If you're looking for an academic health system, don't expect to find "university" in its name.
From UPMC to UNC Health to UChicago Medicine, many of these organizations have gone with shorter, snappier monikers because their brands are so recognizable already, health system leaders told Becker's.
"I think that the University title makes it cumbersome, and true academic health systems like UPMC and Penn don't need to remind people that they are academic health systems," said Thomas Beeman, a professor of the practice of healthcare administration at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia and former executive with Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine (formerly known as University of Pennsylvania Health System). "They already have very strong brands."
The rise of acronyms for academic-affiliated systems reflects the shortening of health system brands overall, following years in which words like "hospital" and even "system" were largely dropped from the names.
Other health systems didn't include "University" because they aren't technically owned by a university. For instance, Aurora, Colo.-based UCHealth, which rebranded in 2017, is not part of the University of Colorado but works closely with CU School of Medicine.
"After extensive research conducted with more than 4,000 participants, the decision to name the new hospital system UCHealth was to further differentiate between the university and the healthcare system, while also preserving the partnership, which is very important to providing the best care options for patients," said Manny Rodriguez, chief marketing and experience officer of UCHealth.
Some of the names end up looking pretty similar. There is Seattle-based UW Medicine and Madison, Wis.-based UW Health, for instance. Meanwhile, Cincinnati-based UC Health differs from its Colorado counterpart by only a space in the name. UCHealth — no space — is a recognizable-enough brand in Colorado and surrounding states where there isn't confusion locally, but the health system sometimes has to correct national organizations or news outlets that confuse it with UC Health, according to a spokesperson.
Morgantown, W.V.-based WVU Medicine launched its new brand in 2015. "WVU, which is shorthand for West Virginia University, was already a well-established, highly regarded, and widely recognized brand in West Virginia and the surrounding region," said Tony Condia, chief marketing and communications officer of WVU Medicine. "We leaned into our university's shortened name and strong brand and leveraged its goodwill and equity as we created our health system's identity."
The health system will sometimes spell out "West Virginia University" in the name when it promotes in outside markets or presents at national or international conferences, where people might not be as familiar with "WVU," Mr. Condia added.
Greenville, N.C.-based ECU Health formed via the 2021 merger of East Carolina University and Vidant Health to create a new academic health system. The organization never considered another name because ECU is the official branding of the university, according to an ECU Health spokesperson.
Really, the decision to go with shorter names has been quite simple for many academic health systems. "We've always been UAB Medicine or UAB Health," said Rosie O'Beirne, chief digital strategy and marketing officer at UAB. "We've always used UAB because the acronym is shorter than us using the University of Alabama at Birmingham."