Rebranding Signals Higher Level of Care

Rising from Nebraska’s rural landscape are towers of galvanized steel that both symbolize and serve our agrarian economy. They are grain silos, and they store and protect the harvest. Silos are assets for farms. But they are liabilities for healthcare organizations.

In the healthcare environment, professional silos isolate and separate. Defined by skill, experience, responsibility and even by age, these silos keep people apart. Administrators govern. Physicians heal. Nurses care. Therapists treat. Scientists discover. They are distinct in their roles and their cultures. Their training is different. They go about their duties differently. They often use a language unique to their work. They share the same building but are divided by walls – physically and mentally.

For the healthcare workforce to move forward, professional silos need to disappear. Isolation is for disease, not people. Separation equals frustration. It isn’t good for the organization – not for the medical professionals who seek to advance it or for the patients and families who depend upon it.

Today and tomorrow, unity needs to be a priority for healthcare leadership. That means bringing people together. A shared culture. A shared mission and vision. A shared purpose – and a shared pride.

It also means bringing care together. The integration of services isn’t a new concept, but as healthcare entities grow, it seems to be more difficult to achieve. Patients with complex issues often face unnecessary obstacles. They have one specialist who treats their heart, a different one who treats their lungs and a roster of support people who deliver different therapies at different times in different places. Individualized coordination of care creates a single point of contact for the patient. That takes the focus off scheduling and puts it on healing.

The best way to express a renewed culture and a more personalized level of care is through rebranding. Bringing care and people together increases collaboration, generates innovative treatments, sparks discoveries and improves outcomes. That kind of hope needs to be communicated, both internally and externally. Rebranding delivers that message in the most powerful, effective manner available.

Whether from a distance, up close or even standing inside, silos may look impenetrable, but the winds of change can bring them down.