Signs unveiled at Waterloo Region hospitals; potential name identified for future UW building

It’s been a busy week for local hospitals as plenty of work is being done to display new logos proudly and to familiarize the public with the new names.

The Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN) has been installing new signage at Grand River Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital, and Freeport Hospital.

Going forward, Grand River Hospital will be called WRHN @ Midtown, St. Mary’s Hospital will be known as WRHN @ Queen’s Boulevard, and Freeport Hospital will be called WRHN @ Chicopee.

WRHN is pronounced “wren” like the small, brown songbird. The inaugural president and CEO of WRHN, Ron Gagnon, explained that the pronunciation of the new acronym isn’t just a coincidence.

“A wren is known for its agility and curiosity, and it also embodies the qualities of resilience and a pursuit of discovery, and we thought that really aligned well with the organization that we’re building,” he said.

The signage at local hospitals will be fully installed by the summer of 2025 according to Gagnon.

“It really does a good job of honouring the legacy organizations while also embodying the future,” he said. “When they see it, they will see something that is more progressive, more modern, and that is the intention.”

Even though the future, state-of-the-art hospital set to be built at the University of Waterloo is still about a decade from hosting its first patient, Gagnon noted that, following the naming convention of the other three hospitals, it will likely be called “WRHN @ the University.”

The building is still in the planning stages and isn’t set to be completed until approximately 2035.