In 1924, St. David’s Episcopal Church in downtown Austin approved the sale of bonds to support the Physicians’ and Surgeons’ Hospital, then located at 17th and Rio Grande, for $75,000. The hospital had been owned by a group of physicians, including Dr. Joe Gilbert, Dr. John Thomas and Dr. Sam Key, who were church parishioners. The charter was granted on December 31, 1924 in the name of St. David’s Hospital. The hospital was chartered as a non-profit, community-based hospital.

St. David’s stated that the church “could accept no profits nor would it be responsible for any indebtedness of the Hospital” and stipulated that one of the eight board members must be a non-Episcopalian. The original agreement also stated that the church rector must always be an ex-officio member of the board. Today, the vast majority of board members are non-Episcopalians, but Reverend David Boyd still serves as an ex-officio member of the Board.

In 1955, the hospital moved from 17th Street to its current location, 919 East 32nd Street. Its name officially became St. David’s Medical Center in April, 1989. In 1996, The Board of St. David’s Health Care System, which owned St. David’s Medical Center, agreed to enter into a partnership with Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), forming the St. David’s HealthCare Partnership. The Partnership is owned by general partners St. David’s Health Care System and HCA. At inception, the Partnership included St. David’s Medical Center, North Austin Medical Center, Round Rock Medical Center and South Austin Hospital. In May 2006, Georgetown Hospital joined the Partnership as the fifth acute care hospital.