Memphis regional hospital adopts new brand: ‘Regional One Health’

Feb. 26--The Regional Medical Center -- the deeply rooted Memphis hospital best known for its trauma care, burn center and services for high-risk births -- will keep its name.

But the hospital is the flagship for a health care system that also includes a broader array of services and recently added or upgraded facilities. The nonprofit corporation that oversees them all wants to reintroduce itself, particularly to people with health insurance, by adopting a new brand name.

"I want to introduce to you Regional One Health," Dr. Reginald Coopwood, chief executive officer of what is now Regional One Health, said Wednesday before reluctant wrapping was removed from the new brand name and logo installed on part of the complex that straddles high above Jefferson Avenue.

Phil Shannon, chairman of the Shelby County Health Care Corp. board that oversees the system and adopted the new brand, told a crowd gathered in freezing temperatures for the outdoor unveiling that over four years many changes have been made that "started out with scrub brushes and paint brushes."

The hospital's name last changed in 1983, to Regional Medical Center at Memphis, or The Med, and it was known for decades as John Gaston Hospital. The system dropped the "at Memphis" from the name of the hospital, which has 325 beds available, name more than a year ago.

Coopwood said in an interview that the Regional Medical Center will remain a regional leader without any competitors in trauma care for severely injured people, burn treatment and birth-related, services.

However, during strategic planning with the goal of being a leading academic medical center after his arrival as the CEO about four years ago, Coopwood said it was clear that "The Med" suffered from a widespread image as "the poor people's hospital."

"Today, the community feels if I have insurance, I therefore don't have to go to The Med," Coopwood said. "So in order for us to change the community's understanding of who we are, we felt that along with the fact that we've added multiple assets to who we are, we felt that rebranding served both purposes."

The system is investing a total of about $35 million in debt-free projects that in the last 16 months included adding a new four-suite outpatient surgery center, a 24-bed extended-care hospital and a 30-bed rehabilitation hospital to three previously vacant floors of Turner Tower.

The new facilities will broadcast the new brand name, clinics will be arms of the Regional One Health Primary Care Network and the system's foundation also will adopt the brand name Coopwood said.

The health care system, which has about 2,200 employees, is looking to expand physician services, provided by doctors who also are faculty members at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, to East Memphis.

In 2012, the Med purchased 49 acres at the corner of Bill Morris Parkway and Kirby and is now looking for space for physicians to see patients and perhaps imaging, minor emergency and other services, he said. July 1 is the startup target date.

Commercial insurance accounted for a little more than 14 percent of nearly $319 million in net revenue in the system's 2012 budget year. Coopwood said he wants to grow that to 30 to 40 percent, while still serving uninsured people.

"Today, when one needs an elective procedure, the choices have always been Baptist, Methodist, St. Francis," Coopwood said. "Fine institutions, but we want to be on the list for the community, our community ..."

"So we're not just for the uninsured," he said. "We're for all of Memphis. Regional One Health will cover Memphis."

Anatomy of a name

The Regional Medical Center, now the flagship hospital of Regional One Health, has seen other name changes in its 185 years.

1829 -- A bill in the Tennessee legislature provided tax dollars for opening the Memphis Hospital.

1866 -- Following the Civil War, it became the Memphis City Hospital after the state legislature granted it to the City of Memphis, which funded it with a special tax.

1936 -- The new John Gaston Hospital opened, named for the former husband of Theresa Gaston Mann, who left $300,000 and her home to the hospital.

1983 -- The hospital was renamed the Regional Medical Center at Memphis, or The Med.

2014 -- The Regional Medical Center, governed by the Shelby County Health Care Corp., becomes the flagship hospital of Regional One Health.

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