The fact that it came up during strategic planning, we decided to research it further.

We're not necessarily changing the name of the hospital. What we are doing is significant. We will be moving forward with doing quantitative and qualitative research. A consultant will interview physicians, board members, employees and community opinion leaders. She will get a feel about what the community thinks about BCH and what they believe its image to be.

Does that (the name Boone County Hospital) really reflect what we do? Is that what the community wants?.

We will determine, based on their information, if we need to change the name of the hospital or if the name doesn't accurately reflect what we do anymore.

We need this planning grant so we can do the research we need to do to prepare a thorough application for permits we need to build this new facility. The grant will help us develop our plans to the point where we can answer the community's questions.

This is obviously the industry of the 21st century. What happened when the Research Triangle formed 30 years ago, it's a different model now.