W. B. Morrow, the rector of the Church of the Redeemer, with plans for a hospital and she donated the home to the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company on February 14, 1885 to be used for that purpose.

[11] In turn, a corporation formed for the care of "injured and sick persons without distinction on account of creed, race, or nationality," and a charter was granted for the hospital one month later on March 16.

[2] The majority of the patients in the first years were injured while working for the Lehigh Valley Railroad and Sayre Locomotive Shops.

Despite rarely having vacant beds, the hospital still went further into debt, largely due to not charging patients for their care.

[2][11] He founded the Guthrie Medical Group and expanded services in the hospital to model it after the Mayo Clinic, where he had completed his residency.

In September, 1916, Ornan H. Waltz noted in Modern Hospital, "Sayre, Pa., a city of only eight thousand people, can boast of one of the most serviceable institutions in the country".

[13][16] The hospital received a Public Works Administration loan in the amount of $420,000 to complete the new building meant to house 285 beds, which was opened on December 6, 1934.

In 1987, nursing education changed at Robert Packer Hospital and it no longer offered a diploma program.