Taking the "institutional" feel out of hospitals isn't easy. Hospitals are not designed to be resorts. They are designed to function. "Decor" is a capital expense, and, as such, it usual consists of old, crappy furniture or framed pictures of the institution itself. Walls are bare, dinged or maybe even covered by flyers and posters.

No more!

Put on your HGTV hats, and check this out: This week, we formally introduced our new Cancer Care campaign, which included a face-lift for the walls in the center itself. It wasn't paint or wallpaper, but rather vinyl clings on a number of the walls that both introduced the branding and brightened up a center whose patients can really benefit from vibrant colors. Think "Fatheads" or wall stickers that your kids may have, only bigger and better.

But now comes the best part--all of the wall graphics (15 in total) were produced and installed for under $10,000. The effect: The first day they were installed, a patient receiving treatment said that the words and images were how she was "going to get through treatment."

Done and done.

Here are a few samples:

About a year-and-a-half ago, our organization unveiled our new corporate logo. The circular mark represented a "new day in healthcare" that we thought our new hospital could help to usher in. Further, the sun rising over the lake was a nice tie-in to our geothermal lake on our new campus.

But it wasn't long after we introduced the new mark that we began receiving phone calls and e-mails from disgruntled community members who saw our logo as too closely aligned with President Obama's campaign logo. At first, I thought these were rare, isolated gripes. But they persisted. A few weeks ago, I received a voicemail from a gentleman who explained that he would "never, ever use [our] hospital because the logo looks like Obama's, and I do not support 'Obama-care.'"

Alrighty, then.

To be sure, gentle readers, our hospital is like Switzerland in the geography of politics. But it amazes me the reactions that people have to an image. And the extent that people will go to avoid supporting an image. I can only assume that these same disgruntled consumers stopped drinking Pepsi, dropped their AT&T service, or left Bank of America a long time ago.

Anyway, you be the judge: