Blake Medical Center now "HCA Florida Blake Hospital" (prestigious, health)

[Avalon08]

I was surprised to see this re-branding when I drove by. I used to work for a healthcare software company and witnessed the hospital merger/acquisition mania of the 90s. When my Mom moved here in 1997, the hospital was known as Blake (Hospital or Medical Center, I forget which) but at some point I remember seeing "Columbia Blake" on the sign (referring to Columbia Hospital System). Later the sign reverted to Blake Medical Center with no mention of Columbia, perhaps because of the Rick Scott/HCA-Columbia Medicare billing fraud scandal. Or maybe because it no longer seemed like a community hospital -- now it was another for-profit hospital owned by a large corporate chain. (My cousin worked at a community hospital in PA that was acquired by a large chain and revised their name accordingly. Later, because of the community's negative reaction, they removed all references to the corporate owner.)

Anyway, in doing a little research, I was surprised to learn that HCA has owned Blake since 1980. But I have no idea why HCA has chosen to re-brand all their Florida hospitals in this way. Why remind patients that your local hospital is just a cog in a huge chain of for-profit facilities? I could see if the hospital was part of a prestigious non-profit teaching health system such as Jefferson in Philadelphia but I don't get the HCA deal.