Developer Trammell Crow and his partners chose to locate the hospital and medical office tower on a 250-acre plot in the Park Central area of Dallas partly because preliminary research showed that as of 1972 when the development was planned, 85 percent of all MDs in Dallas County lived within a 15-minute drive of the new complex.

In describing the original plan, co-managing partner Robert J. Wright touted the updated 20th-century concept of combining hospital-related facilities on the same site with the hospital itself: "For too long, many doctors have had to practice 20th century medicine in 19th century facilities, with their offices at one location, their hospital at another, lab, X-ray and other vital services at still another, and all at great distances from each other and from their homes.

[6] In 1982, a 3-alarm fire originating in the linen room caused smoke to travel up a laundry chute and fill the top three floors.

All entities in the facility, including the hospital, physician offices, retail areas and other services are tenants of the Limited Partnership formed at Medical City's inception.

[1] This funding source became somewhat controversial in the early 1980s when MCD joined twelve other private hospitals in north Texas requesting to participate in a tax-exempt bond program "to finance the purchase of X-ray equipment, surgical tools and other medical equipment";[8] administrators in public hospitals in other cities objected to participation by private hospitals "that care for few or no charity patients" and the U.S. Treasury Department opposed use of such programs to finance private ventures, estimating that such programs "cost the government $100 million to $300 million in lost tax revenue annually.