Deaconess Memorial Medical Center in Jasper to Host Earth Day Celebration

Deaconess Memorial Medical Center will open its campus at 800 W. 9th St. in Jasper to the public for an Earth Day celebration on Tuesday, April 22, featuring family-focused activities and educational programming built around the connection between environmental health and personal wellness.

The event will include exhibits developed with local public-health partners, demonstrations on how everyday environmental decisions affect physical health, and hands-on activities aimed at children. The programming is designed to make preventive health information and community resources accessible outside of clinical appointments, giving Jasper-area families a direct touchpoint with the hospital's staff and services.

For Deaconess Memorial, the April 22 gathering carries added weight: it is among the first large-scale public events held under the facility's new name. The campus served Dubois County for nearly 75 years as Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center before officially rebranding as Deaconess Memorial Medical Center on August 1, 2025. That name change followed a survey of more than 800 community members and hospital employees, and the term "medical center" was chosen deliberately over "hospital" to reflect the breadth of care now available at the Jasper facility.

The rebrand formalized the hospital's integration into Deaconess Health System, the Evansville-based 19-hospital network that traces its origins to a 19-bed facility founded in 1892. Memorial Hospital joined the Deaconess system in 2024 after an affiliation that began in 2023. Deaconess Health System CEO Shawn McCoy called the rebrand "more than cosmetic," framing it as a strategic move tied to expanded service lines and regional capabilities.

Since joining Deaconess, the Jasper campus has added inpatient nephrology, pain management, and expanded surgical services, backed by the ROSA robotic surgical system and OrthoGrid technology. The 114-bed facility now operates with more than 1,600 caregivers and approximately 250 physicians and advanced practice providers, offering more than 30 specialties across 33 healthcare facilities. In 2024, the hospital earned Magnet with Distinction® recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, one of nursing's most prestigious designations for excellence in practice and patient outcomes.

The Earth Day event gives the newly named hospital its most visible public opportunity yet to introduce those expanded capabilities to a community that knew the facility by a different name for generations.