University Times

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center System has a new name: UPMC Health System.

The system's board of directors approved the change Sept. 18. The new name will be used as an umbrella term to refer to the system's network of hospitals as well as its growing number of subsidiaries, including physician practices, insurance products, rehabilitation services, in-home services, retirement living options, mail-order pharmacy and technology transfer ventures.

With the new name, "UPMC" will not be spelled out. But that's not an indication that the system wants to distance itself from Pitt, or vice versa, said Jane Duffield, director of what is now called the UPMC Health System News Bureau.

"UPMC Health System" more accurately describes the organization than either "UPMC" or "University of Pittsburgh Medical Center," Duffield said. Some people had mistakenly thought the latter names referred only to the system's clinical services in Oakland, she noted. But now, the hospital providing those services is known as UPMC Presbyterian. Other hospitals and satellite health centers in the system likewise have the "UPMC" prefix in their names — UPMC Shadyside, for example, and UPMC South Hills and UPMC Squirrel Hill.

A new UPMC Health System advertising campaign, introducing the new name, will be launched in the next few weeks. It will include television, radio, newspaper and outdoor advertisements.

While the words "University of Pittsburgh" won't appear in that campaign, Duffield's office will continue to use the Pitt name and academic titles in its news releases for the University's Health Sciences schools.

— Bruce Steele