The Nebraska Medical Center, Bellevue Medical Center and UNMC Physicians – once three separate but interconnected organizations – are now one operating under one name: Nebraska Medicine.
Nebraska Medicine will continue to deliver the same familiar promise of "Serious Medicine. Extraordinary Care," and will provide it to all of its patients wherever they may need it, whether it's at their doctors' office, a hospital, or an outpatient facility in Omaha, Bellevue, Plattsmouth or elsewhere throughout the region.
The newly integrated organization, which includes more than 6,100 employees, allows Nebraska Medicine to strengthen its services by expanding collaboration among its partners and providing patients with increased access to approximately 1,100 physicians and 678 licensed hospital beds as well as 39 ambulatory clinics in Omaha and the surrounding area.
Nebraska Medicine will continue to serve as the primary clinical teaching partner for the University of Nebraska Medical Center and its health sciences programs. UNMC, with about 4,700 employees, will remain a separate entity from Nebraska Medicine, but will share a new logo to more closely align the two organizations.
The three entities have been moving toward becoming one, clinically integrated organization for more than two years. Patients will now receive billing, communication and care in a more unified manner from Nebraska Medicine rather than from multiple organizations.
"This transition not only makes our organization stronger, but it also improves our patients' experiences, through better coordination of care and more efficient access for our patients, among many other improvements," said Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., UNMC chancellor and chairman of the Nebraska Medicine Advisory Board. "This integrated organization will gain increased national recognition as we transform lives to create a healthy future through extraordinary care, remarkable discovery and relevant learning."
It also allows Nebraska Medicine to increase its scope of services by benefitting from each of the distinctly different capabilities of each of the individual organizations, Dr. Gold said.
"While we have a new name, we want to assure everyone this is still 'the med center,'" said Bill Dinsmoor, CEO of Nebraska Medicine. "It retains the best of the founding organizations, while allowing us to provide the type of coordinated care that will be critical in a time of profound change in health care."
A new name and logo is reflective of the organization's more comprehensive level of services and also leans on the legacy of the individual entities that comprise it, Dinsmoor said.
The logo, or "emblem" – a shield featuring a subtle red "N" in the upper right corner – provides a visual representation of both organizations' deep Nebraska roots and their shared mission to improve the human condition. Three white parallelograms around the N represent the education, research and patient care missions that were reflected previously in UNMC Physicians' "ring" logo.
The shield is a symbol that The Nebraska Medical Center, Bellevue Medical Center and UNMC each used in their previous brands. It symbolizes leadership, courage and protection, Dr. Gold said.
"Today is a celebration of our transition into a single clinical enterprise that ultimately will better serve our patients," said Bradley Britigan, M.D., president of Nebraska Medicine and dean of the UNMC College of Medicine. "It represents the next stage of a strong Nebraska health care organization known for its excellence, innovation and quality patient care, as well as its cutting-edge internationally recognized medical research and its education of the majority of Nebraska health care providers."
"It allows us to unite all our employees under a new identity," Dinsmoor said. "The name reflects that we are more than a single hospital location or a collection of clinics – that we are a health care provider that extends across the region and into your neighborhood."
Dinsmoor said the hospitals have more than 25,000 discharges annually, and the clinic staff sees more than 500,000 patient visits yearly.
While Nebraska Medicine will adopt the "Serious Medicine. Extraordinary Care" tagline used by The Nebraska Medical Center, UNMC will retain its "Breakthroughs for Life" tagline.
"The taglines reflect the mission of each enterprise," Dr. Britigan said. "Given the exceptionally strong public recognition and resonance that already exists with these taglines, it made perfect sense to continue to use them."
Changes to signs across campus will start immediately and will continue in the near future to ensure that the new brand is visible for both employees and patients. Many signs on campus will feature the shared logo and the names Nebraska Medicine and UNMC.
Specific locations will be identified individually with the new logo, for example: Nebraska Medicine – Nebraska Medical Center; Nebraska Medicine – Bellevue; Nebraska Medicine – Village Pointe; Nebraska Medicine – Eagle Run.
"This is an investment in the future of our organization that must be made considering our role as a leading academic medical center and the evolving health care market that exists in the region," Dr. Gold said.