CommonSpirit will be part of branding
The East Tennessee Catholic
CHI Memorial in Chattanooga, the only Catholic hospital in East Tennessee, and its sister facilities in the region are undergoing a name change.
CHI Memorial has announced that its hospitals and care sites throughout Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia will begin using the CommonSpirit Health name in January.
This brand update will coincide with the opening of the organization’s new hospital in Catoosa County, Ga.
CHI Memorial said it is important for patients to know that this change will not affect their care, their physicians, their nurses, or the services received at any of the locations where it provides services.
CHI Memorial said its three local hospitals will adopt the CommonSpirit brand while maintaining the “Memorial” name “that the community has embraced for generations, as CommonSpirit-Memorial Hospital-Chattanooga, CommonSpirit-Memorial Hospital-Hixson, and the new CommonSpirit-Memorial Hospital-North Georgia.”
“By formally adopting the CommonSpirit brand, CHI Memorial’s more than 5,000 local team members, nurses, and physicians across three hospitals and 65 care sites will visually align with their parent organization,” the health-care provider said in a statement.
CommonSpirit Health is one of the nation’s largest faith-based health-care organizations, with more than 2,300 care sites and 138 hospitals across 24 states.
“As we formally adopt the CommonSpirit name, we also recognize and respect the deep local connections and community trust that have been built over time through generations of interactions and experiences,” said Janelle Reilly, CommonSpirit Health’s market president, Tennessee and Georgia. “We are simply uniting under one shared name to better reflect a connection to a larger national health system, but the local team and its dedication to this community are constant.”
A combination of the words “Common Good” and “Holy Spirit,” the CommonSpirit name was derived from Scripture (1 Corinthians 12:7): “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”
“This thoughtful and intentional naming reflects the shared values of the hospitals and health systems that formed CommonSpirit in 2019, including CHI Memorial,” according to the statement.
The new CommonSpirit-Memorial Hospital-North Georgia in Catoosa County will have 64 inpatient beds, including an intensive-care unit as well as a full-service emergency department with 24 beds, five operating rooms, two endoscopy suites, comprehensive imaging services, non-invasive cardiac imaging, and a laboratory.
“In the coming months, the community will begin to see the CommonSpirit name and logo appear throughout their local facilities, but it is the same dedicated team, providing the same high-quality care the community has always trusted,” CommonSpirit said in the statement.
CHI Memorial Hospital was founded by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth and officially opened on Jan. 2, 1952. When it opened, the health-care facility had 200 beds. It now has more than 300 beds and has nearly doubled in size over its 62 years of existence. The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth managed the hospital when it opened and assisted in raising nearly $2 million to build the hospital, which is located at 2525 de Sales Ave. near downtown Chattanooga. Ground was broken for the project on April 1, 1949.
When the hospital opened, it employed fewer than 40 physicians. The number grew to 250 in only 10 years. Plans were announced in 1963 to add a seven-story addition on the south side of the hospital, which increased the hospital size by one third. The addition would offer a larger laboratory and delivery room as well as more operating and recovery rooms.
Again in 1969, the hospital was in need of an expansion, and it added 33 beds, which led to the de Sales Harrison building being constructed. Some 15 years ago, Memorial Hospital broke ground for a
$320 million expansion project, which added more than a half-million square feet of space to the medical center’s campus. This expansion was dedicated in April 2016. During construction in 2015, CHI Memorial recorded nearly 500,000 patient visits for that year.
In 1997, the hospital’s parent system, the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth Health System, consolidated with other Catholic health systems to form Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI). CHI has operated CHI Memorial Hospital in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., which will become the new CommonSpirit-Memorial Hospital-North Georgia as well as CHI Memorial Hospital in Hixson and CHI Memorial in Chattanooga.
Then in 2019, CHI merged with Dignity Health to create CommonSpirit Health. CommonSpirit will operate a network of outpatient, therapy, and imaging centers that support the hospitals.
According to CommonSpirit Health, the health-care organization is inspired by faith, driven by innovation, and powered by humankindness.
“CommonSpirit Health is building a healthier future for all through its integrated health services. As one of the nation’s largest nonprofit Catholic health-care organizations, CommonSpirit Health delivers more than 20 million patient encounters annually through more than 2,300 clinics, care sites and 138 hospital-based locations, in addition to its home-based services and virtual-care offerings. CommonSpirit has more than 160,000 employees, 45,000 nurses, and 25,000 physicians and advanced practice providers across 24 states and contributes more than $5 billion annually in charity care, community benefits, and unreimbursed government programs. “Together with our patients, physicians, partners, and communities, we are creating a more just, equitable, and innovative health-care delivery system,” the health-care provider said in a statement.
For more information about CommonSpirit Health, visit commonspirit.org.