How would you describe your company? St. Bernards is a community health endeavor, supported and sustained by the same communities we serve. The Olivetan Benedictine Sisters founded St. Bernards on July 5, 1900, in response to a malaria fever outbreak. These Sisters, who still sponsor our health care system 124 years later, opened a hospital in the heart of northeast Arkansas, establishing what would become St. Bernards Medical Center.