Executives at CareFusion are combining medicine and music to publicize the company’s launch as a solo act.
Company officials last month launched the CareFusion Jazz Festival Series, an international series of concerts designed to raise awareness of the uniquely American music form as well as the new company’s products and services, designed to improve the safety and quality of healthcare. This was followed days later by the announcement that the company’s planned spinoff from Cardinal Health would become official on Aug. 31.
“There is a clear connection between jazz and medicine that provides the perfect opportunity to launch our new brand, raise funds for and awareness of patient safety and help support and preserve the arts,” said David Schlotterbeck, CEO of the San Diego-based company, in a press release announcing the jazz festival series. “Both jazz and the practice of medicine embrace innovation,
performance and change. Jazz is also used to teach listening skills to medical students and resonates with our customers.”
Currently a wholly owned subsidiary of Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal Health, CareFusion encompasses Cardinal Health’s medical products businesses and includes Alaris IV pumps, Pyxis automated dispensing and patient identification systems, AVEA and Pulmonetic Systems ventilation and respiratory products, ChloraPrep and MedMined infection prevention software and services, V. Mueller surgical instruments and a line of products to support interventional medicine.
Cardinal Health’s board of directors on July 10 unanimously approved the spinoff through a pro rata distribution of at least 80 percent of the shares of CareFusion common stock to Cardinal health shareholders.
Cardinal Health has held the CareFusion name since acquiring the maker of hand-held barcode technology in 2006. The new company is expected to employ 13,000 people and earn roughly $4 billion in annual revenue. Company officials say CareFusion, which will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CFN, “will be the largest medical technology company with a singular focus on patient safety.”
According to Jim Mazzola, CareFusion’s senior vice president, company officials “were looking for ideas beyond just traditional advertising” when they were told of the jazz festival series, which had recently lost its title sponsor. He said officials looked at three or four other ideas, and felt this “is a pretty efficient use of our brand-launch dollars” in that it not only pushes the CareFusion name into the public but also supports the arts.
Aside from sponsoring the international festival series, CareFusion will broadcast some of the performances live to hospitals and invite selected caregivers and hospital administrators to the events. That will be part of CareFusion’s Rhythm of Care healthcare safety campaign, designed to raise awareness of best practices to reduce medication errors and hospital-acquired infections.
The CareFusion Jazz Festival Series will open Aug. 7-9 in Newport, R.I., with George Wein’s CareFusion Jazz Festival 55, the oldest of the festivals, featuring Newport Jazz Festival founder George Wein. The series will continue with the Chicago Jazz Festival presented by CareFusion on Sept. 4-6; CareFusion Presents Dizzy’s Den at the Monterey Jazz Festival on Sept. 18-20; the Manly Jazz Festival on Oct. 30 in Manly, Australia; the CareFusion Jazz Festival Paris on Oct. 16-24; and the CareFusion New York Jazz Festival in June 2010.
