In December 2014, White County Medical Center (WCMC) expressed its interest in buying Harris Hospital and its 11 clinics in Newport, Ark. On Feb. 1, the purchase of these facilities was finalized. As stated in the official news release sent out on Feb. 5, the WCMC and its new affiliates are currently undergoing a process to change their new collective name to Unity Health.
According to Pryor, the Searcy hospital conducted several focus groups and community studies to survey if a name change was needed to signify the new purchases. They gave the community a pool of medical-related words to pick from that would symbolize the mission of the hospital affiliates as a whole. She said that not only did the citizens feel a new name was necessary, the words “unity” and “health” stood out each time the study was conducted. The name Unity Health was eventually chosen by the hospital.
“Over the past few years, the WCMC has expanded their reach and the hospital has grown past the borders of White County,” Brooke Pryor, marketing director at Unity Health, said. “Others in the community didn’t really realize that those hospitals are connected with WCMC. We needed a strong new name that reflects our growth. We have a lot of people, a lot of services and a lot of locations. We’re all one big family.”
Think Advertising, a Searcy-based company, has taken on the task of designing Unity Health’s new logo.
“In every project that we do, we try to incorporate symbolism,” Matt Faulkner, creative director and CEO said. “The four links are for the letter “U” in unity, and they also make up a medical cross. The four components of the symbol each represent an area of health: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.”
Think Advertising will also create an advertising campaign for this rebrand.
“We work closely with the marketing department at Unity Health,” Faulkner said. “We will be responsible for all of the signage, print, billboard, TV and direct mail ads. We will also help with the internal side with items like directional signage, apparel and name-tags. We’ve serviced WCMC for many years and we’re excited to see them grow.”
Many times when a company changes its name, it reflects many internal changes, but Pryor said the new Unity Health will advertise that this is not true in their case.
“We may have a different name and logo, but we still have the same mission,” Pryor said. “Absolutely nothing is changing.”
