The city of Martins Ferry took a huge blow when East Ohio Regional Hospital (EORH) was forced to close on September 28, 2019 from mismanagement. Jobs were lost and patients had no choice but to find a new trustworthy hospital, which could have been in another part of the state. A lot of uncertainty filled the air up until EORH was purchased by East Ohio Hospital LLC with their primary goal to reopen EORH.

The city of Martins Ferry embraced the potential of a reopening but still hadn’t forgotten about the disappointing close in 2019. Doctor Johnson, entrepreneur and CEO of both AccessOhio and EORH, was tasked to reopen the hospital under a new direction. The first step was to share this new direction publicly through a brand-new website.

The Challenge : Rebranding The Reopening

• Hospital team launching from scratch: With East Ohio Hospital team members doing their parts to launch EORH as soon as possible, developer resources were limited to take on a task like web design and development. This new site had to build a solution to this problem that can be easily managed.
• EORH’s previous image: The old EORH was not to be confused with the new EORH and under the new management, closing was no longer in the foreseeable future. Local patients and staff have to be reminded of this and they first place they will see is the website.
• Maintaining a consistent brand: EORH was one of several other hospitals managed by AccessOhio. As the parent company, AccessOhio is known for quality and consistency in care as well as efficiency in day to day operations. AccessOhio wanted to continue this brand into their newly purchased hospital.

The Solution : Uplancer

• Self-managed Site: By setting up an infrastructure managed in the cloud, Uplancer helped EORH to be less dependent on devops for their site management. In addition, Uplancer implemented a content management system into EORH’s site, further eliminating the IT need updating content.
• Refresh of logo and legacy site:The surrounding community of Martins Ferry and the rich past of EORH were the focus of Uplancer’s new logo and site designs. The new designs allowed EORH to leave their past behind and move the hospital into a new and bright direction.
• The crossroads of healthcare: AccessOhio’s iconic cross was integrated by Uplancer into the final designs of the EORH logo. In doing so, AccessOhio was able to share their brand EORH.

Uplancer was able to help EORH rebrand themselves to a local audience without reminding future patients and staff of the unpleasant past.