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CLEBURNE, Texas — Next week, Harris Methodist Walls Regional Hospital will begin its transition to become Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Cleburne.

The new signs are part of the brand strategy that unites Texas Health Resources’ hospitals under one name starting Jan. 1, 2009. They will include the new name as well as the new brand logo. The hospital has not been sold and remains a nonprofit hospital committed to fulfilling the health care needs of Johnson County and the surrounding communities.

“We are excited for this new step in the evolution of Harris Methodist Walls Regional Hospital,” said Blake Kretz, hospital president. “Our employee base will remain the same as will the high level of quality care we provide. The only thing changing will be our name and logo, which is designed to better align the hospital in Cleburne with the rest of the Texas Health family of hospitals. We are grateful for the Walls family’s support as we move through this transition.”

Anyone who enters the facility also will see handouts and banners explaining the name change and its impact on the community.

To honor the Walls family’s contribution to the hospital, the main hospital building will be renamed Walls Tower.

“We are proud of our family’s ongoing relationship with the hospital and are excited that the name change will help residents of Cleburne and the surrounding areas recognize the broad range of medical services available to them through a great network of facilities and physicians on the medical staff,” said Sam Walls, board chairman at Harris Methodist Walls Regional Hospital, and a member of the Texas Health board as well as the Harris Methodist Health System board. “We are honored to be a part of the next step for the hospital and that the family’s name will remain a part of the hospital.”

Also, there are plans to include a painting of the family in the hospital as well as a prominent monument outside the facility. The hospital will host a celebration after the first of the year to honor the Walls family.

“Our patients who visit a Texas Health hospital elsewhere in North Texas will still be within the same family of caregivers,” Kretz said. “No matter where they see the Texas Health name, they will know it is a faith-based, community-focused hospital.”

About Harris Methodist Walls Regional Hospital
Harris Methodist Walls Regional Hospital, soon to be Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Cleburne, is a 137-bed acute-care, full-service medical center serving Cleburne and the Johnson County area since 1986. The hospital's services include surgery, women and infant services, urology, orthopedics and ear, nose and throat care.

Harris Methodist Walls Regional Hospital has been recently recognized for the Texas Health Care Quality Improvement award from TMF, the 2007 Premier/Carescience Select Practice National Quality Award and the 2007 Premier Award for Quality for Heart Failure. For more information, please call 1-888-4-HARRIS, or visit www.texashealth.org/hmwr.

About Texas Health Resources
Texas Health Resources is one of the largest faith-based, nonprofit health care delivery systems in the United States and the largest in North Texas in terms of patients served. THR’s system of 13 hospitals includes Harris Methodist Hospitals, Arlington Memorial Hospital and Presbyterian Healthcare System, and a medical research organization. THR is a corporate member or partner in six additional hospitals and surgery centers. For more information about Texas Health Resources, visit www.texashealth.org.