The health care network Knoxville Hospital and Clinics belongs to is changing its name, but the functions and services at the hospital itself will not.

Knoxville Hospital and Clinics CEO Kevin Kincaid says the Mercy Health Network is now known as MercyOne; Knoxville is one of over two dozen hospitals around Iowa which are affiliated with the organization, which allows them to utilize its resources in daily operations and specialized patient care.

Kincaid tells KNIA/KRLS News this rebranding will mean minimal changes for the hospital’s look, and virtually no change in operations; he says Knoxville Hospital and Clinics will continue to be locally controlled and locally-focused.

“I really like our position that we’re in with being an affiliate partner of a great network like that; so we get to leverage both,” Kincaid says. “To me…we’ve never lost our local focus of continuing to concentrate on the local needs of health that we need to deliver. That has not changed and will not change.”

MercyOne grew out of two separate Catholic-based networks, each serving the northern and southern portions of Iowa respectively. Mercy Health Network has become the largest such network in the state, but sought to give itself and its affiliates a unifying identity to make them more visible for the public.