A Massive, Four-State Health System Rebranding Effort Leads to Simple, Informative, Cheerfully Straightforward Advertising
by Peter Hochstein
So there it was, a sprawling health care behemoth, at first glance scarcely recognizable as a single entity.
It was named Novant Health, created in 1997 by the merger of two North Carolina organizations, Carolina Medicorp and Presbyterian Healthcare, into a single system. Over time, other organizations joined Novant Health until the system’s footprint extended into four southeastern states.
By 2013 Novant Health had grown to 13 acute care hospitals, over 100 outpatient facilities, and more than 350 physician practices. The health system employed more than 24,000 people and served over 4 million patients annually.
Novant Health’s size and hundreds of different local brands brought a “tremendous duplication” of communications efforts, according to Kati Everett, vice president of public relations and marketing.
Moreover, consumers often weren’t aware that various points of care were connected. “Patients didn’t know our physician practices were linked to our facilities, for example,” Everett says.