Healthcare branding plays a pivotal role in successful mergers and acquisition. Here is the story of how one institution’s brand strategy and design work turned a strategic acquisition into a stronger, more valuable brand.
Essen Health Care is a pioneering organization set up by Samir Sahgal, a purpose-driven physician in the Bronx twenty years ago. His vision was and still is to bring healthcare to people who otherwise wouldn’t have access to it or who couldn’t afford it. Essen now has more than 45 clinics serving communities throughout the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island, Long Island, and Westchester County. And they also created the Essen House Calls division to bring healthcare to homebound people unable to visit their clinics.
Healthcare branding an acquisition
Essen came to Presciant for help with branding a major acquisition. They acquired Vesta, a purely telehealth provider. Because Vesta was telehealth only, they had to develop state-of-the-art IT and communications systems and strong relationships with in-home caregivers and agencies, which Essen lacked. But the acquisition raised a healthcare branding problem. It seriously worried the management of the clinics, who were afraid that the expanded home care operation would steal their patients.
Essen decided they needed a new name for Essen House Calls. They couldn’t call it Vesta because that name was too closely tied to the company’s telehealth legacy. The merged organization would provide broader services, and thus needed a new name. Dr. Sahgal came up with the new name on his own—Intention. But they then realized a name alone wouldn’t do. They needed a brand. That was our job.
A logo alone is not a brand—it starts with strategy
By brand, Essen was thinking logo. We explained that a logo is not a brand. It is a signal of what the brand stands for—a communications device. In order to create impactful logo, we needed to develop a brand strategy and pinpoint what the merged business stands for.
We started with in-depth interviews with Essen and Vesta senior executives to understand their ambition for the new business and what it would bring to all its different audiences—patients, care-givers and caregiver agencies, hospitals and medical groups, payers, and community organizations. We also looked into the future of healthcare for homebound people, and studied existing and emerging competitors.
From this work, we created a clear brand purpose:
To restore health, independence, and joy to people living with illness at home.
And we identified the differentiating advantages of the new Intention brings:
- It’s personal. The patient is the center of attention. Healthcare is centered on the individual patient and tailored to their needs. Everything revolves around them.
- Intention is committed. Driven by compassion. Going the extra mile to make sure everything the patient requires is taken care of.
- Care is comprehensive. Providing everything from bringing x-rays to the home to making sure the plumber comes to call.
- Care of the highest quality. You can trust Essen to maintain the highest medical standards with expertise in chronic disease management and coordinated home care.
- Sustainable. Essen has been providing this care for over 20 years, with thousands of house calls a day.
A visual identity that carries deep meaning
Once we knew what the brand stood for, we could develop the brand identity. Here it is:
In an industry awash in blue, Intention Health Care stands out with vibrant colors, and a dynamic visual approach. The new logo is both emblem and promise. Two sinuous shapes that meet in the center, a deliberate composition that visually expresses reach, contact, and meaningful connection between caregiver and patient. The meeting point is not static; it is a focal moment of engagement that signals presence, attention, and mutual support.
The forms are intentionally dynamic. Their flowing lines convey speed and timeliness of service while their balanced union communicates dependability. Movement in the mark suggests responsiveness without haste, a confident agility that reassures stakeholders the organization acts quickly and reliably when care matters most. The logo’s rhythm and proportion were refined to read clearly at every scale, reinforcing a sense of high quality and professionalism.
Beyond motion, the design carries deeper symbolic layers. The interlocking shapes evoke a lifeline, a Möbius-like continuity, a yin-yang of cyclical care and renewal. These references underscore Intention Health Care’s commitment to holistic, ongoing support across the full life cycle of health needs and beyond.
Adding to the logo are graphics and iconography that bring the brand story to life.
Our work extended to uniforms and both virtual and physical environments.
A healthcare brand to grow on
As founder Dr. Sahgal says: “Success is when people immediately understand what we stand for.”
Intention Health Care is now a brand with all it needs to grow and create value. It combines the strengths of Essen House Calls and Vesta. It has state-of-the-art systems to make sure nothing gets lost or overlooked. It brings much more to the patients—both telehealth and real live physicians and nurses, new services such as x-rays and IVs in the home. Intention delivers much better service by working closely with professional home health caregivers and families to get updates on how the patient is and what they need. It is now a much larger entity, stretching beyond New York to Massachusetts, and Ohio. And its growing—expanding to Texas, Nebraska, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; working with local physician groups to ensure they continue to provide personal and around the clock service.
The Intention Health Care is a story of how healthcare branding built business value and more than that, supports an organization that improves the quality of life for thousands of patients. And that is a business value beyond calculation.