Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) is founded.

The creation of HCA gives birth to Nashville’s iconic and legendary health care industry.

Following the creation of Medicare in 1965, HCA starts in a small house near Centennial Park by Parkview Hospital (now Centennial Medical Center). The company is based on an idea from Tommy Frist Jr., MD, who roomed with the son of the Holiday Inn founder in college and saw similarities between the health care and hospitality industries. His father, a Parkview physician, was already in talks with Nashville businessman Jack Massey, a patient of his, about financing models for the hospital’s capital needs.

HCA is the first investor-owned hospital company in U.S. history and marks the beginning of a larger, industry-wide transition where hospitals morphed from a cottage industry into chains with efficiencies and economies of scale.

Today, HCA is the largest hospital company in the world.