St. Luke's Health System history

1954 Founded by the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, St Luke’s Episcopal Hospital made headlines after performing the first successful heart transplantation, the first artificial heart implantation, and the first laser angioplasty procedure.

1961 Partnership between St Luke’s and Baylor begins, with St Luke’s serving as a teaching hospital for Baylor College of Medicine medical students.

1962 Begins its relationship with Texas Heart® Institute—a research and education partner.

The hospital as it exists today was founded in 1966 through the consolidation of Lutheran and Methodist Hospitals in Sioux City.

In 1972, St Luke's beautiful new central building, located at 27th and Stone Park Blvd., welcomes its first patient.

In 1973, the St Louis area's first hyperbaric chamber was installed at St Luke's.

The first St Luke's Urgent Care Center opened in 1982.

That changed in 1989 with the construction of Saint Luke’s North Hospital—Barry Road and our acquisition of Spelman Memorial Hospital, now Saint Luke's North Hospital—Smithville, in the northern part of Kansas City.

In 1990, Saint Luke’s Hospital officially became a primary teaching hospital of the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Medicine.

In December 1991, our International Patient Center was created as part of Baylor St Luke's Medical Center, home of the Texas Heart® Institute, to meet our international patients’ increasing health needs.

Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City’s Crittenton Children’s Center, which cares for the emotional health of children and families, officially joined the health system in 1992.

In 1996, St Luke's also joins Iowa Health System, a grassroots partnership of Iowa hospitals in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and Dubuque.

2002 The Denton A. Cooley Building is dedicated in honor of Texas Heart Instiute Founder and President Emeritus Denton A. Cooley, MD

Hedrick Medical Center in Chillicothe, Missouri, joined Saint Luke's in 2003.

2004 Baylor College of Medicine and St Luke’s Episcopal Health System enter into a new affiliation agreement that significantly expanded St Luke’s relationship as Baylor’s private adult affiliated teaching hospital.

St Luke's welcomes families into the newly expanded labor and delivery and renovated mother and baby unit in 2006.

2009 St Luke’s Lakeside Hospital opens–specializing in sports medicine and orthopedic/spine surgery services.

2010 St Luke’s The Vintage Hospital opens in Northwest Houston offering a full spectrum of inpatient and outpatient services.

In 2012, St Luke's College moves from its original location just south of the hospital to Physician Center One.

2014 Catholic Health Initiatives and Baylor College of Medicine signed a joint agreement to open an acute-care, open-staff hospital on Baylor’s McNair Campus, which is currently home to the Baylor College of Medicine Medical Center and the Lee and Joe Jamail Specialty Care Center.

St Luke's opened its eighth urgent care center in 2015.

In 2016, the St Luke's Hospital Heart & Vascular Institute announced its alliance with the Cleveland Clinic Heart, Vascular and Thoracic Institute.

In FY 2018, Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health had combined revenues of $29.2 billion and provided $4.2 billion in charity care, community benefit, and unreimbursed government programs.

It was created in February 2019 through the alignment of Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health.