After announcing their new name-- Corewell Health assures that patients will still have the best quality of care in Southwest Michigan

 

ST. JOSEPH, Mich. -- After merging with Spectrum Health in 2018 and with Beaumont Health earlier this year, the Beaumont-Spectrum- Lakeland Health System has a new name-- Corewell Health-- to signify the three healthcare providers coming under one banner to serve the state of Michigan.

“We’re grateful for the new name," said Dr. Loren Hamel, the president of Corewell Health South It’s something we’ve been looking forward to for a number of years.”

But how does a health system choose a new name?

“As you can imagine, picking a name is not easy," Dr. Hamel said; around four-thousand of the system's team members offered up suggestions for the new name, which was then narrowed down to around two-thousand.

Dr. Hamel said “You have to pick something that is meaningful, something that you can own, of course, and hopefully, something that has a little value to it, in terms of your own mission. And Corewell is important to use because health and wellness is at the core of everything we do every day.”

Now, with the three systems merged together, and utilizing the same clinical records system, Dr. Hamel added they can provide an elevated level of care, while simultaneously lowering the cost of healthcare.

The system announced the new name on October 11, one month after roughly two dozen employees in leadership positions were laid off.

Dr. Hamel denied this having to do with the merger-- and cited the high inflation rates and drug costs as the reason to eliminate those positions.

“But having said that, we hire more, new staff members every other week, other than that layoff," he said. "We’ve added seventy-one members to our medical staff in the last twelve months—and that is double from the year before."

Dr. Hamel wanted to reassure residents that, despite the layoffs and the new name, the quality  of care has not changed for residents in Southwest Michigan.

“We are still friends and neighbors taking care of friends and neighbors," said Dr. Hamel. "Our goals are to treat everybody with love and respect and to give them the best care possible, and I believe the Corewell Health name really embodies what we’re trying to do every day.”