Providence, Swedish health care systems unite under one brand

Providence and Swedish Health Services have announced a unified brand for its family of organizations in Western Washington.

The new brand — Providence Swedish — coincides with the 10-year anniversary of the Providence and Swedish affiliation, a news release from the organizations says.

Since coming together in 2012, the two organizations have worked together to create a comprehensive care system throughout the region, offering primary care and specialty and subspecialty care in clinical areas such as cancer care, cardiovascular health, neurosciences, orthopedics, digestive health and women’s and children’s care.

The not-for-profit Providence Swedish now represents the largest health care delivery system in Western Washington, with 22,000 caregivers, more than 2,200 providers, eight hospitals, 244 clinics, 97,000 annual hospital admissions and 1.2 million unique patients served, the news release says. It also provided more than $406 million in community care last year as part of its commitment to serving those in need.

Providence Swedish has served the Puget Sound region since the first Providence hospital opened in Seattle in 1877 and the first Swedish hospital opened in 1910. Providence operates the 390-bed St. Peter Hospital in Olympia.

“As two organizations that have served the Puget Sound region for well over a century, we came together 10 years ago because we knew we could make a bigger difference together than we could on our own. The concept of ‘better together’ has proven true many times over the decade, especially throughout the pandemic,” said Dr. R. Guy Hudson, president of strategy and operations for Puget Sound, Providence, and CEO, Swedish Health Services.

“Looking ahead, we will work even more closely to transform health care across the Puget Sound. Unifying under a shared brand is one step in that journey. Our unified brand will help us further improve access and ease the way of those we serve by clearly identifying which providers and locations are part of our family of organizations,” Hudson said.

The new brand will apply to St. Peter and Providence Swedish hospitals in Lewis, King and Snohomish counties as well as to Providence Medical Group and Swedish Medical Group clinics across the region.

However, Swedish will remain a secular organization, and Providence will remain a faith-based organization. That means Swedish locations will continue to provide certain services that may not be available at Providence locations, the news release says.

Providence and Swedish also remain separate employers, and its foundations will continue to operate as separate 501(c)3s.