Two years after a merger that created a now $12.1 billion system, St. Louis-based BJC Health is rolling out fresh branding to solidify its market positioning and boost recruitment and retention, leaders told Becker’s.
St. Louis-based BJC HealthCare and Kansas City, Mo.-based Saint Luke’s Health System joined forces in early 2024, rebranding as BJC Health in late 2025. Now, the organization’s West region is in the midst of a new marketing campaign — “All For Kansas City” — and updating signage to bring the BJC brand to its market.
“The new logo puts an exclamation point behind the fact that the Saint Luke’s brand is here to stay, and, at the same time, connects us to BJC Health,” said Julie Quirin, president of BJC Health’s West region (aka Saint Luke’s Health System). “It tells the story that we’re stronger together, while leaning into that brand equity that we’ve built over the last 150 years here in Kansas City.”
From the beginning, the combined organization prioritized having an umbrella brand to showcase its broader reach and signify continued growth.
“In healthcare there’s a lot of volatility these days, so scale as a health system really matters,” said Chris Watts, executive vice president and chief strategy officer of BJC Health. “Together, we’re now a $12 billion organization, and that really matters in terms of our ability to invest in the absolute best technology, invest in the best for our facilities.”
Leaders chose BJC Health as the enterprise identity — BJC HealthCare was the larger system, an academic organization — rather than introducing a new moniker or combining the two names.
“BJC is very well known nationally, in some cases even internationally, and we absolutely want to cast the broadest net that we can from a recruitment and retention perspective, whether that’s for our team members, our providers, referring physicians, you name it,” Mr. Watts said. “As we look outside for talent, we have that much of a broader draw together than either one of us had alone, both geographically and across disciplines, so that’s a big deal.”
Executives also wanted to provide clarity for organizations that work with BJC’s shared services, like revenue cycle, supply chain, and marketing and communications — as well as the health system’s now 48,000 employees. “This is as much about telling who we are to our team as it is to the community,” Mr. Watts said.
The rebrand didn’t require much additional spending, with over 90% internally resourced by the health system’s existing marketing and communications staff, outsourcing some market research and design. Still, BJC Health plans to track the return on that investment by measuring brand preference and awareness, utilization, referrals, and click-to-call or click-to-appointment, plus broader indicators like staff experience and turnover.
BJC Health isn’t currently making changes in its East region in St. Louis, as the BJC brand is already prominent there. But the health system plans to complete its physical and digital rebranding in the Kansas City area in the next six months, using its new platform and increased visibility as a jumping-off point to expand services.
Even though the Saint Luke’s logo and its hospitals will now feature the BJC Health name, leaders don’t expect community members to change what they call the facilities, at least initially.
“We fully expect our patients to still say, ‘I’m having my surgery at Saint Luke’s East’ or ‘I’m seeing a doctor at Saint Luke’s on the Plaza,’ right?” Ms. Quirin said. “But over time, we really want to build on the connection and continue to demonstrate the value added with the partnership and connection to BJC Health from a broader perspective.”
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