Centre Community Hospital will change its name and become the Mount Nittany Medical Center this fall.

The change was approved in a June 30 meeting of the CCH Corporation and will take effect in November, said Maureen Karstetter, vice president of the hospital's foundation and director of communications for the hospital.

As part of a strategic plan passed in 1999, the administration researched what the image the community had of the hospital, President and CEO Thomas Murray said. It found the name did not reflect what the hospital had to offer, he added.

Karstetter said the misconceptions some people have about the services available at the hospital would be corrected with the title "medical center."

"We didn't go into this looking to change the name," she said. "The name change reflects advances we've made in providing quality health care."

In recent years, the hospital has grown to offer spine surgery and some of the state's most technologically advanced equipment for its cancer treatment program, Karstetter said.

"Those are things you don't typically find in a community hospital; you find them in a regional medical center," she added.

The new name does not take effect until November to allow the staff to use up stationary and other supplies with Centre Community Hospital printed on them, Karstetter said.

Dr. Jeffrey Ratner, hospital chief of staff, said the goal is to help the public understand the extended variety of services it can get at the hospital.

"If we're able to handle a certain medical problem here, we want people to feel comfortable knowing that they can get care for that problem here," he said.

Murray said that while the hospital is expanding its capabilities, it keeps the needs of the region in mind.

"We're not just adding services to add services," he said. "We want to take care of the people in this county and the contiguous counties."

The word "Centre" in the hospital's current name caused a problem as well, Murray said. They could not simply replace "community hospital" with "medical center" because the name would use "center" twice, each spelled a different way.

"People would probably spell both of them wrong," he said.

Kara Lyons (senior-kinesiology) does not think Centre Community Hospital makes the facility sound small or less equipped.

"I don't think there's any reason to change it," she said.

Murray and Karstetter both said getting people to recognize the new name would take time and effort. However, Murray said he thinks it will be even easier for people to know where the hospital is located with once the name change goes into effect.

"Anywhere in the state, you say Mount Nittany, and people know what area you're in," he said. "There is no question where Mount Nittany Medical Center is."

Craig Buxbaum, a high school student enrolled at Penn State this summer, said he understands the motive behind the change, but thinks the recognition of the hospital's name is more important.

"I guess [the new name] makes it sound more professional, but I think they should leave it," he said. "People know it as [the current] name."

While the hospital staff was mostly supportive of the change, Ratner and Murray said there are some members who do not believe the switch is necessary to make the public understand the extent of the facilities.

"Anytime you have a change, not everybody says, 'oh, sure,' " Murray said.

Ratner said that while everyone did not agree, there was a lot of market research and many surveys done in the area, and the change ultimately came from that information.