Porter Regional Hospital has a new name.
As of Wednesday, the hospital is now Northwest Health-Porter as part of the new Northwest Health health care system, according to a release.
The new Northwest Health combines the resources of the Porter, LaPorte and Starke hospitals in a comprehensive system of in-person and telehealth services in more than 30 primary and specialty locations across the area, officials said.
The system includes 30 physician office locations; five emergency departments; six urgent care centers; three outpatient surgery centers; occupational medicine centers; an ambulance service; an in-patient rehabilitation unit; and telehealth services.
More than 3,000 employees work together with the 700 physicians on the hospitals' medical staffs.
“For the past five years, our organizations have worked together to leverage our expertise and resources. By formally combining into a regional health care system, we will be able to use our size and shared resources to add more physicians, expand services and further improve access to care for Northwest Indiana residents,” Sean Dardreau, market CEO of Northwest Health, said in a release.
The health care system will make it easier for families to get the quality of care they are looking for, and to look forward to living well and staying strong, he added.
The ownership and leadership at the hospitals are not changing, officials said.
Northwest Health includes Northwest Health-Porter, formerly Porter Regional Hospital; Northwest Health-Starke, formerly Starke Hospital; Northwest Health-LaPorte, known as LaPorte Hospital until a replacement hospital opens Oct. 24; Northwest Medical Group, combining LaPorte Physician Network and Porter Physician Group; and Northwest Urgent Care, formerly CareEXPRESS Urgent Care or LaPorte Physician Network Urgent Care.
All programs and services of the hospitals also are a part of the Northwest Health family. In 2019, the combined entities cared for more than 17,000 inpatients, 85,000 emergency patients and 430,000 outpatient visits. Almost 400,000 patients also visited physicians' offices in person or virtually, according to a release.
Porter Regional Hospital opened at its current location, at 85 E. U.S 6 in Liberty Township, in August 2012. The hospital, previously located at 814 LaPorte Ave. in Valparaiso and called Porter Memorial Hospital, was county-owned until 2007, when county officials sold it to Community Health Systems, based in Franklin, Tennessee, with the agreement that Community would build a new facility.
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