After 18 months of research and interviews, Aurora, Colo.-based UCHealth is launching a new brand to better reflect its commitment to modern, convenient and individualized healthcare.
There were two main reasons UCHealth chose to rebrand, according to Manny Rodriguez, chief marketing officer and chief experience officer of the system. "First, we needed a brand that unified the organization and inspired people both internally and externally," he said, referencing the hospital system's growing scope across the state of Colorado. UCHealth is comprised of seven hospitals, a medical group and more than 100 clinics across the Rocky Mountain West. The system also has three more hospitals currently under construction. "I'm a big fan of the Starbucks model. No matter where in the world you are, you know every Starbucks will give its customers the same sights, smells and experience. We wanted to figure out how to create a unified experience across every touch point at all of our locations, whether that's valet parking, our website, cafeteria — anything."
In addition to aligning staff, the second reason to rebrand was to show patients the health system is committed to providing people-centric care, ease and innovation. Although UCHealth's hospitals and clinics already earn high rankings in outcomes, quality and safety, research shows patients want more than just the best clinical outcomes.
Mr. Rodriguez and his colleagues spent 18 months performing qualitative and quantitative research and roughly 4,000 interviews with clinical chairs, subcommittees, regional board members and external constituents, "We gained tremendous insights," said Mr. Rodriguez. "We expected patients and consumers to say our focus should be around getting the best possible outcomes and having the best doctors. These things are critically important, but what surprised us is that many [people] are looking more for individualized care."
Mr. Rodriguez clarified that individualized care is not necessarily synonymous with personalized medicine. Rather, it connotes a system of care that treats each patient as a unique individual with distinct needs, desires and goals. It involves clinicians learning about patients' lives beyond their medical condition, and including them and their families in the care plan.
"We're changing the dialogue of how we involve patients," said Mr. Rodriguez, "because patients are at the core of everything we do."
The new brand also promotes a more holistic approach to care, which involves helping patients stay healthy and not just healing them when they are sick or injured.
In addition to a completely refurbished website and logo, UCHealth is launching the following initial steps to provide better patient service:
- Virtual visits
- Online scheduling
- A new, patient-centered website
- A new mobile app with numerous convenience features
- A partnership with Uber to provide easier transportation (beginning this spring)
- More transparency of medical record information through OpenNotes
- Additional health information and inspirational patient stories online
The new UCHealth app will give patients the ability to refill prescriptions, communicate with providers, see their electronic medical record information, and schedule appointments, all from a mobile device. The app also will provide health news, healthy recipes and exercises and inspirational patient stories.
Signs outside clinics and hospitals with the new logo will gradually be replaced throughout 2017.