Hospitals are becoming brands. So what?

The hospital as we know it in the Netherlands is changing. Not quietly, but visibly and fast. Elective care - think knee surgery, cataract surgery or hip replacement - is increasingly moving out of the busy corridors of general hospitals and finding its own space. In dedicated focused clinics and care pathways, where calm, rhythm and focus take centre stage.

This shift is no coincidence. It's the answer to growing waiting lists, rising competition from commercial clinics, and the hard reality that you simply can't schedule a planned knee operation alongside an unexpected emergency admission. The Integral Care Agreement (IZA) is also pushing hospitals towards smarter, more efficient care. And that demands choices - in organisational form, but also in positioning and brand strategy.

Because when a hospital launches its own specialised clinic, who is that, precisely? How do you communicate efficiency without coming across as cold? And when do you choose a sub-brand over your parent brand? This piece explores how hospitals in the Netherlands and beyond are tackling these questions, which brand models work, and where the pitfalls lie.

These questions aren't theoretical for us. BR-ND People has spent the past years solving brand and culture challenges for a range of leading healthcare organisations, including St. Antonius Ziekenhuis, OLVG, Bernhoven, Santeon and mProve. That experience shapes what we share here - with practical insight into what works, what creates friction, and where the real opportunities lie.

The shift in context

Hospitals have been under pressure for years. Waiting lists are growing, the population is ageing, and patients expect more and more. At the same time, the rules of the game are changing. Commercial clinics - so-called Independent Treatment Centres (ZBCs) - are smartly picking up elective procedures: they're small, fast and focused. No emergency admissions disrupting the schedule. Only elective care, for patients who don't want to wait.

Hospitals need to respond. The Integral Care Agreement (IZA) - the national framework designed to keep healthcare affordable and accessible - is pushing them towards smarter, more efficient ways of working. This requires not only organisational adjustments, but also clear choices in positioning and brand: who do you want to be, and how do you show it?

From one-stop-shop to a care portfolio

The traditional general hospital has long been seen as a 'one-stop-shop' for all medical needs, ranging from minor fractures to complex neurosurgery and trauma care. However, this model is under enormous pressure due to rising patient volumes, an ageing population, and increasing clinical complexity. One of the most visible consequences is the growth of waiting times for elective treatments, as emergency admissions frequently disrupt planned surgical schedules.

In response, healthcare managers have applied principles from the worlds of manufacturing and logistics to care delivery. The idea is simple: if you perform one type of procedure repeatedly, with a fixed team, a fixed space and a fixed way of working, you get better and faster at it. By physically and organisationally separating elective care from emergency care, an environment is created where everything is predictable - without an acute situation disrupting the day's schedule.

The 'focused factory' framework

The term 'focused factory' may sound cool and industrial. And that's precisely the point. The idea, borrowed from manufacturing, is that focus leads to better performance. A clinic that exclusively performs cataract surgery does it better, faster and more affordably than a hospital that does everything. Not because the surgeons are better, but because the surrounding system is optimised for exactly that one procedure.

In the medical world, this translates into fixed care pathways, specialised equipment and teams that perform the same procedures day in, day out - with all the benefits that brings.

The Rotterdam Eye Hospital and Coxa Hospital in Finland are considered leading examples of this model: fully designed around one type of care, with outstanding results on both quality and cost.

Brand models in practice

When a hospital decides to set up elective care separately, a fundamental question quickly arises: who are you then, exactly? Do you continue under the parent hospital's name, or do you give the new unit its own identity? Both choices have pros and cons. And the answers vary significantly by country and type of healthcare organisation.

The US: sub-brand as competitive strategy

In the US, elective care has largely moved to Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs), which offer a cost-effective alternative to hospital-based surgery. Many American hospitals have entered joint ventures with commercial partners to launch these centres, often deploying a sub-brand strategy to compete with independent clinics.

A prominent example is the collaboration between Baptist Health and Compass Surgical Partners, who brand their network as Horizon Surgery Center. This sub-brand allows the hospital system to capture the full market by attracting patients who would otherwise go to a commercial clinic, while still being supported by the trusted parent brand.

The Netherlands: focused clinics and care pathways

In the Netherlands, the rise of commercial ZBCs has forced hospitals to reconsider their positioning for elective care. This often happens through the creation of 'care pathways' to separate patient flows.

1. The subsidiary brand

OLVG operates an autonomous brand strategy through its 100% subsidiary, Medisch Centrum Jan van Goyen.

• Positioning: Aimed at patients seeking fast access and a 'boutique' environment. "The speed of an independent treatment centre, the medical quality of parent organisation OLVG."
• Brand connection: Maintains a fully independent brand identity while using OLVG specialists to guarantee clinical authority.

2. The specialised joint venture

A unique model is the Reinier Haga Orthopaedic Centre, a collaboration between Reinier de Graaf, HagaZiekenhuis and LangeLand Ziekenhuis.

• Branding: Positioned as the largest orthopaedic clinic in the Netherlands, with a hotel-like design to support recovery.
• Operational focus: A procedure-based factory where specialists work in a highly standardised rhythm.

3. The dedicated internal clinic

• Helene Schweitzer Clinic (Albert Schweitzer Ziekenhuis): Elective care is physically separated from acute care to increase throughput (e.g. 25% more knee operations per day).
• Diak Clinic (Diakonessenhuis): Launched to resolve the 'split' between 24/7 emergency care and demand for short waiting times for elective care.

Lessons from practice

Efficiency gains are real

The results speak for themselves. New specialised hubs in England saw a nearly 22% increase in elective procedures in their first year. Focus works.

Talk about care, not factories

An important lesson: never use the word 'factory' when speaking to patients. What is internally an efficiency model must be translated externally into what the patient actually experiences: calm, attention, predictability. Leading centres position the benefits of focus (you know exactly what to expect, you're helped quickly) without using the cold language of business.

The 'cherry-picking' pitfall

Commercial clinics sometimes attract criticism for only treating the simplest patients - so-called 'cherry-picking'. Integrated units within a hospital are less susceptible to this: they combine the focus of a clinic with the safety of a full hospital nearby. That gives both patients and referring physicians greater confidence.

Conclusion: hospitals as a portfolio of specialised care

Hospitals are no longer the default destination for all care. They are increasingly becoming the parent brand within a portfolio of specialised clinics and centres - each with its own identity, its own promise and its own rhythm.

The structure is changing. But the core remains human: who are we, what do we promise, and how do we deliver on that - every day, for every patient?

That's exactly the question that hospital organisations like St. Antonius, OLVG, NWZ, Bernhoven, Santeon and mProve are working on. And it's the question we love to help answer. Not with a new logo. But with a story that rings true from the inside out.

Appendix: what we've experienced ourselves at healthcare organisations

The questions in this article are not theoretical for us. BR-ND People has worked with a number of the organisations mentioned in this piece over the past years. Here are four examples of what we encountered and what we solved together.

St. Antonius Ziekenhuis: from two cultures to one beating heart

When St. Antonius Ziekenhuis merged with Mesos Medical Centre, it was a logistical step on paper. But in the corridors, the teams and the daily routines, two different rhythms lived on. The real challenge was human: how do you build one beating heart from the inside out?

We didn't start with a new logo, but with the people. In co-creative sessions, we uncovered what was already working, where friction existed, and what people wanted to preserve. Together we developed a clear purpose, mission and vision as the foundation for a new brand architecture, and translated core values into concrete behaviour. When a merger came around again a decade later - this time with Woerden - St. Antonius knew where to find us. That says it all.

Bernhoven: a new hospital, a new heart

Bernhoven faced the challenge of capturing the feeling of a fresh start and translating it into the heartbeat of the organisation. A hospital's brand isn't invented; it's found in the people who work there every day.

Through the BR-ND Insider platform and energetic co-creation sessions, hundreds of colleagues shared their stories and hopes for the new hospital. Those stories became the foundation for an authentic brand narrative that was carried from within.

Santeon: stronger together, more visible together

Santeon - the network of seven top clinical hospitals - was given a powerful foundation of collaboration and trust at its founding, but needed a clear group strategy for the years ahead. BR-ND People supported Santeon in developing that new corporate strategy, complemented by visual assets such as icons and infographics that made the shared ambition tangible.

mProve: seven hospitals, one story

The collaboration of seven teaching hospitals under mProve demonstrates the power of a shared purpose in healthcare. But how do you communicate that power to 35,000 employees and the outside world?

BR-ND People worked with the brand team and hundreds of ambassadors to develop a new corporate brand narrative and delivered a refreshed brand expression. The result: a story that makes employees proud, convinces external partners, and shows that mProve is more than the sum of its parts.