On October 1, 2007, Roseau Area Hospital and Homes officially changed its name to LifeCare Medical Center. But do you know why? Recently, HealthMatters visited about the name change with Keith Okeson, the President/CEO of LifeCare Medical Center. Below are excerpts from that interview.4

HM: Congratulations on the successful name change. Roseau Area Hospital and Homes is now LifeCare Medical Center. This must be an exciting time in healthcare, isn’t it?

Okeson: Absolutely! This is a real milestone in the history of rural healthcare. It’s a thrill to be part of it, and a pleasure to help usher in this new era in healthcare. When you look back to the pioneer days of country doctoring and then realize how far we’ve come in just over 100 years, it really is stunning. There are a lot of things all of us take for granted in the 21st Century, access to medical care being one of them. But how you package and present that to the people you serve is something many people don’t really consider. They just know that when they need medical attention, the care they need is available.

HM: A lot has changed especially in the last 20 years.

Okeson: Even as recent as the 1980s, this organization for the most part consisted of a hospital and one nursing home. Given that, a name like Roseau Area Hospital and Homes was appropriate because it said exactly what we were. But today we are so much more than that. We have Convenience Care, Rehabilitation Services, Behavioral Health, Home Health Care, Hospice, Public Health, two nursing homes, and a newly expanded hospital that continues to offer obstetrics and has 24-hour Emergency Room service. At some point we outgrew our own name, and as a result there was some confusion within the community as to whether or not those services were part of us or not, simply because they all had different names.

HM: Who determined it was time to fix that?

Okeson: The Board of Directors discussed a name change many times over the past decade. They realized the need to bring all the various components under one identity to eliminate confusion, provide more streamlined service, and make our entire system easier to recognize. That’s how we became LifeCare Medical
Center.

HM: The new name is much easier to articulate. Did that play a role on selecting the name?

Okeson: The new name was chosen after an extensive marketing campaign conducted by a research company that specializes in hospital rebranding. They conducted one-on-one interviews with people throughout Roseau County. The word “care” kept popping up in those interviews when people were asked to describe the staff and services here. From that, over a hundred potential names and logo designs were generated and LifeCare stood out as the winner. It encompasses who we are, what we do, and why we go to work everyday. And yes, it certainly rolls off the tongue.

HM: The new tagline also seems quite appropriate and sort of a play on words.

Okeson: One of the reasons the Board chose the words “caring for generations” as our new tagline was because of its double meaning. We provide care for all generations and at the same time we’ve been here for several generations, and many more to come.