Both hospitals were originally built close to steel mills, and cared for the people who worked in them. Eventually, those hospitals moved to larger facilities, then merged in 1973, and together they were known as the South Hills Health System. In 1977, the new Coal Valley Road hospital opened, to accommodate Pittsburgh's rapidly growing southern suburbs. Later, the health system changed its name to Jefferson Regional Medical Center, and by the mid-'80s, the hospital had added an ambulatory surgery center, a new professional medical building, and was operating one of the largest home-care nursing programs in the area.