Bill has been what?????

File this under "It's not what you say, its what people hear."
What do you think of, when you hear that a hospital receptionist tell you patient has been discharged from a ward?
Dan called me last night to tell me that our friend Bill had been discharged from his ward at Illinois Masonic Hospital. he didn't know where. Could I call his brother or his Dad?
Something didn't make sense. Our friend had been bedridden and has been recovering from a stroke. He is in no shape to walk out of Masonic under his own power. Was he transferred to an off-site rehabilitation facility.
I called his father. Nope. No news of a transfer.
This morning Dan called me back. Yes Bill had been discharged. Discharged from the critical care ward on the sixth floor to the rehabilitation ward on the third.
Dan was embarrassed by the misunderstanding, but frankly, I would have been confused by the use of the word too.
Maybe discharged is standard terminology among hospital workers to refer to a transfer of a patient from ward to ward. But Dan and I don't work in hospitals.
When someone tels me a patient has been discharged form a ward, I would normally think that person's out on the street.
Not any more.