‘Mercy Health Partners’ Designed to Reflect Core Values of Merged Systems
By Josh Flory, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn.
Jan. 23–They hail from different religious traditions, but when two local health systems chose a post-merger name, they tapped a theme that’s central to both.
On Tuesday, the entity formed by the merger of St. Mary’s and Baptist health systems announced that the umbrella organization will now be called Mercy Health Partners. The health system’s facilities, including St. Mary’s Medical Center and Baptist Hospital of East Tennessee, will retain their individual names.
In an announcement for employees at St. Mary’s Medical Center, Mercy Health President and CEO Debra London said the new name represents the system’s core values of compassion, excellence, human dignity, justice, sacredness of life and service. “We need a new name because we brought two great faith-based health systems together — systems that represented the same values and the same culture, and systems that really could make a difference in the Knoxville community,” she said. “And we felt like we needed a name that really described these two systems coming together.” The name also echoes other health systems within Catholic Healthcare Partners, the parent company of the merged entity. Among CHP’s nine regions are four other entities known as Mercy Health Partners, in Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
The merger between the two systems was first announced in August, capping months of speculation centered on Baptist’s shaky financial standing.
The deal was finalized on Jan. 1, and an 18-member board of trustees – including 10 members from St. Mary’s and eight from Baptist — considered 15 names that were submitted by an outside firm. London said a branding effort will be launched to promote the unified health system. Employees celebrated the news by munching on cakes with the new logo, which was also distributed on buttons. Amy Garren, a respiratory therapist who attended the announcement with a stethoscope around her neck, was enthusiastic about the new moniker. “It encompasses what we do – mercy for all of our patients,” she said.
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