UPMC Mercy remains Pittsburgh's only Catholic hospital that provides a full breadth of specialized services.

The Sisters of Mercy, a religious congregation founded in Ireland in 1831 by Catherine McAuley, brought its stated mission of caring and compassion to the growing industrial city of Pittsburgh in 1843.

[3] Founded by Bishop Michael O'Connor, it began life in a temporary frame building on Penn Avenue known as Concert Hall.

That commitment to the community was demonstrated again when, in the 1960s, Mercy decided to rebuild and remain in uptown Pittsburgh, and over the next four decades, the hospital expanded, replaced facilities, and developed specialized programs and advanced technology.

UPMC Mercy continues to provide significant amounts of unreimbursed healthcare to the poor and uninsured in Pittsburgh and to the entire Western Pennsylvania region.

In 2023, the UPMC Vision Institute moved from Presby to the Mercy Pavilion, providing routine and emergency Ophthalmology and other eye related services.