HCA West Florida Healthcare came to me with (what was then) a brand new concept in healthcare – freestanding Emergency Care locations open around-the-clock and fully-independent of a full-service hospital yet offering the exact same services and care as a hospital Emergency Room.

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HCA Healthcare wanted something simple and dynamic, while being memorable and easily recognizable. We had been using the white letters "ER" in a red square for almost two decades as an icon in the emergency advertising for HCA Healthcare West Florida, so that was an easy choice to build the icon around.  The color red was chosen to signify "emergency" and the blue was chosen to be consistent with HCA West Florida's existing branding. The logo was also designed so that it could be tailored to each location.

The branding went active successfully at a dozen locations initially, but, I am proud to say, was quickly adopted nationally as HCA Healthcare's branding for many of their freestanding emergency rooms throughout the company.