Threats of a lawsuit have pushed a nonprofit health care provider in Coeur d’Alene to change its name for the second time this month.

Dirne Community Health Center, which has provided health services particularly to low-income and homeless patients for nearly 30 years, announced with fanfare Sept. 9 that it was changing its name to Legacy Health. But on Monday the name will change again, to Heritage Health.

“Almost immediately after the (Sept. 9) announcement, our organization was contacted by an attorney with Legacy Health Systems in Oregon,” CEO Mike Baker said in a statement released Friday. The Portland-based hospital group threatened to sue for trademark infringement.

Baker said his organization believes it could prevail in such a lawsuit, but it couldn’t pay for a legal battle with a company with billion-dollar revenues.

The Coeur d’Alene system’s board of directors decided to “capture the spirit of the former name” by changing the name to Heritage Health, Baker said.

“Our commitment to this community has not changed,” Baker said.

The clinic, incorporated in 1986 by Lidwina Dirne, had decided on its first rebranding in consultation with Dirne before her death in June, according to previous news reports.

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