New Brand, New Badge
As part of the rollout of the new Mercy Health brand, all associates, physicians, and
volunteers will be receiving new name badges and new badge clip holders that reflect
the new Mercy Health logo.
Beyond the change of logo, as part of this process a team of leaders and associates
looked at how we could better standardize and simplify information displayed on badges
and more importantly, looked at how we can make our badges more patient and
consumer friendly.
The essential purpose of wearing a name badge is to help our patients, visitors and
customers easily identify who we are. They make it easier for people to connect and feel
comfortable. It’s like a silent introduction. The information on a badge should make
sense and be understandable by the patient/customer.
We also recognize that many associates are trained cross-functionally and may work in
more than one department. In addition we kept in the mind the need to steward our
resources.
With these guiding principles in mind, you will notice changes to the information on your
badge. Many titles and department names have been altered to be consumer facing.
And where appropriate the philosophy of less equals more was applied.
The standard fields of information on associate badges include:
First name, Last name
Title
Department
Mercy Health Logo
We appreciate your open-mindedness. If you feel strongly that you need changes to the
new badges, a form will be available to fill out and submit. The request will be reviewed
and evaluated by your Director as well as the Professional Image Committee.
BADGE FAQ’S
Can the new badge still be used for payroll deduction purchases?
For associates who use their badge for Cafeteria and Gift Shop Payroll Deductions, your
new badge will be active and ready for use for payroll deduction purchases ONE day
after it is activated by Security.
Why did some department names and titles change?
A team of leaders and associates looked at how we could better standardize and
simplify information displayed on badges and more importantly, looked at how we can
make our badges more patient and consumer friendly.
Our system used for SMHC badges, pulled department and title information directly from
Peoplesoft. The information in Peoplesoft is not consumer friendly. We want to ensure
that information on badges makes it easier for people to connect and feel comfortable.
Our patients and customers want to know your name and have a general sense of what
you do. They are generally not interested in the level of specificity that we have
historically included on badges.
Title Examples
PeopleSoft titles:
o Prof Dvlpmnt Spec – Nursing NE
o Librarian Medical
o Medical Assistant I
o Registered Nurse III
o Comptr Tomography CT Tech WE
Consumer facing titles on badge:
o Professional Development Specialist
o Librarian
o Clinical Team
o Registered Nurse
o CT Technician
Department Examples
PeopleSoft departments:
o Surgical Prep
o Staff Center Clinical
o Special Procedures
o Reimbursement
o OB- Mother-Baby-Matern-Postpar
Consumer facing departments on badge:
o Surgical Services
o Patient Care Services
o Heart and Vascular Center
o Finance
o Birth Center
Why did some titles go away completely and move to a more general title? For
example many clinical titles are now simply just “Clinical Team”?
It was determined that for patient facing roles in the organization a simplistic approach
was needed. It’s important to ask ourselves, “What information offers value and should
be included on a name badge?” “What do patients care about knowing and need to
know?”
Patients specifically want to know who is a doctor and who is a nurse. Beyond that many
are only interested in having a general idea of what your role is…are they part of the
business team or the clinical team?
This decision was also made because we know that many of our associates are crosstrained and may work in more than one area or role. These general titles of Clinical
Team and Business Team allow flexibility of associates to move within roles without
producing new badges, or having the information on the badge be inaccurate.
I worked hard to earn my credentials. Why are they not included?
In order to have an effective, systematic process in place to produce badges it is
imperative to have an updated, source of truth document that our Security team uses to
produce badges. At this time, only the nursing group keeps such a document and has
worked with OTE to integrate it with the associate information.
Clinical associates will still have the appropriate badge extender that boldly and clearly
identifies them as a physician, registered nurse, MA, etc.
We need to stay away from information that is “self-reported” by the associate.
Why do physician badges have less information than the basic associate badge?
We have heard from patients that the two critical pieces of information that they care
about are the person’s name and whether they can easily identify that person as a
physician. The patient is generally not interested in knowing if the physician happens to
be the medical director, the associate medical director, etc.
For physicians in the primary care setting, they will simply have just their name with their
badge extender. For most specialty physicians their department will also be included.
I work in a Mercy Health Physician Partners office. Why is our office location name
not included (such as Caledonia Office)?
The office location name does not add value to the name badge from a patient
perspective. If I am a patient at the Caledonia office, I know that already and do not need
to see that on a badge.
We also know that some associates work in more than one office setting and leaving the
office name off the badge allows for flexibility to move within roles at different offices.