Caritas Christi Health Care Rebranding

Nomenclature, design strategy, concept development, envisioning, graphic design, interactive design, copywriting

Caritas Christi Health Care was a non-profit, Roman Catholic health care system established in Boston in 1985. It thrived initially, but by 2008, although it was still the second-largest health care system in New England, it was struggling for survival due in large part to a steadily eroding Catholic population and the superior treatment (and treatment facilities) available from better funded competitors. With fewer and fewer patients and less and less income, the system’s hospitals were showing their age and their medical technologies were rapidly falling behind the curve.

Working in collaboration with Rice McVaney Communications, we were brought in to rename, rebrand and reboot the system to make it more attractive to both potential patients and potential buyers. The new identity, still acknowledging but downplaying the organization’s relationship to the Church and emphasizing a new, forward-leaning, consumer-centric attitude, did its job extraordinarily well: in 2010, Caritas Christi was sold to the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, who immediately converted it to a for-profit company and renamed it Steward Health Care System.

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