Michigan's largest in-state health system finally has a permanent name: Corewell Health.
The announcement comes more than 8 months after the merger of Spectrum Health and Beaumont Health. The two systems merged on Feb. 1 after announcing the intent to merge more than a year ago. The two entities previously operated under the BHSH parent company while maintaining the Spectrum and Beaumont names on hospitals.
The nonprofit operates a $12 billion, 22-hospital health system with its own health insurer in Priority Health and roughly 60,000 employees.
The new name will be reflected across all of the hospital names, the system said in a press release on its new site, corewellhealth.org.
The system plans to phase in the new name signage over the next two years and the name reflects a "a future where health is simple, affordable, equitable and exceptional," the company said in a release.
"At our core, we are here to help people be well so they can live their healthiest life possible," Tina Freese Decker, president and CEO of Corewell Health, said in a press release. "We recognize the amazing outcomes and history from Beaumont Health and Spectrum Health. Now together, known as Corewell Health, we move forward unified, focused on health and wellness for all. The name selection is especially inspiring as it was influenced by thousands of ideas from our team members who put health and wellness at the core of everything we do."
Alex Calderone, managing director of Calderone Advisory Group, which consults in the healthcare space, said the name change is underwhelming but unlikely to make a material impact.
"I don't think it's particularly catchy and I'm sure both sides of the state will mourn the elimination of the legacy branding," Calderone told Crain's. "With that said, this is simply a name change and isn't likely to meaningfully impact operations or demand or care."
The Spectrum name is being eliminated entirely, but the new signage will retain the Beaumont name on some of the locations.
Tina Freese-Decker, president and CEO of Corewell, told Crain’s they maintained the legacy Beaumont name on some hospitals because of the name’s recognition and importance in those communities.
“It’s important we recognize the rich history of all of our organizations,” Freese-Decker said. “We went to our board and internal teams and asked them how would they would like to be referred. We thought it important to honor the legacy names, Blodgett and William Beaumont.”
Freese-Decker said the name change will remain internal for 2022 and the signage will begin to change in 2023 along with a more robust marketing campaign.
The system hired San Francisco-based brand strategy firm Prophet to come up with the Corewell name and logo.
Freese-Decker said the name change will aid in the integration process as the entire 22-hospital system is now under one brand.
“It’s really exciting to have one name to call ourselves,” Freese-Decker said. “It’s a name that’s much better than the previous BHSH name. Having this Corewell name, we can talk about ourselves and what we’re doing collectively — our core values and what we’re trying to accomplish. Also, it helps with further fostering and advancing our culture.”
