Dive Brief:
- A number of hospitals within the Carolinas HealthCare System have been quietly and gradually undergoing modifications to their names and signage in an effort to improve the system's overall branding.
- Highway billboards are using the word "One" to highlight that they are part of a single integrated health system.
- The system said it is attempting to eliminate confusion about the relationship among the hospitals.
Dive Insight:
The new naming strategy will not entirely unify the hospitals in the system due to numerous exceptions.
The flagship of the system, Carolinas Medical Center, will keep its name as-is. Most of the others, meanwhile, will add a prefix or replace any previous prefix with "Carolinas HealthCare System" followed by the location. As an example, Carolinas Medical Center-Lincoln, which was also called CMC-Lincoln, is now Carolinas HealthCare System Lincoln. The locations for behavioral health have that designation included in their names (i.e., Carolinas HealthCare System Behavioral Health Charlotte.)
However, a select group is retaining their old prefix of CMC. This includes CMC-Mercy, which shares an operating license with Carolinas Medical Center, and three clinics that are staffed by CMC faculty and residents. These are CMC-Myers Park, CMC-Biddle Point and CMC-NorthPark.