Florida Hospital is now AdventHealth

Florida Hospital facilities rang in 2019 on Tuesday by officially making the switch to a new name: AdventHealth.

The switch — which was announced in August 2018 by Florida Hospital's parent company Adventist Health System — encompasses hundreds of physician practices, urgent-care centers and nearly 50 hospitals across several states. That includes five hospitals in Volusia and Flagler counties.

According to a press release Wednesday, there are 30 AdventHealth hospitals and freestanding emergency departments in Florida. The unified brand will allow customers to easily identify and navigate the system across the state, according to the nonprofit chain.

David Ottati, president and CEO of Adventist Health System’s Central Florida Division-North Region, said the name change is just the beginning of a big journey to become more consumer friendly.

"It's exciting to see all the different changes that are being made as a company," Ottati said. "The goal is to connect all our services — physician practices, hospice care and CentraCare — together in a much more seamless way. It's a big endeavor but we are sure our patients will appreciate it."

[READ MORE: Florida Hospital to get a new name: AdventHealth]

Many of the hospitals will be renamed AdventHealth, followed by the name of the city in which they’re located. For example, Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center is now AdventHeath Daytona Beach.

Florida Hospital Flagler is now AdventHealth Palm Coast, which eliminates potential confusion with the similarly named Flagler Hospital in St. Augustine.

Florida Hospital DeLand is now AdventHealth DeLand and Florida Hospital New Smyrna is now AdventHealth New Smyrna Beach.

Florida Hospital Fish Memorial in Orange City, however, will retain part of its old name as AdventHealth Fish Memorial. That hospital's CEO, Rob Deininger, took to social media Monday to broadcast the change.

"Out with the old, in with the new!" Deininger posted with photos of new road signs and stickers on the hospital's front doors. "AdventHealth Fish Memorial is ready to keep our community #feelingwhole in 2019 and beyond."

Although the main signage on the hospitals isn't yet changed, the name change is already in effect on their websites, social media and on smaller banners and roadway signs.

"We've already taken down the main signs at AdventHealth New Smyrna, DeLand and Flagler," said Lindsay Cashio, hospital spokeswomen. "We are just waiting on permitting to put up the new signs. We are working with our city officials to get those going."

The hospital is also working on changing their injector gate at Daytona International Speedway to reflect the AdventHealth brand. Cashio said the bulk of the change should be completed by Monday.

"We would really like to have everything done before the races," Cashio said. "The tower exterior sign will be changed over the weekend and the escalators on the lower level will be changed as well."

A new edition coming to the AdventHealth system in Volusia County will be AdventHealth Deltona ER, a $12 million, 12-bed free-standing emergency room operation on Howland Boulevard, which will have a groundbreaking ceremony Friday, Jan. 11. Just a mile or so down the road from Halifax Health's free-standing emergency room, which opened in 2017.

[READ MORE: Florida Hospital adding a Deltona emergency room]

The Deltona ER will be followed by a $25 million, 12-bed emergency room and two-story medical office in Palm Coast's Matanzas Woods Parkway area. Construction on the ER is expected to take 10 months and will begin as soon as AdventHealth completes the land purchase and obtains building permits. A name for the facility has not yet been decided.

[READ MORE: Hospital project could spur further growth in Palm Coast]

[READ MORE: Florida Hospital plans $25M project in Palm Coast]

Ottati said this is an exciting time for the hospital system.

"We've been talking about this name change for over a year," Ottati said. "Many people just see a name change but for us it's much more than that, it's an entire change in how we operate as well."

The health system's 80,000 employees — including 8,000 in Volusia, Flagler and Lake counties — were trained last year on company-wide service standards. The standards include a move to improve patient access to health records throughout the hospital’s entire system. Through an already-available app, Hellowell, patients can access health records, track doctor visits and bills, schedule appointments and monitor prescription refills.

"As a faith-based organization the goal is to embed more holistic care in the outpatient setting," Ottati said. "We want to offer patients the ability to navigate easily between inpatient and outpatient services." The rebranding also will emphasize the expansive network of services Adventist Health System offers beyond its hospitals, such as home health agencies, medical plazas, physicians and its CentraCare urgent care facilities.