Three years after merging to create one of the largest Catholic systems in the country, Providence St. Joseph Health is changing its name to Providence while retaining the St. Joseph Health cross as its logo, the system announced Monday.
The change will happen over two to three years and start in Southern California.
"The new brand will help us raise awareness about the high-quality specialty and subspecialty care available through our clinical institutes," said Mike Butler, Providence president of strategy and operations, in a news release. "In addition, it will help us recruit the biggest hearts and best minds into our organization. It will also allow us to be more effective advocates for value-based healthcare reform and programs that serve the most vulnerable in our communities."
Providence said the rebrand reflects its Catholic heritage and will make it easier for consumers to identify the system's health network. Providence's individual ministries will maintain their leadership structures.
Ascension, another of the nation's largest Catholic systems, kicked off its nationwide rebranding three years ago and is still rolling out the name across the system. The exercise coincided with the system's reorganization into two divisions: healthcare with all its care-delivery components and a solutions division that will house ancillary businesses, such as group purchasing, biomedical engineering and venture capital investing.
Providence over the past few years diversified its operations and veered away from traditional hospital care and into more ambulatory settings. The health system also caught attention for branching beyond traditional acute care. It formed a for-profit population health management company, launched a second, $150 million venture fund, a consulting firm that specializes in managing Epic electronic health record systems and bought a revenue-cycle management company based on blockchain technology.
The Renton, Wash.-based health system also announced plans to streamline operations and improve productivity systemwide in a restructuring that shrunk its operating income last year. The system drew just $3 million in operating income last year on $24.4 billion in total operating revenue, according to Modern Healthcare Metrics.
Excluding those asset impairment, severance and consulting costs, the system said its 2018 operating income would have been $165 million. The restructuring costs are being spread across 2018 and 2019.
