NORWAY — MaineHealth has announced that Stephens Memorial Hospital and its associated Western Maine Health sites will now be known as MaineHealth Stephens Hospital.

Jeff Noblin, president of the former Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway, stands at the hospital entrance with interim signage showing its new identity as part of the MaineHealth healthcare system. Submitted photo

The new name follows suite with the health network’s overall plan of unifying its 14 hospitals and medical facilities as a partner of care throughout Maine.

MaineHealth Stephens Hospital (MHSH) includes the 24-bed facility on Maine Street in Norway as well as its primary and specialty practices. It is part of the system’s three-community Mountain Region, which has locations in Farmington and Norway Conway, NH.

The North Conway site is now called MaineHealth Memorial Hospital. Formerly known as Franklin Memorial Hospital, the Farmington site is now called MaineHealth Franklin Hospital.

“Historically, MaineHealth has maintained different locations and hospitals and each facility had its own distinct signage,” explained MHSH President Jeff Noblin. “There was no common name for the public to tie its services together. As a unified brand it exposes patients to the common connections available for care. It also creates a structure where all the care teams now operate as one force.”

MaineHealth’s Southern Region, with three facilities in Portland, Biddeford and Sanford, adopted their community-based names in late spring.

Sites in the Coastal Region – Belfast, Rockport, Damariscotta and Brunswick will be known, respectively, as MaineHealth Waldo, MaineHealth Pen Bay, MaineHealth Lincoln and MaineHealth Mid Coast Hospital, effective Sept. 1.

Its other medical service and urgent care centers, practice locations, rehab facilities, the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital in Portland and Spring Harbor Hospital in Westbrook are also incorporating the MaineHealth brand with their facility names.

“In Oxford Hills, the most important thing is that what people know as Stephens (memorial hospital) does not change,” Noblin said. “It will remain as it has been. The colors they see may change, but we continue with the established care teams they know.

“And our growth continues. While other rural healthcare facilities have contracted their services, MaineHealth is committed to sizable expansion and renovation investments that benefit patients living in rural communities.”