Creightonian Online -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 4/13/2002
Last Visited: 4/13/2002
Over the next couple months, Creighton will be doing an internal evaluation, and looks to go public around early June, said Fred Salzinger, associate vice president in Health Sciences."On one hand, nothing changes," he said."The hospital is still the hospital, the school is still the school, and they remain independent.The big change is that we will present ourselves as a single entity."Salzinger said the change will have no real effect on students, other than an increase in patient volume, which will translate to more experience for health sciences students.Plans call for the hospital to replace the sign on the east side of the building as well as install a new banner on the west side of the building.The branding project also calls for deeper changes than just switching a few signs.Letterheads, name badges and the way the medical center is referred to in the media are all part of a sweeping project."We want people to identify Creighton University with health care, whether it's at St. Joe's, in the community, or at an outreach center," Salzinger said.The new identity comes in response to a 1995 study that found St. Joseph Hospital to be the area's least popular hospital.That study, authorized by Creighton, found that 31 percent of the respondents expressed reservation about using St. Joseph Hospital – a figure more than double its closest competitor. A 2001 study found 21 percent of respondents said they had reservations about St. Joseph hospital, by far the lowest ranking in the market.A bright spot among the research was that respondents in a 2001 focus group overwhelmingly agreed that Creighton represents a better, more trustworthy and esteemed health care delivery system.It's no coincidence that the new identity for Creighton's health-care division comes at the same time as the university is finalizing its master plan.