

Top 10 Ways a Hospital Is Like a Prison

1.         You’re given a uniform to wear.

Individuality disappears the moment you put on the gown/jumpsuit.

2.         To get released it takes a lot of paperwork, a long process, and you're escorted out of the facility by an employee.

Freedom depends on signatures, authorizations, and processes.

3.         Meals are at set times with little choice.

It’s nourishment, not an experience.

4.         Limited Visiting Hours

Access is carefully managed.

5.         You may share a small room with a stranger.

Privacy and comfort come second to efficiency.

6.         Constant supervision.

You’re always being monitored.

7.         Limited access to the outdoors.

Fresh air is permission-based.

8.         You pay a debt when you leave.

Both places come with a cost.

9.         If something really bad happens you could go to solitaire (ICU).

Isolation can be the treatment plan.

10.       Entirely possible you will get stuck with a sharp object

Whether it’s a needle or a lesson, both leave a mark.

The list sparked laughter, and then realization. It reframed how the team saw our messaging. The goal wasn’t to promote a place; it was to communicate purpose.

Patients didn’t want a destination. They wanted an escape from fear, a path to healing, and confidence they’d be treated with humanity. This shift became the foundation for storytelling and the creation of marketing which spoke to emotion, not infrastructure.

Closing Thought

The best marketing doesn’t reinforce comfort zones; it challenges them. Whether leading a brand, a campaign, or a conversation, great marketers see beyond the walls others accept as reality.

Because the moment a brand stops showing what it has and starts showing what people feel is when the message breaks free.