Who We Are

The Daughters of Charity Health System (DCHS) is a regional health care system of six hospitals spanning the California coast from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles. Our sponsors are the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul who, for more than 375 years, have been serving the sick and those living in poverty through healing ministries worldwide.

Each day we model the time-honored Vincentian Values of our sponsors, demonstrating Catholic health care is a ministry – not an industry – and accomplishing Our Mission of providing quality, compassionate, holistic care to all who come to us, helping to heal them in body, mind and spirit.

DCHS was formed on January 1, 2002, but Our History in California reaches back more than 150 years. Five Daughters of Charity arrived in San Francisco in 1852, founding a hospital, an orphanage and beginning their work of caring for the sick. In 1856, six Daughters arrived in Los Angeles and within weeks began serving their community, establishing an orphanage and school. They began caring for patients brought to them even before they opened the Los Angeles County Hospital in 1858 and incorporated as the Los Angeles Infirmary in 1869.

Until 1995, the Daughters of Charity hospitals were part of the Daughters of Charity National Health System (now Ascension Health). In 1995, the Daughters of Charity, Province of the West, merged their hospitals with Catholic Healthcare West (CHW), responding to market pressures and perceived opportunities to strengthen the wider Catholic health ministry in California.

In 2001, after careful reflection, the Daughters of Charity, Province of the West, withdrew from CHW. On January 1, 2002, the Daughters of Charity Health System was formed.

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DCHS Local Health Ministries (LHMs) encompass some of the finest physicians, nurses, staff and facilities in the state. LHMs include O’Connor Hospital, San Jose; Saint Louise Regional Hospital, Gilroy; Seton Medical Center, Daly City; Seton Coastside, Moss Beach; St. Francis Medical Center, Lynwood; and St. Vincent Medical Center, Los Angeles. Caritas Business Services in Redwood Shores provides support services to the Northern California LHMs.

The Daughters of Charity touch lives through education, healthcare, and social and pastoral ministries.