I don't want to be too hard on Banner Health considering the outfit placed its headquarters in a Midtown skyscraper. But a year after it changed the nearly century-old name of Good Samaritan Hospital to Banner-University Medical Center Phoenix, I am still thinking, huh?
There's no university there on east McDowell. Indeed, it was Banner and CEO Peter Fine that torpedoed plans to relocate the county hospital to a new building on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, with the medical and nursing schools, where the "bench-to-bedside" vision of T-Gen's Jeff Trent could have been realized. This action in the 2000s showed Banner at its very worst.
The "university" part comes from Banner's $1 billion takeover of the University of Arizona's medical center and a satellite clinic in Tucson. More about that in a moment.
To be sure, names change. The old Scottsdale Baptist Hospital changed its affiliation and became Scottsdale Memorial Hospital in the 1970s. It was where I trained to be a paramedic. When I returned in 2000, it was something called Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn, sounding more like a doctor's office than a hospital, much less a Level 1 trauma center. Now it's HonorHealth Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center (how much did some consultant get paid to slam the two words together?).
St. Joe's has somehow kept its original, historic name even if it was excommunicated by the bishop, so to speak. Smaller St. Luke's is still there, too, under control of the unfortunately named IASIS Healthcare (when acronyms go bad!). John C. Lincoln Hospital also has the HonorHealth mashup in front of its name but at least kept its identity.
One of the two historic main buildings that made up Good Sam's campus, here in 1941. McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU
In Seattle, Virginia Mason Medical Center, one of the nation's best, still has its 1920 name. Presbyterian and St. Luke's in Denver were acquired by the giant HealthONE (kill the space; that will be $500,000 in consulting fees) network in the 1990s. But the outfit was obliged to keep both names. It would be unthinkable to change the names of Mass General and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Down the Northeast Corridor, Gotham's Mount Sinai, founded in 1852, has not even been mashed up into MountSinai. Even Charlotte, which has grown like kudzu, still has Carolinas Medical Center and Presbyterian Medical Center, the latter keeping its name even after being acquired by Novant. Houston's Methodist Hospital has been around since 1919.
Good Sam was no less a consequential and beloved Phoenix institution. And it didn't begin with that name. Lulu Clifton, a Methodist deaconess (and tuberculosis sufferer) and other Methodists founded its predecessor, Deaconess Hospital, in 1911 (the original building, at Third Avenue and Van Buren, stood until 1969). A nursing program was established. In 1923, the hospital was moved out of downtown to 10th Street and McDowell, its present location. It was rechristened Good Samaritan Hospital in late 1928.
The old Good Samaritan campus, which survived into the late 1970s, was one of the most beautiful spots in Phoenix. It was far more lovely than stark St. Joe's, and fit seamlessly into McDowell's "Miracle Mile." The Phoenix Fire Department's first paramedics trained at Good Sam. As Samaritan Health System, Good Sam established Maryvale Samaritan Hospital in 1961 and, in Mesa, Desert Samaritan Hospital in the mid-1970s.
Many native Phoenicians were born at there, in numbers only equaled by "Mr." Joe's. It was considered one of the finest hospitals in the Southwest. I also wonder whether the grandees at Banner considered how many were saved or drew their last breath there and how for many thousands this name, Good Samaritan, was more than a "branding" plaything? Even their predecessors, who leveled the stately buildings and shade trees in favor of the brutal "aliens have landed!" tower and other incoherent architectural monotony, kept the hospital's name.
I suppose that in Phoenix, where even the most enchanting city name in America is often supplanted by "the Valley," anything is fair game. Phoenix has no history! And Good Sam was down in the scary inner city! Hey, it's sunny! Shut up, Talton, you hate Arizona!
To be fair, "branding" and "rebranding" are big business and corporate leaders are easily taken in. Or they want to distract from serious issues by changing the signage and letterhead. So much music from our language of commerce has been lost: e.g., the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway is now BNSF. But considering how unpopular Banner is with many in "the Valley," it makes one wonder — or not — why its suits would so casually throw away an important piece of Phoenix's soul.
Maybe the name change was a quiet part of the deal that allowed Banner to acquire the UA operations. Banner is so big and "profitable" for a non-profit that it could absorb the losses of the struggling UA academic hospitals. The deal approved by the Regents requires Banner to invest $500 million in Tucson; overall, it is committing almost $1 billion in the Old Pueblo and Phoenix. More likely, the name choice is positioning Banner to stifle academic medical center competition before the ASU/Mayo combination really takes off.
And sure, the money-driven medicine model of American healthcare is a disaster. Everything must be placed in this context.
But I'll keep calling the place on McDowell Good Sam.
Good post Jon. I got sixty plus years history at Good Sam and St Luke’s. And a lot at JC Lincoln. David Lincoln is still showing up at Sunnyslope historical stuff. Regarding St Joe’s (not much saintly about some of its Bishops . Maybe we should alert Francis that since the nun did the right thing, the hospital may say it’s St Josephs but everywhere you look on the grounds it says Dignity Health including the Security Guards. Dignity health owns 40 some sites in the SW.
I suspect it’s all about executive and director compensation. Anything over a million bucks for a person working at something called Good Samaritan Hospital just seems wrong. But Banner-University Health Center? Sky’s the limit.
Dolly ?
You mean like Abrazo/Tenent/Whoever-they-are-this-week rebranding their chain of hospitals “Abrazo [fill in the blank]?”
Phoenix Baptist became “Abrazo Central Campus.” Campus? Is there a SCHOOL there I’m not aware of? And renaming Paradise Valley Hospital “Abrazo Scottsdale? It’s not even IN Scottsdale!
Everyone else calls it Good Sam also, including the paramedics who took my mother there recently. Which, by the way, if you are ever in that situation, tell them to turn around and take you to St. Joe’s. Lesson learned.
At least we can hope all this corporate genius name changing leads to full employment for the people who build and hang the signs outside the buildings. Sometimes it seems like that’s the U.S.’s number-one industry these days.
Ran across a new book at Barnes and Noble yesterday: “The Fire Line” by Fernanda Santos. Ms. Santos is a staff writer for the NYT and covers the Az/NM beat. The book is about the Yarnell fire of 2013 where nineteen “hotshots” died. Have only read the first sixty pages, but I can say that it is a well written book (a little long on the human interest side of things – but that what most people want). I think I can safely recommend this book to you all.
Thanks WKG
No disrespect, but Santos pulls her punches and goes for feature-y stuff in her reporting from Phoenix. Being a NYT reporter ensures book deals. But the go-to hard-news reporter on this issue is John Dougherty. Several of his Yarnell investigative articles are on Arizona’s Continuing Crisis.
wkg,
You’ll not learn the truth in that book. There were half a dozen catastrophic decisions made by the “bosses” that day which led to the deaths of those young men. Since the “bosses” investigated the “bosses”, the “bosses” remain in their positions to this day with no repercussions. They’ll answer to a higher authority in due time. My apologies for going off topic. Perhaps, it’s on topic if you go by “What’s in a name?” They’ve been called heroes. They were not. Sadly, they were lambs led to their slaughter.
That’s 10-4 on Doughterty. He has always been the get the hard facts person.
“Lambs to the slaughter” that would be Arizona citizens at the mercy of the ever religious legislature?
Wkg U been out in the SE rain too long.
U need to come to the Desert and dry out. Is that Santos in her bikini I see on your bedroom wall. And is that a picture of her and Sheriff Joe making love on the other wall?
I think I will pass on her stuff. I’m on my cell phone so you can Google the above. Just choose the New Times site for a laugh.
some new posts on Stop making sense>
off subject: Which of these do U believe?
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/world-press-freedom-day-2016_us_5728b06be4b096e9f08f188c
https://rsf.org/en/news/10-most-dangerous-places-journalists
The first site dosent even mention Mexico and India, where more reporters are killed than most places probably more than in Africa.
Thx Jon,
As Good Sam is (was!!?) the site of my birth, this pissed me off when I first heard. It’s worse than the crumb of a remnant of the original cornice/column that adorns (does it still?) the entrance.
Solution? Use BRANDING and SMART marketing to incorporate the name… “Good Samaritan Hospital at Banner-University Medical Center Phoenix” or Banner-University Medical Center Phoenix at Good Sam”
Sure, it’s a mouthful but the market will decide what to call it. Now, send my check to…
History has no place in our corporate nationscape. Just keep moving. There is nothing to see here. Will that be debit or credit?
Jerry good to see you posting. We are over due for coffee.
Regarding History har U go:
“The Statue of Liberty, that frequently malevolent bitch, has an enormous tumor in her gut that has spread to her brain and eyes. With regard to the Native Americans she has Alzheimer’s or mad cow disease and can’t remember her past, and her blind eyes can’t see the terrifying plight of most of the Indian tribes. Meanwhile she blows China and stomps Cuba to death, choosing to forget the Native cultures she has already destroyed.”
― Jim Harrison, On the Trail to Wounded Knee: The Big Foot Memorial Ride
What’s in a name? Phoenix became the Valley of the Sun. The Valley of the Sun became a cluster of gated Sun City’s. Sun city’s became Championship Green Golf. The valleys old hospitals became Banner Dignity Abrazo technological places for white middle class folks to get hip replacements and scream about making them available for the poor. Many that populate this blog live in narrow confining places with locked doors and security guards. Dare say they venture out into the Barrios of life, examineing the depravity of those subjected to the daily grind of “manunkind”.
Calash back from the roaring silence of deep Canyons in Santa Cruz county whee the US meets Mexico and where the stars in the night sky’s have no boundaries and have no nationality and are unaware of lines in the sand.
Which reminds me of
A good read, Lines and Shadows by Joe Wambaugh.
What’s in a name?
The Hohokam once populated the Phoenix Area but left.
Note that one translation of the word Hohokam means “All used up.” Also the Hohokam had a trading center in the Valley called Snake Town.
But what’s in a name?
“BIGWIG”, Looks like the hair do wins.
He is a modern day version of 17th and 18th century Bigwigs.
I had a chance to swing by Barnes and Noble today. Read another seventy pages of “The Fire Line”. I stand by my recommendation. This takes the narrative through Sunday/late morning – which I think will be the day the hotshots die and Yarnell is burned out. As far as I can tell, a good accounting of who/what/what/when/where of the people involved. Lots of good background material. So far I’m projecting there is going to be plenty of “blame” to go around. I have an initial idea of who the number one culprit should be but will wait for the whole narrative to be completed.
Cal re Ms. Santos: The jacket photo would indicate the author is most definitely not a babe. Right about the rain; it has been a very wet year here. Pollen incredible.
Both of my daughters were born at Good Samaritan (1999 and 2002), and that it what it shall always be to this now-Portlandian…
Jon, I’m closing out my nite with Jim Harrison’s novel”The Great Leader “.
Which brings me to Clinton and Trump.
“Have Gun Will Travel”!
I would join with the imagined many who disagree heartily with the decision to abandon the name Good Samaritan. I was born there in 1939, and three of my four daughters also saw their first light of day there. My father was treated there during his final days. Even today, when someone says “Good Sam” most Phoenicians know immediately which hospital you mean and where it’s located.
I strongly suggest that whoever is in charge of naming things there re-incorporate the words “Good Samaritan” into a more meaningful, nostalgic and appropriate moniker. Phoenix should treasure its history and not kick it into the maelstrom of modern-day ignorance and indifference.