Introducing the Inspira Health Network

By Chet Kaletkowski, Inspira Health Network President and CEO

Monday, April 22, 2013 — This month we formally launched the new brand for our health system: Inspira Health Network. It’s another milestone in the merger between South Jersey Healthcare and Underwood-Memorial Hospital and a very exciting one for me personally.

The new name signifies to the community that we are united under one new system, which now provides excellent health care services across a large portion of Southern New Jersey. But Inspira is more than just a name. Pronounced “in-speer-ah,” our new brand is taken from the word “inspiration” and I feel it embodies the vision of our new network.

Our mission is to provide quality care and services to improve the health of those we serve. However, as a leading regional health care organization, we are committed to doing more than just that. We believe our organization must become a source of inspiration, encouraging everyone to lead healthier lives.

That’s one of the very special things about health care. I work with thousands of caregivers, physicians and staff in our organizations that were called to this profession because they were inspired to care for others. The Inspira name captures that feeling, as well as the inspiration we have as an organization to continue improving access to quality care for all of our communities.

I’m very pleased with our new brand identity, but I must say that selecting a new name is not easy. A great deal of research and discussion led to this decision and I’d like to take you inside the process.

More than two years ago when we first started talking about merging our organizations, SJH and UMH agreed that we needed to evaluate our brands and the strength they held in our region. Together we conducted consumer perception studies in our communities, which revealed that adopting a new name would present a unique marketing opportunity.

Based on that information, we developed a list of more than 50 names that we felt could capture the essence and strategic direction of our system. We discussed words that described our vision like innovation, compassion and quality. Over and over again, “inspiration” rose to the top of that list.

We went back to our communities to conduct additional research and found that our neighbors had an overwhelmingly positive response to the name “Inspira.” Using surveys and focus groups, we learned that people felt the name was very personal and warm. They also indicated that the name was inspirational, forward-thinking, caring and compassionate.

Launching a new brand is exciting, but ultimately we believe that by merging our systems together, Inspira Health Network will provide even better health care throughout the region. We are one of the region’s largest organizations with more than 700 beds, 1000 physicians, 5,000 employees and 60 locations. And most importantly, we have a clear strategic vision for the future of our network and how we can improve the delivery of health care in our region.

We have just completed a five-year strategic plan for our network and we see many positive opportunities for growth and expansion. For you, the members of our community, we continue to be dedicated to providing excellent care in our hospitals. But we are also expanding our services and our network of experienced physicians into your neighborhoods so that you have access to high quality care closer to home.

Providing great care where and when you need it is all a part of the inspiration that drives us to care for our patients every day. I think this excerpt from our branding campaign captures this feeling best:

“What does inspiration mean to you?

To us, it’s the smile of a mother meeting her newborn; the look of relief when a patient is told they’re cancer free; or the grateful eyes of family members knowing their loved ones received great care.

It’s these inspiring moments that led South Jersey Healthcare and Underwood-Memorial Hospital to come together…to form Inspira Health Network.”

For more information, please visit www.InspiraHealthNetwork.org.