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St. John’s Hospital held a celebration Tuesday to mark its official name change to Mercy. KSMU’s Melanie Foehrweiser has more.
The new name is a tribute to the Sisters of Mercy who founded the healthcare system. Lisa Cox, spokesperson for Mercy Springfield Communities says the change is important.
“This brings unity to all the hospitals…all the communities we serve. We all go by so many different names throughout the four states that we serve now. This really unifies us and people can understand that we are one mercy and their electronic health records are accessible in all of the communities.”
The unified name will also eliminate confusion that many travelers had when trying to find a Mercy hospital. The transition did not happen overnight however, and Cox says she doesn’t expect anyone to adopt the new name overnight either.
“It’s going to take a while I think for people to start calling us Mercy instead of St. Johns and that’s ok because it’s part of our history, part of our heritage. There’s a lot that goes into it we change everything from all of our signage to the logos on the scrubs to our letterhead and badges.”
She says that history goes back to when St. John’s was given its name in 1891. The name changes began last September with the Mercy hospital in St. Louis. Other Mercy system locations celebrating the transition include hospitals in Joplin, Mountain View, Lebanon, Cassville, and Aurora in Missouri, as well as Berryville in Arkansas. She added that all of the hospitals in the health system will transition to the Mercy name by the end of fall.
For KSMU News, I’m Melanie Foehrweiser.