Our History

Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital began in 1910 when a local reverend led efforts to build a public hospital in St. Petersburg. The five-room bungalow, built on the site of today’s hospital, was named Good Samaritan Hospital.

In 1913, to meet the area’s growing healthcare needs, the city raised money to build the new Augusta Memorial Hospital on an adjacent site. About 10 years later, the hospital was expanded once more, and the new 60-bed facility was named Mound Park Hospital after the nearby Tocobaga mounds. That original 1923 building still stands and houses offices and our chapel. After undergoing numerous expansions over the next 45 years, Mound Park Hospital was converted from a city-run hospital to a not-for-profit organization and in 1970 was renamed Bayfront Medical Center.

During the mid-1980s the hospital underwent a major restructuring and renovation project, creating a new emergency/trauma center; new intensive care, neurology and cardiac care units; and a new obstetrics program with perinatal and nursery facilities. The hospital earned Level II Trauma Center designation in 1986, becoming the only trauma center in Pinellas County and established the supporting Bayflite Emergency Helicopter Transport System.

Joining a new partnership in 2013, Bayfront Medical Center was renamed Bayfront Health St. Petersburg.

In October 2020, the now 480-bed Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital became part of the Orlando Health organization, extending the healthcare system’s network of quality care from Central Florida to the Gulf coast.