Ascension Seton Community Impact

Ascension Seton’s Mission and Impact Across Travis County

Ascension Seton has provided healthcare services for Travis County for 120 years. As part of Ascension Texas, a network of 14 hospitals and 120 sites of care across Central Texas, we’re guided by our mission to deliver compassionate, personalized care for all, especially those who need it most.

Over the past 10 years, Ascension Texas has provided on average $549 million in charity care and community benefit in Central Texas, as reported to the State of Texas. Through our mission, we are called to respect the dignity of each person, promote the common good, have special concern for persons who are vulnerable, promote health equity and be responsible stewards of our resources.

Ascension Seton’s impact across Travis County includes:

• Serving as the safety net hospital in Travis County;
• Integrating clinical programs with Dell Medical School, creating a $300 million public/private safety net hospital and collaborating with Central Health;
• Providing on average $549M in charity care and community benefit in Central Texas over the past 10 years;
• Delivering more than 338,000 vaccine doses as part of The Travis County Vaccine Collaborative;
• Providing school nurses for more than 25 years to the Austin Independent School District;
• Implementing Project SEARCH, a best practice for hiring young adults with developmental and cognitive disabilities into a yearlong internship through 12 community organizations, including five school districts, long-term service providers and our workforce development organizations; and
• Supporting numerous organizations including:
  • National Alliance on Mental Illness,
  • Lone Star Circle of Care’s Big Pink Bus,
  • American Heart Association,
  • Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, and
  • STAR Flight.

Ascension Seton is proud to support and partner with community organizations across Travis County to improve the region’s health and quality of life.

Our Journey as the Safety Net System for Travis County

Since 2017, Ascension Seton has served as the “safety net” hospital system for Travis County, ensuring access to care for all residents regardless of insurance coverage and ability to pay. As part of our mission, we are committed to meeting this need for the community.

Our mission compelled us to take on this responsibility in the 1990s when the City of Austin needed a healthcare partner to maintain safety net services. Prior to that, residents were served for more than a century by a public hospital, known in its final years as University Medical Center at Brackenridge. The financial, clinical and administrative challenges of operating a hospital led to the city’s decision to seek a partner.

Ascension Seton Healthcare Family was willing to take on the financial risks associated with a safety net facility and began contracting the operation of Brackenridge in 1995.

For many years, the University of Texas at Galveston served as the graduate medical education (GME) program for Brackenridge Hospital. When the GME program was discontinued in 2005 after the devastation of Hurricane Rita, Seton evaluated how to create a strategy for a new medical school, teaching hospital and behavioral health services.

In 2012, Proposition 1 passed in Travis County — with 55% of the vote — to enact a 5-cent tax increase per $100 of assessed valuation that would help fund Dell Medical School at the University of Texas. The collaboration with Ascension Seton enabled the building of Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas at Austin, a teaching hospital, provider of medical residencies and the only Level One Trauma Center for an 11-county area. Proposition 1 also helped fund a redesign of the healthcare delivery system in Travis County and expand healthcare infrastructure and resources that serve uninsured residents.

In 2017, Brackenridge Hospital was closed and Dell Seton Medical Center became a new public safety net hospital serving Travis County. While Ascension has operated Seton Healthcare facilities since their inception, all the facilities were rebranded with the Ascension name in 2019. Ascension Texas operates Dell Seton Medical Center and more than 120 sites of care throughout Central Texas.

Through our safety net system that provides access to care for children and adults across Travis County, Ascension Seton continues to fulfill our mission of delivering compassionate care for all, with particular attention to the poor and vulnerable.

Ascension Seton Community Impact Stories

• New program aims to help new families with food insecurity in Austin, KXAN
• Dell Seton Medical Center Ranked Most Socially Responsible Hospital, Patch
• Ascension Seton Donates $3 million to help end Austin homelessness, NBC Austin
• Travis County man loses vision from cataracts, uses his story to help others, CBS Austin
• An Austin school and state-of-the-art clinic unite to meet the needs of medically fragile children, KUT, Austin NPR
• Dell Children’s offers unique full service health care at Rosedale School, CBS Austin
• Ascension Seton recognized for investment in STAR Flight, vaccines, Patch
• STAR Flight receives $10 million check for helicopter program, KXAN News
• Dell Children’s Medical Center and Ascension Seton host COVID-19 vaccine drive, Austin American-Statesman
• Ascension Seton to invest $320M in facility dedicated to women’s health, Austin Business Journal

Ascension Seton Community Care Stories

• $280M expansion addresses patients needs at Dell Seton Medical Center, KVUE
• Nearly 40 more pediatric hospital beds coming soon to Williamson County, KXAN
• How Austin doctors delivered life-saving treatment for mysterious headaches, Austin American-Statesman
• Heart transplant survivors have new symbol of hope at Ascension Seton Medical Center, Fox 7 Austin
• 11-year-old soccer player on the road to full recovery after surviving cardiac arrest while training, KVUE
• One of the smallest babies to have heart surgery goes home from Dell Children’s, Austin American-Statesman
• Austin heart transplant recipient taps mental strength during long hospital stay, recovery, Austin American-Statesman

Examples of Community Partnerships