News

Contact: Sasha Dull

Prairie du Chien Memorial Hospital announced today that it will be changing its organization name to Crossing Rivers Health, an expanding, independent health system serving the region. The Crossing Rivers tagline will be “Your bridge to wellness.”

“After extensive and thoughtful research and planning, the Prairie du Chien Memorial Hospital board of directors unanimously agreed that it was time for a new brand to represent the evolution of our organization and its commitment to meeting the changing healthcare needs of the communities we serve in Southwest Wisconsin and Northeast Iowa,” said Bill Sexton, chief executive officer of Crossing Rivers Health.

The rebrand process began in 2012 when Prairie du Chien Memorial leadership conducted a Brand Audit that included online surveys, external focus groups and internal focus groups. Based upon the results, hospital administrators and the board of directors determined a new brand identity would better represent the hospital’s more than 60 diversified services, geographic service area and philosophy. The rebrand will be a gradual change which will first take life at the new clinic location, opening in July, and concluding with the opening of the new health center in the Spring of 2015.

Each part of the new name has relevant meaning. “Crossing Rivers” both describes the health system’s location – at the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Wisconsin River – and its service to patients on both sides of the rivers in two states, Wisconsin and Iowa.

By changing the name from “Hospital” to “Health Center,” the organization better describes the diverse array of services it provides today.

“As holistic care, disease prevention and wellness shape today’s model of healthcare, the words ‘health center’ more accurately describe what we do here,” Sexton said. “While a ‘hospital’ connotes a place where sick people go, a ‘health center’ is a place where people go to get and stay well.”

The new logo, with soothing colors of blue and green, features a bridge resembling the one that crosses the Mississippi River between Iowa and Wisconsin.

The new tagline, “Your bridge to wellness,” also emphasizes the wellness component of care. The Crossing Rivers staff of professionals and providers also serve as bridges in a sense, providing personal connections to care with compassion and joy. With services that span the entire course of one’s life – from birth to end of life– Crossing Rivers bridges a complete continuum of care for the whole family.

“Crossing Rivers Health represents the changing currents of healthcare today,” Sexton said. “As your family’s bridge to wellness across your lifespan, we are not simply about healing – we’re about the joy of well-being.”

The health system’s two new clinics – in Prairie du Chien and Fennimore – will be called Crossing Rivers Health Clinic.

As an independent, rural hospital ranked in the top 100 of all Critical Access Hospitals across the nation, Crossing Rivers Health's primary mission and responsibility is to meet the healthcare and wellness needs of our community. The organization has been serving the area since 1957.

Pictured: Hospital Week Planning Committee members posed with a giant puzzle which features the organization’s new name and logo. A puzzle piece was given to every staff member signifying their importance as an essential piece of the organization.