Sunrise hospitals strike Columbia from name

Tuesday, Dec. 9, 1997 | 11:41 a.m.

The corporate name Columbia has been dropped from Columbia Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center and Columbia Sunrise MountainView Hospital and Medical Center, Sunrise Chief Executive Mitch Mitchell said Monday.

"The board of trustees has voted to remove Columbia ... in order to go back to our roots in this community," Mitchell said. "For 40 years, we have been known as Sunrise Hospital, and this is simply an act taken by the board acknowledging local brand identity."

The name change comes one month after Dr. Thomas Frist Jr., chairman of Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., outlined changes he was instituting in the wake of a national federal criminal and civil investigation of the corporation.

Frist, in a satellite broadcast Nov. 3 to more than 340 Columbia affiliate hospitals, discussed reforms that included developing a new mission statement, the appointment of new senior executives to oversee legal compliances and a pledge to handle quality issues.

"We have to take the company in a new direction," Frist said. "The days when Columbia/HCA was seen as adversarial or in your face, a behind-closed-doors kind of place, is a thing of the past."

Last month, Columbia also approved a plan -- to take effect Jan. 1 -- that will reduce its nationwide chain of hospitals by a third.

Sunrise Hospital, 3186 S. Maryland Parkway, and Sunrise MountainView Hospital, 3100 N. Tenaya Way, will not be sold off, said Ann Lynch, vice president of community services at Sunrise Hospital.