Christine Woolsey, Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, SCL Health
View from the C-Suite
// By Sheryl S. Jackson //
The branding and marketing communications strategies of hospitals and health systems have changed over the years as mergers with other organizations have occurred, and SCL Health is an excellent example of the evolution.
Christine Woolsey, senior vice president and chief communications and marketing officer, SCL Health
Christine Woolsey began working with SCL Health — then known as Sisters of Charity Leavenworth Health System — as a public relations consultant helping the organization manage issues and communications related to a merger with another health system. In 2010, she joined SCL as senior vice president and chief communications and marketing officer.
“At the time the two systems came together, the 13 hospitals were a loose confederation of facilities, each operating autonomously and maintaining their local brands with no connection to a larger identity,” explains Woolsey.
Here, Woolsey shares SCL Health’s journey to a unified brand — no small feat for a health system spread across three states. The brand and its rationale have to be understood and adopted by internal stakeholders, and then communicated externally to the communities SCL Health serves. The ultimate beneficiaries are consumers. “One of the key reasons to develop a master brand strategy is that research shows that consumers want coordinated and connected care,” Woolsey says.