ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 2, 1996 TAG: 9604020056
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
WELCOME TO Carilion Medical Center - a new name for two familiar facilities.
Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley and Roanoke Memorial Hospital, which have had a common owner since 1991, on Monday adopted a single name - Carilion Medical Center - and a shared board of directors.
On May 1, the two hospitals also will add Carilion to their names, part of a new marketing plan by Carilion Health System, the corporate parent.
Managements of the two facilities, which sit a mile apart, became one at the first of this year. The Carilion system is in the process of converting from a collection of separately operated facilities to a company with its divisions defined by the services they deliver. Under the new structure, staff responsible for a particular service, such as outpatient care, oversee those services throughout the 14 hospitals owned or managed by Carilion.
A common board and name for the closely related Roanoke hospitals was the next logical step, said Carilion President and chief executive officer Thomas L. Robertson.
Medical staffs at the hospitals remain separate, and patients shouldn't notice any difference. But creating Carilion Roanoke Memorial and Carilion Community Hospital gives the system more identity, he said.
The Carilion name is well known, Robertson said, but people don't always know which hospitals are part of it.
The change is in keeping with an advertising campaign begun last year to create consumer awareness of Carilion Health System. It also will offset a similar name identification effort by Carilion's chief competitor, Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. of Nashville, Tenn.
The Columbia name recently was added to the company's hospitals in Pulaski and Montgomery County and in coming months will be displayed at its Lewis-Gale Medical Center in Salem.
Robertson said boards of directors at other Carilion hospitals will be asked this month to consider adding the corporate name to their facilities.
The boards at those places, which include Radford Community Hospital, Franklin Memorial Hospital and Bedford County Memorial Hospital, will not merge, however, he said.
The new Carilion Medical Center board includes all current members of the previous boards. For the past two years, retiring members on the boards have not been replaced, Robertson said.
Under the structure of the not-for-profit hospital system, the Carilion Medical Center board oversees day-to-day operations and helps develop a strategic plan for the facilities. It answers to the Carilion Health System's corporate board.
The two boards have some members in common, including George Cartledge Jr., who is chairman of the new board. Dr. Norman Fintel, retired president of Roanoke College, is vice chairman of the medical center board.
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