Mohawk Valley Health System Launches New Brand

The affiliation of Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare (FSLH) and St. Elizabeth Medical Center (SEMC) to form the Mohawk Valley Health System (MVHS) was completed in March 2014. After a comprehensive research and planning process, MVHS is proud to announce a new brand campaign that highlights the integrated services and continuum of care being offered to patients and residents as a result of the affiliation.

“Establishing a single brand for MVHS was an important part of the affiliation because it is vital to our success in building a new culture for the system,” said Scott H. Perra, FACHE, president/CEO of MVHS. “Change is never easy; developing a new culture that supports collaboration is a major initiative and we look forward to rolling this out for our employees, medical staff and volunteers over the coming year.”

FSLH and SEMC, working together under MVHS, are dedicated to excellence in patient and resident care and promoting wellness in our community. The MVHS mission is “to provide for excellence in healthcare for our communities” and the vision is “to be the trusted healthcare system of choice through clinical quality, excellence in service and education, compassionate care, promotion of wellness and operational efficiency.”

The MVHS logo and colors are designed to show the unity of the system and to promote recognition within the communities of the Mohawk Valley. The sweeping shape of the valley and the stripes represent a familiar image to our areas, that of a plowed field. The soft, warm green and deep blue colors were carefully selected because they represent the local, natural environment. The color green represents well-being, health and purity; the blue is meant to inspire trust as well as stability and reliability.

“It was an exciting opportunity to create the logo and brand design for Mohawk Valley Health System,” said AJ Wiswell, graphic designer and marketing assistant for MVHS. “We hope that when people think of MVHS, they think of a place where they will receive excellent, compassionate healthcare.”

As the new brand is introduced, community members will begin seeing the logo on signage, advertising, social media, stationery, employees’ badges, vehicles, publications, forms and more. Full implementation of the brand will happen over time and a new website for the system will be developed in 2015.

In 2015, the Mohawk Valley Health System will continue to focus on clinical quality, access to services throughout the system and physician recruitment. MVHS finalized a new, three-year strategic plan, which will help guide collaboration of departments and services. Supporting patients/residents through all phases of their care ­– from inpatient to outpatient to home care – and doing it as a system has many advantages for the families that we serve as well as for caregivers and support staff.

“The affiliation is allowing us to keep up with the constant changes in healthcare and address the needs of our patients, residents and communities,” said Perra. “MVHS brings together award-winning hospitals and nationally-recognized physicians to provide comprehensive services to our community, making it unnecessary to leave the area for care. We are excited about what is to come with the affiliation and what being a larger system could mean for our area.”

Under the MVHS affiliation, the individual hospital names (Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare and St. Elizabeth Medical Center) will remain the same and the system is governed by a single Board of Directors. The companies included in the affiliation are:

Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare

• Adirondack Community Physicians
• Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare Foundation
• Mohawk Valley Home Care
• St. Luke’s Home
• Senior Network Health
• Visiting Nurse Association of Utica and Oneida County

St. Elizabeth Medical Center

• St. Elizabeth College of Nursing
• St. Elizabeth Family Medicine Residency
• St. Elizabeth Foundation
• St. Elizabeth Health Support Services
• St. Elizabeth Home Care
• St. Elizabeth Medical Group

A video featuring MVHS and how “together we make a difference” can be viewed at www.mvhealthsystem.org/makeadifference. For more information, visit www.faxtonstlukes.com or www.stemc.org.

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Erin Gigliotti