Our History

Saint Thomas Hospital
A Legacy of Compassionate Care

For 111 years, Saint Thomas Hospital has been devoted to physical, emotional and spiritual healing. Our mission is to serve all persons, with special attention to those who are poor and vulnerable, while improving the health of individuals and communities.

Saint Vincent de Paul and Saint Louise de Marillac founded the Daughters of Charity in Paris, France. In 1898, Thomas Sebastian Byrne, the fifth Catholic Bishop of Nashville, asked the Daughters of Charity to establish Saint Thomas Hospital in Nashville. Rooted in the loving ministry of Jesus as healer, we commit ourselves to serving all persons with special attention to those who are poor and vulnerable.

Our Catholic health ministry is dedicated to spiritually centered, holistic care, which sustains and improves the health of individuals and communities. We are advocates for a compassionate and just society through our actions and our words.

Today, Saint Thomas Hospital provides adult specialty healthcare to the more than two million residents of Middle Tennessee, Southwestern Kentucky and Northern Alabama.

“Saint Thomas is a hospital with a soul,” says Les Donahue, President and CEO, Saint Thomas Hospital. “Our associates, physicians and volunteers are dedicated to providing the finest patient-centered care in a healing environment.”

Distinctive Services at Saint Thomas Hospital include: Nationally-Recognized Cardiac services from more than 60 specialists of Saint Thomas Heart, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Accredited Heart Failure Unit, Accredited Chest Pain Center and Emergency Services Department, Critical and Special Care, Ambulatory and Outpatient Surgery, Diabetes Center, General Medicine, General Surgery, Maria Nathanson Center for Excellence for Renal, Pulmonary and Gastroenterology Disorders, Mental Health Care Unit, Nephrology, Transplantation Department - Cardiac and Kidney, Accredited Stroke Center, Outpatient Neurosurgery Center, Accredited Center for MS, Brain and Spine Tumor Center, Accredited Dan Rudy Cancer Center, Infusion Center, Radiation Oncology, Stereotactic Radiosurgery, Lung Cancer Center, Ophthalmology, Rehabilitation Services, Physical Therapy, Respiratory Therapy, Specialty Surgery, Ear, Nose, Throat Surgery, Neurosurgery, Ophthalmology Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery, Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, Vascular Surgery, Urology, Women’s Health Services, Gynecology and the Center for Breast Health.

Saint Thomas Hospital has been named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals by Thomson Reuters Healthcare. This is the eighth time Saint Thomas Hospital has earned this distinction.

For the fifth consecutive year, Saint Thomas Hospital has received the HealthGrades Patient Safety Excellence Award. Of the nearly 5,000 hospitals studied, only 242 hospitals in the United States have received the Patient Safety Excellence Award. This award places Saint Thomas Hospital among the top five percent of all hospitals in the U.S.

Additionally, Saint Thomas Hospital has been awarded the HealthGrades 2009/2010 Outstanding Patient Experience Award. This honor places Saint Thomas Hospital in the top 15 percent of all eligible hospitals in patient experience.

The ratings are based on patient satisfaction survey results that hospitals provided as part of a federal initiative to provide consumers with more information about hospital performance.

Saint Thomas Hospital is a member of Saint Thomas Health Services, a faith-based ministry with more than 8,000 associates serving Middle Tennessee. Saint Thomas Health Services’ regional health system consists of five hospitals – Baptist and Saint Thomas Hospitals and the Center for Spinal Surgery in Nashville, Middle Tennessee Medical Center in Murfreesboro and Hickman Community Hospital in Centerville – and a comprehensive network of affiliated joint ventures in diagnostics, cardiac services and ambulatory surgery as well as medical practices, clinics and rehabilitation facilities. STHS is a member of Ascension Health, a Catholic organization that is the largest not-for-profit health system in the United States.

For more information, visit, www.stthomas.org.