History

For more than five decades, St. Luke’s Health has been providing compassionate healthcare to Houstonians and the world from its first hospital location in the Texas Medical Center and now five campuses throughout Greater Houston.

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.

1990
St. Luke's Medical Tower—now known as The O'Quinn Medical Tower at St. Luke's—opened, earning the distinction of being the icon most associated with the Texas Medical Center.

2000

St. Luke’s Community Emergency Center–Holcombe opens–the Health System’s first freestanding emergency center.

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

2003

St. Luke’s The Woodlands Hospital opens, offering an emergency department, newborn and infant nurseries, diagnostic imaging services, labor and delivery services, and pediatric emergency care.

St. Luke's Diagnostic and Treatment Center—now St. Luke's Kirby Glen Outpatient Center—opens. The facility offers radiology, cancer treatment facilities, lung therapy, sleep apnea diagnostics, and CyberKnife® radiosurgery.

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. While Baylor and St. Luke’s have been affiliated since September 1961, the new affiliation agreement resulted in a strengthening of their shared programs to forge a new model for healthcare delivery.

2005
St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital was re-designated a Magnet Hospital for Nursing Excellence by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).

2008
St. Luke’s Sugar Land Hospital opens to provde medical and surgical clinical services, including women’s health, emergency care, intensive care, and diagnostic and interventional cardiac catheterization labs in one Texas’ fastest growing communities.

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

St. Luke's Community Emergency Center–Pearland opens.

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

St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System acquires Patients Medical Center, which offers outpatient medical and surgical services to residents in Pasadena, Deer Park, La Porte, Baytown, and Clear Lake.

2013
The Episcopal Diocese of Texas transfers ownership of St. Luke’s Episcopal Health to Catholic Health Initiatives, the nation’s third-largest faith-based health system. St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System is now St. Luke’s Health.

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 Health Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center receives its fourth consecutive ANCC Magnet® Designation for Nursing Excellence–the highest honor bestowed to a hospital for nursing.

2016
St. Luke’s Health–Springwoods Village medical campus opened on a mixed-used community home to provide emergency services, diagnostic imaging, and outpatient surgery to the residents and employee population in the surrounding North Harris County area.

St. Luke's Health is part of CommonSpirit Health, a nonprofit, Catholic health system dedicated to advancing health for all people. It was created in February 2019 through the alignment of Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health. CommonSpirit Health is committed to creating healthier communities, delivering exceptional patient care, and ensuring every person has access to quality health care. With its national office in Chicago and a team of approximately 150,000 employees and 25,000 physicians and advanced practice clinicians, CommonSpirit Health operates 142 hospitals and more than 700 care sites across 21 states. 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. Learn more at commonspirit.org.