SIDNEY — Shelby County’s premier healthcare organization is no longer Wilson Memorial Hospital. It’s Wilson Health.
Executives unveiled the new name, logo and purpose Tuesday on the facility campus at an event for more than 70 invited guests who represented area businesses, nonprofits and industries, as well as current and past Wilson employees and board members.
Wilson Health was the name selected by a committee of hospital leaders who worked for more than a year in response to the findings of a community perception survey completed in 2014.
Hospital President and CEO Mark Dooley said the survey showed that people think the Wilson facility is limited even though it’s not.
“This is a journey designed to reintroduce Wilson,” he said. “We are not here just to take care of people. We want people to enjoy their lives. We want to take care of the community.”
Dooley presented a new mission for Wilson Health: to offer better healthcare to our communities, so people can spend more time doing what they love with those they love.
“What are we doing to bring this purpose to life?” asked Chief Medical Officer Dr. Frederick Simpson, rhetorically. “A hospital has to be more than a place people go when they’re sick. It needs to be an active part of the community that helps people live healthier lives.” He noted that the services that are the foundation of a healthcare facility, diagnosis and treatment, must be expanded to include education, prevention and community health.
Dooley, Simpson and hospital board chairman Stan Crosley all talked about change as an ever present part of health care.
“The question in my mind is, do we let change sweep us along like a piece of debris, or do we lead the charge?” Simpson said.
Crosley noted that the hospital’s history and what it has accomplished were important things the committee considered. The first time a hospital was thought about in Shelby County was in 1893. Ten years later, the Blue Bird Social Club raised $305 to start one.
“That was a considerable sum, then,” Crosley said. In 1920, the Shelby County Memorial Hospital Association was established. Judge Harrison Wilson donated 27 acres for construction in 1928. Building began in 1929 and in 1930, Wilson Memorial Hospital opened its doors to its first patients.
The facility name recognized Wilson’s donation but also honored Shelby County veterans and servicemen who died in the military.
“Wilson Memorial Hospital has always been about people — people who understand why our independence and connection to community is so vital,” Crosley said.
Margo O’Leary, director of marketing/public relations unveiled Wilson Health’s new logo, an abstract “W” design, closely resembling the lemniscate.
“The lemniscate is a mathematical symbol of infinity, representing a symbol for Wilson Health’s ongoing pledge to improve the health and vitality of the community through a never-ending cycle of education, prevention, diagnosis and treatment, across every stage of a person’s life,” she said.
O’Leary also introduced a tag line for the organization: “Caring without Limits.”
“Our tagline is a powerful phrase that identifies Wilson Health by capturing the essence of our brand purpose, position and promise to the community,” she said.
Dooley noted that Wilson Health will extend care beyond the walls of the buildings on W. Michigan Street, but the name of the hospital building there will remain Wilson Memorial Hospital.
For information, visit www.wilsonhealth.org.
Reach the writer at 937-538-4824. Follow her on Twitter @PASpeelmanSDN.
