Covenant Health System is an American health care provider which serves West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. It has about 1,300 beds in its five primary acute-care and specialty hospitals; it also manages about a dozen affiliated community hospitals. Covenant Health System, part of the St. Joseph Health System, also maintains a network of family health care and medical clinics. Covenant Health System's major facilities are Covenant Medical Center, Covenant Specialty Hospital, and Covenant Children's Hospital. The health system also includes some 20 clinics and 50 physician practices, and its extensive outreach programs target isolated rural communities with mobile services. Covenant Health was founded in 1998 through the merger of two of Lubbock's health care facilities, St. Mary of the Plains Hospital and the Lubbock Methodist Hospital System.