Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin is adopting a new name to reflect its evolution from a single hospital to a regional, multi-site pediatric health system.
The health system is now operating under the name “Children’s Wisconsin.”
The brand will be rolled out in phases, starting with new ads, and social media and website updates. Over the next few years, the system will update building signs and outdated materials.
“The existing logo and name aren’t going away overnight; this will be a phased rollout,” said Tricia Geraghty, chief marketing officer for Children’s Wisconsin.
The new name comes as Children’s nears the end of its 125th anniversary year.
It isn’t the first time Children’s has undergone a name change. The hospital opened as a 10-bed facility in Milwaukee as Children’s Free Hospital in 1894. The brand evolved into Children’s Hospital and Health System and, later, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.
Today, the system serves about 150,000 children cared through its primary care clinics and about 140,000 individuals through Children’s Community Health Plan.
“We really started as a hospital, grew into a premier medical center with a large research footprint and continued to expand throughout the community,” Geraghty said. “…We’ve expanded our footprint in so many ways, and it didn’t really seem accurate anymore to only name ourselves as ‘Children’s Hospital’ given that our reach is so broad throughout the community.”
In some ways, the name change reflects how people already refer to the health system, Geraghty said.
“People who are getting services here or people who know Children’s and care about it are already referring to us as Children’s so we kind of caught up with what our families and other supporters are calling us.”
“Our employees and providers, doctors, staff nurses, who stretch everything from front-line care providers in the hospital and clinics to social workers and therapists and child life workers, are really excited about the idea of being comprehensive in how we describe ourselves,” she added.
In addition to adding several new outpatient facilities in recent years, including clinics in Kenosha, Mequon and at Midtown Center on Milwaukee’s north side, Children’s is in the middle of a $265 million expansion and renovation construction project at its flagship hospital campus. The project will include a 237,000-square-foot building addition and the expansion of the emergency department.
