Sorry I've been absent for so long... Did you make it to either of the public hearings they held to get questions from the public and answer them? I couldn't make it to either one...
I remember hearing from the chaplain at a ministerial meeting that they had to change the name to bring all the various campuses and centers under one name. Apparently insurance companies & such were having trouble seeing that "Portage Community Hospital" (or whatever it was called) was connected to "Porter Memorial Hospital," etc. It was creating major headaches. So now all of them are called "Porter" with sub-designations like "Valparaiso Hospital Campus," etc. Apparently there was quite a long process to decide the name, and it included asking community residents where they went for medical care. Quite a few answered, simply, "Porter." Since people were already referring to it with the shortened name, they decided to stick with it.
As for all the hullabaloo... I don't know enough about it to comment...
Peace,
Rich Schmidt
www.LivingHope.info