Central Georgia Health System Rebrands as Navicent Health

The operator of Georgia's second largest hospital and more than 30 affiliate facilities has opted for a name change that de-emphasizes regional locales and reflects its broader mission as a healthcare destination, says its CEO.

One of Georgia's largest health systems has changed its name to reflect its patient-centric emphasis.

Macon-based Central Georgia Health System this week rebranded itself as Navicent Health, and CEO and President Ninfa Saunders says the new name was prompted "by a couple of things."

"Number one, we wanted to have one umbrella name for the health system that was not limited by its regional title," Saunders said.

"The current brand, Central Georgia Health System, immediately makes it local. We thought that as we look at healthcare beyond the walls of the hospital and the region and as we look at patients coming to us because we want to be a healthcare destination, that it should not be so local in its name."

"I've always believed that healthcare is local, physicians are local. However, as a healthcare destination that should not stop us from being able to invoke a name that is inclusive as opposed to exclusive to a particular region."

The name change also better reflects the health system's mission, she says.

"In planning for this we had multiple focus groups… and we were trying to discern from the groups what they saw our health system to be," Saunders explained. "The repeated message over and over again is that everything we do is towards putting the patient at the center of what it is we do every day."

"The confluence is this, the fact that we wanted to have one umbrella name. More importantly we wanted to make sure our brand signified exactly what we intend to do and focused on what were the two drivers for why we felt the rebranding was necessary."

The rebranding is system-wide across more than 30 affiliate facilities, including flagship The Medical Center of Central Georgia, now named Medical Center, Navicent Health. It is the second largest hospital in Georgia.

The name change, the first in more than 40 years at the health system, includes a new logo and motto that reads: "Everything about us, is all about you."

Navicent is derived from a combination of "navigation" and "center," which Saunders says were words frequently used by focus groups to identify what they believed should be areas of concentration.

"The two words that we heard over and over from the patients is that 'there is so much going on in healthcare. What we need is more navigation and coordination of the processes and care that we go through,'" Saunders says.

"And as you do that, please remember that the patient is in the center as opposed to all of the clinicians in the middle and we are on the outside looking in." Navicent Health employs nearly 6,000 people, including 800 physicians and more than 100 residents and fellows in training.

The rebranding comes two years into Saunders' tenure and one year after the launch of the multi-hospital Stratus Healthcare alliance.

Navicent has no relationship with Chicago-based Navicent Inc., which describes itself as a "global advisory firm."

Other renamed facilities include Rehabilitation Hospital, Navicent Health; Children's Hospital, Navicent Health; and Medcen, Navicent Health, a $96 million development foundation; Medical Center of Peach County, Navicent Health; Carlyle Place, Navicent Health, a continuing care retirement community; Pine Point Hospice, Navicent Health; and Wellness Services, Navicent Health.