Launching St. Tammany Health System
1202 S. Tyler St. | Covington, LA 70433
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – December 1, 2019
ST. TAMMANY ISSUES NEW CORPORATE IDENTITY
Leading Community Health System Updates Cherished Logo Mark and Identifying Statements
COVINGTON – The Board of Commissioners of St. Tammany Parish Hospital Service District No. 1 tonight unveiled a new logo identity and defining statements around their mission, vision and values as a community healthcare resource.
To better convey its modern focus and responsibilities, St. Tammany Parish Hospital will be reflected as St. Tammany Health System, effective Dec. 1, 2019. The new name was introduced along with a fresh new corporate identity including logo, mission, vision and values statements at a 65th anniversary event last night at the hospital.
“Sunday Dec. 1 marked our 65th birthday,” explained Joan Coffman FACHE, president and CEO, “and that felt like a perfectly fitting day to update how we represent ourselves and convey the promises we have been making and keeping for residents of west St. Tammany and surrounding areas since 1954.”
The iconic double-hearts logo, well known and highly recognized among Northshore residents, is updated in new art that retains elements of the former to make the connection between new and old.
“We selected a brighter shade of the same color and elected to keep interlocking hearts as a central element in our artwork,” Melissa Hodgson, communication director said. “The color is familiar and welcoming. The hearts convey our deep compassion, our commitment to caring. As we worked with Zehnder Communications to help us articulate our new look, we wanted to keep elements like that to connect the dots for our patients and to carry forward our long history of excellence, compassion and community connection.”
The two interlocking hearts include elements that connect with the former identity while also bringing to mind cardiovascular health, mother-baby bonding and family health of adult and child.
The updated mission, vision and values statements are designed to remain true to the principles the service district was founded upon, and yet speak in more current language to better articulate those long-held values. The single strongest word that arose in the research leading to the new statements was compassion, which is used in each of the new statements:
Mission: We are the heartbeat of our community, caring for our patients and their families with excellence, compassion and teamwork.
Vision: We will strengthen the health of our community with compassion, innovation and partnership.
Values: Teamwork. Trust. Compassion. Quality. Innovation.
Articulating the values:
- Teamwork: We are a team, a community, a family devoted to helping and healing every patient every time, together.
- Trust: We have faith in our caring work and pledge our honesty, courage, respect and integrity to each other and every patient in every encounter.
- Compassion: We care deeply about our patients and colleagues, treating each with empathy and respect, as if they were our own family.
- Quality: We are accountable to our patients and each other to always deliver our very best, safest care, to strive for excellence and to consistently deliver on these promises.
- Innovation: We seek new knowledge, competencies, techniques, technology and best practices to bring new hope and healing to our patients close to home.
The health system will undertake a yearlong timeline to transition the logo use out of respect for wise use of existing resources and limiting budgetary outlays to update signage. Consistent use of the new identity is expected across the whole system by Dec. 31, 2020.
Chairman of the Board of Commissioners John Evans summed up the change with a colorful analogy.
“Our new logo and identifying statements are such an opportunity for us to freshen up our look and our language,” John Evans, chairman of the board of commissioners. “It’s kind of like when your beloved aunt gets a new hairdo after 20 years. You love her, you recognize her by that hair, but you are so grateful someone helped her to find a more modern look that still conveys her true character.”
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St. Tammany Health System is the heartbeat of its community, caring for patients and families with excellence, compassion and teamwork; it will strengthen the health of its community with compassion, innovation and partnership and is recognized for quality, safety and the patient experience by CareChex, Leapfrog, Healthgrades, Hospital Compare, Women’s Choice and US News & World Report. St. Tammany Parish Hospital Service District No. 1 is an independent service district in a clinically integrated partnership with Ochsner Health System. Together, the two organizations focus on aligning their healthcare offerings to best serve patients and families in west St. Tammany and surrounding areas. Under their agreement, each retains its autonomy; neither manages nor owns the other. Self-supporting and not-for-profit STHS receives no tax funding. More at stph.org.