What prompts a successful organization to change its name? Over the past several years, we have grown and evolved and we are, fundamentally, a new organization. Our new organization needed a new name.
Research showed that our name Yellowstone City–County Health Department had low name recognition, was too long and was often referred to as “the county.” The reference to “the county” was not always particularly positive, and some of our programs and services became better known than the organization itself. Our name prevented too many people from learning about vital services that they could take advantage of, regardless of their economic circumstances.
Part of the problem was the direct result of our successes. As we grew from a small health department that was an adjunct of the county to a multi-jurisdictional health service district that provides a broad spectrum of services in several locations, the community sometimes had a difficult time associating the different services with the same organization.
During that growth spurt, our budget increased from $5 million to more than $30 million annually. Because RiverStone Health is an entrepreneurial organization, we get more than 50 percent of our revenue from grants and fees for service, not from county taxpayers. In fact, we have developed a new approach to a public–private partnership model that we believe is the wave of the future. This model is so successful that we had to find a better way to communicate who we are and what we do.
To help better understand the change of name, we talked to Lil Anderson, president and chief executive officer of RiverStone Health / Yellowstone County Health Officer and architect of the organization’s growth and transformation. Here are her responses to our questions:
Why did you change your name?
We wanted — we needed — people in our community to recognize us and the services we provide. Our new name allows us to unify our staff. We’ve been in existence for over 30 years and in that time started many services and programs, each with its own name and identity. We needed to consolidate our identity and culture to something that everyone could relate to. RiverStone Health helped us accomplish that goal.
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What happens to the name Yellowstone City-County Health Department?
That’s still our legal name. RiverStone Health is a DBA and will be the public face of the organization.
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What’s the significance of the river in RiverStone Health?
The river is a metaphor for vitality, the ability to nurture and the connections we make on life’s journey. Since we promote life, nurture and help people make connections to the health services they need, we felt this name really captured what we are, and what we will be in the future as we continue to evolve. Like a river leaves an imprint on the landscape, so do we shape and nourish the communities we serve.
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Why will you be better off with the new name?
It will help the organization focus so that we can work towards the same goals with a shared vision for the future. We are no longer an organization with multiple programmatic identities. That will allow us to better serve our population.
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On a day-to-day basis, what will this mean for the people you serve?
They’ll know who we are and what we can do for them — and we will be easier to find. They won’t need to know the name of an individual program or service. They will just need to know the name RiverStone Health. Best of all, they will know that we are here to connect them to whatever health service they need or want, not just the programs or services we provide.
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How will your new name help you achieve your mission?
Everyone — whether staff, volunteers or even board members — will understand that we have a shared mission, which is “to improve life, health and safety.” So, for the first time, we are working from one shared mission, one shared vision and one set of shared values.
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You do a wide spectrum of things — from approving septic systems and investigating disease outbreaks to providing primary care, home health care and hospice. Will this name represent all that you do?
Yes. It’s one of the main things that pulls our organization together.
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What did people think of your old name?
A lot of people disliked it. It was too long. It identified us as part of county government instead of a health district and it was limiting as it was not representative of the services we provide. Additionally, it caused confusion amongst some staff and community members in that each individual program or service was thought of as a separate entity rather than a part of a single organization.
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How has the organization changed over the last several years?
We went through a period of extremely rapid growth, from an annual budget of $17.5 million in 2004/2005 to nearly $30 million today. For most of that time, our focus was on the rapid expansion of services, including dental and pharmacy services. We were and still are experts at identifying and filling needs.
But we were victims, in a good way, of our own success. We needed to unify the many services and programs we started under a single umbrella.
Before we started on our branding journey, which gave rise to the new name, we needed to evaluate the administrative structure of the organization and make sure we were adequately staffed with people having the appropriate education, knowledge and experience. We spent some time thinking about what the organization needed to continue our growth. We added a visionary staff component and worked with our boards to develop a long-term strategic vision rather than a reactive process.
In essence, we went from a service-oriented “react to the moment “organization to an organization that looked strategically at our future and how we needed to be positioned to meet that future.
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What do you expect to achieve in the next 5 years?
I expect great things. I hope you will come back in 5 years and ask that very same question.
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