St. Mary's gets longer name

Officials with the Sisters of St. Mary's Health Care Systems are changing the brand of all their facilities. The new moniker for the health care systems will now be SSM Health.

Doctors, nurses, patients and administrators gathered in the lobby of the older St. Mary's facility for the formal unveiling of the brand on Tuesday afternoon. After the group got the news from Brent VanConia, president of the SSM Health Mid Missouri Region, they snacked on cupcakes and punch.

"All of our 19 hospitals in four states will be moving to a new common brand so that folks know we are part of a larger system with 30,000 employees and 7,000 physicians," VanConia said. "Mid-Missouri is the first region of the five regions in our system to move forward with the brand. We are doing it in connection with the opening of the new hospital."

The local hospital's new name will be SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital Jefferson City, said VanConia. He also said the 20 clinics along the U.S. 54 corridor will have a name change to reflect the rebranding to the SSM Health medical groups, as well as some outpatient services. For example, the SSM home care will now be known as SSM Health at Home.

"The idea has been discussed for probably two or three years," VanConia said. "Recently the system has moved from a holding company to an operating company. ... We centralized support functions of humans relations, strategic planning, and finance about a year ago. Each region kind of operated somewhat autonomously under the (previous) system ... now though they are much more centralized."

The new brand promise for the hospital is based around the words "experience exceptional." The high command of the hospital wants people to receive high levels of quality, safety and patient experience, VanConia said.

After the press conference announcing the new brand, the group headed to the new hospital to see the unveiling of the signage reflecting the new brand.

Other than a change in name, a new promise, and more centralized leadership and services, there will be no change in the services provided by the organization.