I'm intrigued by the name ORYX which JCAHO has adopted for its new program for measurement systems. Sharon Ehrmeyer talks about ORYX in her update on regulatory and accreditation requirements.

My first question was what does ORYX stand for? The official JCAHO explanation (from their website http://www.jcaho.org/perfmeas/oryx/oryx_frm.htm) is that "ORYX is the name of the Joint Commission's initiative to integrate performance measures into the accreditation process. It is a term different from any other currently used in healthcare, reflecting the magnitude of the anticipated changes in the Joint Commission's accreditation process in the years ahead. For trivia buffs, oryx is defined in the dictionary as a kind of gazelle."

The dictionary definition of oryx as "any of a genus of large straight horned african antelope" isn't really very helpful in selling this concept, so I think we need an acronym that explains the name. My limited "marketing" experience in naming concepts (such as total error, multirule QC, OPSpecs charts) makes me believe that it is important that the name convey some information related to the concept. "A kind of gazelle" doesn't really do it for me, so let's help JCAHO out and develop a name to go with ORYX.

Sharon and I had some fun with this over lunch one day, so we'll start out the competition with this one: Outcome Related Yardsticks for eXegesis. We'll admit that exegesis isn't part of our normal vocabulary and that we had to find that word by paging through a dictionary, which said it meant "to explain, interpret". We think that makes some sense. Outcome related yardsticks to explain and interpret the performance of healthcare organizations.

We had hoped for something a bit more flamboyant and humorous, so we are asking for your help. You can e-mail your suggestions and we will post them on the web. If we can develop a good list, we'll submit the suggestions to JCAHO and try to give them a little help in marketing their new program.

The best suggestion will get a prize - if the laws and regulations in your state or country allow it. What's the prize? An autographed copy of Cost-Effective Quality Control: Managing the Quality and Productivity of Analytical Processes. A $40 value.

Who said quality can't be fun!