A committee of Hillsdale Community Health Center board members, hospital administrators, and community members voted to change their name to Hillsdale Hospital in November 2015. A new sign and logo displaying the new name were implemented Jan. 1.
The name change, however simple, was not in haste.
“We were required by charters to seek a corporation of directors, a board of trustees, and members, to either sell the hospital or change the name,” Jeremiah Hodshire, Director of Organizational Business Development at Hillsdale Hospital and a 1999 Hillsdale College graduate, explained.
Hodshire said the idea had been played with for about 12 years, and the committee met regularly for the past year and a half. Hodshire said that the committee sought to be “thorough and exhaustive,” even seeking the assistance of students in the Hillsdale College Marketing Department to survey the community.
Judy Gabriele, Director of Development at the Hillsdale Hospital, said the community responded positively to the change.
“People have said that they have always called it Hillsdale Hospital…I have not seen any negativity whatsoever,” Gabriele said.
Hodshire concurred, calling the name change “truly in alignment” both with what the community knows the institution to be and with what their services offer.
In the hospital’s press release on the issue, CEO and President of Hillsdale Hospital Duke Anderson said, “Our longstanding mission is to provide quality, compassionate healthcare throughout the communities we serve. We’ve fulfilled this through constantly improving our technology, services and by embracing growth. Now our name better suits what we’ve become.”
Gabriele said the hospital was afraid that other communities saw the Hillsdale Community Health Center as a clinic, but also said the hospital’s services include more than what a clinic offers. These services include women’s health, cardio pulmonary care, rehabilitation, and bariatric surgery, among other high -caliber health services.
As Hodshire explained, the Hillsdale Community Health Center did not want to get confused with the Federally Qualified Health Center on Carleton Road. Hodshire expressed that the Hillsdale Community Health Center itself had, and “grown to far capacities;” they naturally sought a name that captured the fullness of their abilities.
2015 was fitting for a name change because it was the hospital’s centennial anniversary.
Leaving behind the slogan, “Large enough to be of service…small enough to care,” and taking on, “Caring. Commitment. Community,” Gabriele said the hospital’s values will not change.
“I think with all three words it describes us,” Gabriele said. “We are caring, we are committed to what we do, and we are committed to our community. It shows a lot about who we are and what we do.”
Freshman Andres Torres, a Hillsdale Hospital volunteer, said the name change was “mostly a name thing…everyone has been calling it that, even before it was official.”
Other than the excitement of a new name tag, Torres believes that everything will remain the same. Hodshire confirmed that no administrative aspects will change at the hospital, and that nothing will change in regards to prices for services.
“It is simply just a name change,” he said.