SSM Health Care grew out of a health care ministry begun in 1872 in St. Louis by the congregation formerly known as the Sisters of St. Mary. In the late 1800s, several sisters left that congregation and formed another congregation elsewhere in the country. In the late 1980s, the two congregations reunited and formed the Franciscan Sisters of Mary. SSM Health Care does not formally stand for a longer name, but it pays tribute to those early sisters who provided loving care for people who were sick.