By HEATHER HARTSELL
Leader staff writer
Beginning Jan.7, Rebsamen Medical Center will be no more – at least publicly. The hospital will begin operating under the name North Metro Medical Center, but its legal name will still be Rebsamen Medical Center.
The new doing business as (DBA) name was registered with the Arkansas secretary of state on Oct. 8.
After 50 years of service to the community, the hospital has undergone recent improvements and is changing the name to reflect its reinvention.
“Being in a highly competitive market, we realized that we had to change our focus to make the most impact,” said Kristen James, marketing coordinator for Rebsamen Medical Center.
“The Rebsamen name has carried distinction, and we are grateful to the Rebsamen family for the legacy they began here many years ago. We are growing more progressive and serving a larger region. We want our community to associate our new name with our new environment.”
Mayor Tommy Swaim, secretary of Rebsamen’s board of directors, said the board had discussed the name change in great length.
“It had been discussed for a significant amount of time how to best make it known that it is a regional hospital,” Swaim said.
Scott Landrum, Rebsamen’s chief executive officer and the biggest advocate for the changes, had said in August that the board was considering a name change.
“I immediately saw that Rebsamen was full of opportunities that needed to be tapped. The corporate culture is welcoming of change, and I am excited to be a part of developing my vision for this hospital’s growth in the community,” Landrum said.
“The name change is completely supported by all of the staff throughout the hospital. They have seen the changes we’ve undergone and know that an identity change will help people see who we’re becoming,” he added.
Sticking the word regional in its name, when it went by Rebsamen Regional Medical Center, still didn’t capture the fact that the hospital’s market was larger than Jacksonville alone.
“The name North Metro Medical Center will make it known that our service area is more than Jacksonville and emphasize the good medical care available here,” Swaim said.
“If you’re not in Little Rock but in the general area of Jacksonville, it is a great place to go,” he added.
Landrum invites the public to see the changes the hospital is undergoing.
“If you are in the Jacksonville area over the next year, stop by and visit us. You will see some exciting changes in our hospital,” he said.
The change is not in name only. Rebsamen has also made numerous facility improvements, including renovating all public waiting areas, adding a new mammography suite, physicians lounge and labor and delivery suite.
Rebsamen has also invested in state-of-the-art technology, including a 40-slice CT scanner, Philips Ultrasound and the Depuy total knee-replacement instrument, among others.
A January groundbreaking will begin on a 1,000-square-foot new ER waiting room and remodeling of the existing admissions area, triage, nurse station, doctors’ dictation and staff lounge.
The front of the building will receive a facelift.
For phase two, plans are being completed for a total remodeling of all 40 private patient rooms, surgery suites and nurse stations.
