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Top 3 Hospital Rebranding Trends
2. To promote expanded services
Earlier this month, Mark Twain St. Joseph's Hospital in Calaveras, CA, announced it is rebranding under the name Mark Twain Medical Center, in order to communicate the organization's goal to become "more than just a hospital," as its CEO Craig Marks puts it.
The change in name and mission was emphasized three days later, when the organization opened its new cancer treatment center. Mark Twain is also employing the first trend in hospital rebranding by identifying its parent system, Dignity Health, in its tagline. Officially, the organization will be referred to as Mark Twain Medical Center—a member of Dignity Health.
Both of these tactics are a step in the right direction. While the change from "hospital" to "medical center" may seem small, it indicates to the public that the organization is moving forward with strength. And like Durham Hospital, the affiliation with a larger health system will likely positively affect the brand.
Similarly, Greenville Hospital System will become Greenville Health System in 2013.
"We're more than just a hospital," CEO Michael Riordan says. "We changed from hospital to health because that better connects with what we do. We have one of the largest integrated medical staffs in the state... and we wanted to start letting people know how comprehensive we are."
He's right; the word health is more encompassing than hospital. It also ties in with our last trend.
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Comments are moderated. Please be patient.
jason snyder (1/18/2013 at 4:22 PM)
Hi Marianne. Very interesting article. It's amazing to me, though, that healthcare execs and marketers believe that "rebranding" can accomplish the things they want such an effort to accomplish, including differentiating, communicating value, etc. As you know, health care is undergoing seismic changes. What worked before will not work now, whether it be patient care or administration. Healthcare execs need to start looking at marketing and communications in the same way. I wrote a blog about it at http://bit.ly/Wei1XO. I'd be interested in everyone's thoughts. Thanks! Jason Snyder