[Tagging] Deprecate healthcare=centre

Joseph Eisenberg joseph.eisenberg at gmail.com
Thu Jan 14 19:04:44 UTC 2021


Re: "Yeah, after you've deprecated healthcare=centre so nobody uses it"

That's not what "deprecate" means. In software development, to deprecate
means

"be deprecated (chiefly of a software feature) be usable but regarded as
obsolete and best avoided, typically due to having been superseded. ‘this
feature is deprecated and will be removed in later versions -
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/deprecate

A tag that is "deprecated" is usually still in the database, but we
recommend that it not be used, because there are better tags available.

In this case healthcare=centre has been used 46k times, mostly in India,
where it was used for 4 different features: village health posts, private
doctor's offices, neighborhood clinics, and regional hospitals:
https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/tags/healthcare=centre - compare India,
with 90% of uses:
https://taginfo.openstreetmap.in/search?q=healthcare%3Dcentre

So it will take a long time to retag these features appropriately as
hospitals, clinics, doctor's offices, and health posts in India, and then
there will still be 8000 other uses to retag in France and other countries.

It's not practical to redefine tags in OpenStreetMap to mean something
specific, when they are widely used to mean many different things.

Much better to pick a new value which is more specific and clear.

-- Joseph Eisenberg

On Thu, Jan 14, 2021 at 10:44 AM Paul Allen <pla16021 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 14 Jan 2021 at 18:07, Joseph Eisenberg <joseph.eisenberg at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> The existence of things that do not have existing tags does not mean that
>> we should use healthcare=center, which currently has no clear definition or
>> usage.
>>
>
> If it has no clear definition or usage then there is also no reason we
> shouldn't co-opt it.
>
>
>> > Re: "It has too many specialities to call it a clinic. "
>>
>> You must not have heard of the Mayo Clinic
>>
>
> It has too many specialities to call it a clinic in the OSM sense.
>
>>
>> But I am very happy if you want to propose a new tag for one of these
>> outpatient multi-specialty "Integrated Care Centre" facilites.
>>
>
> Yeah, after you've deprecated healthcare=centre so nobody uses it, that
> frees it up for integrated care centres.
>
>>
>> Since we use British terminology you can just use
>> "amenity=integrated_care" or "healthcare=integrated_care", though
>> "integrated care" sounds more like advertising copy than an actual term for
>> the kind of facility.
>>
>
> The whole rationale for the things looks like an extended exercise in
> management speak.  I can't say I like the name, the concept, or the
> implementation.  But "integrated care" seems to be the primary term,
> and is defined by WHO.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_care
>
>>
>> It might be clearer to use a tag like "healthcare=multispeciality" for a
>> building which has many medical specialties with one shared name and shared
>> reception, contact info and administration.
>>
>
> You are making assumptions.  The two I know of are single buildings,
> although one is more of a number of buildings with connecting corridors.
> There is a shared reception, but the general practise and dental
> practise each have their own reception: the share reception points
> you at the individual receptions and it is those individual receptions
> you check in to.  The different specialities each have their own
> phone numbers and each has its own address within the general
> address.  Administration of doctors and dental practise are separate
> from the rest of it, though partly subordinate.
>
> There is some commonality, but not as much as you seem to think.
> It's better to think of it as a hospital without beds.  Tag the grounds,
> including the car parking.  Put nodes in the building(s) for the
> individual "clinics."  I mapped mine as a clinic, but that's
> increasingly feeling like a horrible bodge.  I'm tempted to map
> the grounds as a hospital instead, until we sort something out.
>
> --
> Paul
>
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