Kansas City’s Truman Medical Center changes its name. Here’s why, and what it means
Truman Medical Centers/University Health has changed its name to University Health, reminding Kansas City that there’s an academic medical center on the Missouri side of the state line, too.
As of Oct. 1, the health system’s two hospitals will be known as University Health Truman Medical Center and University Health Lakewood Medical Center.
Truman is well known as a safety net hospital, offering care to all whether they can afford it or not. But it has also taught three generations of health care professionals since the 1970s, something the hospital discovered the public seems to have forgotten.
The new name states a mission that began in 1976 when Truman partnered with the University of Missouri-Kansas City and became one of its primary teaching hospitals for the schools of medicine, nursing, pharmacy and dentistry.
“We wanted a name that reflected both sides of that mission, as an academic medical center but also as a safety net hospital. So that is how we landed on the name University Health,” said Charlie Shields, its president and CEO.
Hospitals and health systems typically undergo the huge task of a rebrand after a change of ownership or the need to change a brand identity, according to Becker’s Hospital Review, which reports on hospital business news.
In 2019, Shawnee Mission Medical Center became AdventHealth Shawnee Mission, reflecting its parent company’s Seventh-day Adventist Church roots.
Already this year nearly two dozen hospitals and health systems across the country have changed names or revamped their branding, the review reports. Marketing experts say a name change can alter what people think of a hospital.
University Health officials note that local surveys showed that people want to get their care from an academic medical center. But some think the only one in town is on the other side of the state line, an apparent reference to The University of Kansas Health System.
“I do think there are patients out there that seek out academic medicine. They know what that means,” said Shields. “For those patients that may not have realized that Truman Med/University Health fulfills that role, I think this provides clarity around that when we move to the brand University Health.”
Truman name isn’t gone
At any one time, you’re likely to find about 100 UMKC students learning medicine at the hospital. There are about 680 students in UMKC’s medicine programs and they all participate in clinical rotations, or shifts, there, according to UMKC. Students not only learn but make important professional connections that can help them find jobs in Kansas City after graduation, keeping that expertise local.
“Partnering with University Health has been a vital resource for UMKC School of Medicine students because it allows them to begin learning about medicine and interacting with patients from the first day of class,” Mary Anne Jackson, dean of UMKC’s School of Medicine, said in a statement.
UMKC’s medical school and the hospital “really grew up together,” said Shields. UMKC’s residency program moved to the then-new Truman Medical Center in December 1976, hospital officials said.
The name Truman Medical Center honored the health care reform efforts of Missouri native and former U.S. president Harry S. Truman, whose presidential library and home are in Independence.
Knowing what the Truman name means in the community, hospital officials made sure it didn’t disappear completely in the rebranding. Lakewood also kept its name, in a fashion.
“We know that there are a lot of members of this community, including our own staff, that are attached to the names of our two hospitals,” Shields said. “So we retained elements of our existing names in the brand because of the historic significance of those names.”
You keep your doctor
Changing a hospital system’s name is a heavy lift that involves changing everything from letterhead and business cards to little signs outside patient rooms and big ones on building exteriors.
The hospital system added “University Health” to its name two years ago when it became Truman Medical Centers/University Health, so that name and logo already are being used. For instance, walk-in clinics inside two Hy-Vee grocery stores in Independence bear the name University Health On the GO!
“We have brought that full circle now in the rebranding and the name change of the entire organization,” said Shields.
As of Friday, the health system’s website has a new name, too: Universityhealthkc.org. It replaces trumed.org.
The website answers patient questions about the change, such as “will I be able to see my same physician” — the answer is yes —and “will the website address change?”
Any confusion that might ensue between The University of Kansas Health System and University Health isn’t all that bad, Shields said, because “this community is blessed with two academic medical centers. That’s a good thing.”
Hospital officials know it might take a while for people to start saying “University Health.” And that’s OK, too.
“We will go by University Health, but if people refer to us as Truman, certainly we understand that and we will absolutely respond to that,” said Shields.
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