Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center
Encyclopedia
Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center, also known as County/USC, by the abbreviation LAC+USC, or by the name Los Angeles County General, is a 600-bed public teaching hospital
located in the Boyle Heights
neighborhood of Los Angeles
, California
. It is jointly operated by Los Angeles County and the University of Southern California
.
s and medical training centers in the United States
, and the largest single provider of healthcare in Los Angeles County. It provides healthcare services for the region's medically underserved, is a Level I trauma center
and treats over 28 percent of the region's trauma
victims (2005). It provides care for half of all AIDS
and sickle-cell anemia patients in Southern California
. LAC+USC Medical Center is owned and operated by the County of Los Angeles
.
Although by law the emergency room must accept all patients regardless of ability to pay, hospital care is not free. LAC+USC accepts self-pay patients as well as patients covered by private insurance
, Medicare
, and Medicaid
(Medi-Cal
).
The LAC+USC Medical Center provides a full spectrum of emergency
, inpatient and outpatient services. These include medical, surgical
, emergency/trauma, obstetrical
, gynecological and pediatric
services as well as psychiatric
services for adults, adolescents and children. Some LAC+USC doctors are faculty of the Keck School of Medicine of USC; care is also provided by more than 1,000 medical residents
.
LAC+USC is one of the busiest public hospitals in the Western United States
, with nearly 39,000 inpatients discharged, and one million ambulatory care
patient visits each year. The Emergency Department is one of the world's busiest, with more than 150,000 visits per year. LAC+USC operates one of only three burn
centers in Los Angeles County and one of the few Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Units in Southern California. LAC+USC is also the home of the Los Angeles County College of Nursing and Allied Health, which has prepared registered nurses for professional practice since its founding in 1895.
On November 8, 2008, transfer of all inpatients
from Women's and Children's Hospital and the historic white 800-bed hospital on the hill to a new, $1 billion, state-of-the-art 600-bed replacement hospital just south of it was completed, and the new hospital was fully opened for service. The new hospital consists of three linked buildings: a clinic tower, a diagnostic and treatment tower, and an inpatient tower. It was built because the old building did not meet new earthquake and fire codes enacted in the aftermath of the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The old building remains open for offices and support services only. The new facility has a larger number of intensive care beds to handle patients in the aftermath of disasters.
, USC School of Pharmacy, USC University Hospital
and the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital.
LAC+USC's three-year cardiology fellowship program was on probation because of "insufficient teaching time by the faculty"; training and teaching plans are being reformed. The cardiology fellowship has been reaccredited and is again matriculating fellows. New staff have been hired and the issues cited relating to teaching have been resolved.
Marilyn Monroe
was born in the charity ward of this hospital on June 1, 1926. The hospital also has a jail ward. In 1954, Stan Getz
was processed in the jail ward as his wife gave birth to their third child one floor below. He had been arrested for attempting to rob a pharmacy to get a morphine fix.
The distinct Art Deco
-style main building served as the exterior of the hospital in the 1998 movie City of Angels. In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the episode entitled "The Good Wound", exterior shots of the older LAC+USC facility to represent the hospital where Riley was being held. The outside of the hospital appeared in the television series Dr. Kildare
, where it was known as "Blair General Hospital". There were a number of scenes filmed in one of the hospital's larger operating theaters in the TV series Ben Casey
. The hospital also appears in the movie El Norte
. The stairs and front entrance of the original LAC+USC Medical Center is seen in a scene in the 1993 film Blood In, Blood Out when one of the main characters is released after being treated for gunshot wounds. The exterior is also used in shots portraying Jessica Alba's hospital stay in the 2008 horror movie The Eye
.
Beginning in 1975, the ABC
soap opera
General Hospital
began using the facility for its exterior shots, appearing primarily in the show's opening sequence, where it still remains. The lower floors of the show's Los Angeles
studio are modeled after the actual hospital's emergency room entrance, allowing for the show to shoot outdoor scenes in their own parking lot. On their spin-off, General Hospital: Night Shift
, the upper floors were edited in digitally to fit on top of the show's studio, creating a CGI look, modeled after the real hospital's original exterior.
The government agent in E. T. came from here
Teaching hospital
A teaching hospital is a hospital that provides clinical education and training to future and current doctors, nurses, and other health professionals, in addition to delivering medical care to patients...
located in the Boyle Heights
Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California
Boyle Heights is a neighborhood east of Downtown Los Angeles on the East Side of Los Angeles. For much of the twentieth century, Boyle Heights was a gateway for new immigrants. This resulted in diverse demographics, including Jewish American, Japanese American and Mexican American populations,...
neighborhood of Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. It is jointly operated by Los Angeles County and the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
.
Operations
Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center is one of the largest public hospitalHospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
s and medical training centers in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and the largest single provider of healthcare in Los Angeles County. It provides healthcare services for the region's medically underserved, is a Level I trauma center
Trauma center
A trauma center is a hospital equipped to provide comprehensive emergency medical services to patients suffering traumatic injuries. Trauma centers grew into existence out of the realization that traumatic injury is a disease process unto itself requiring specialized and experienced...
and treats over 28 percent of the region's trauma
Physical trauma
Trauma refers to "a body wound or shock produced by sudden physical injury, as from violence or accident." It can also be described as "a physical wound or injury, such as a fracture or blow." Major trauma can result in secondary complications such as circulatory shock, respiratory failure and death...
victims (2005). It provides care for half of all AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
and sickle-cell anemia patients in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
. LAC+USC Medical Center is owned and operated by the County of Los Angeles
Los Angeles County, California
Los Angeles County is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 U.S. Census, the county had a population of 9,818,605, making it the most populous county in the United States. Los Angeles County alone is more populous than 42 individual U.S. states...
.
Although by law the emergency room must accept all patients regardless of ability to pay, hospital care is not free. LAC+USC accepts self-pay patients as well as patients covered by private insurance
Private healthcare
Private healthcare or private medicine is healthcare and medicine provided by entities other than the government. The term is generally used more in Europe and other countries which have publicly-funded health care, to differentiate the arrangement from the usual system.Ethical issues relating to...
, Medicare
Medicare (United States)
Medicare is a social insurance program administered by the United States government, providing health insurance coverage to people who are aged 65 and over; to those who are under 65 and are permanently physically disabled or who have a congenital physical disability; or to those who meet other...
, and Medicaid
Medicaid
Medicaid is the United States health program for certain people and families with low incomes and resources. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the state and federal governments, and is managed by the states. People served by Medicaid are U.S. citizens or legal permanent...
(Medi-Cal
Medi-Cal
The California Medical Assistance Program is the name of the California Medicaid program serving low-income families, seniors, persons with disabilities, children in foster care, pregnant women, and certain low-income adults...
).
The LAC+USC Medical Center provides a full spectrum of emergency
Emergency department
An emergency department , also known as accident & emergency , emergency room , emergency ward , or casualty department is a medical treatment facility specialising in acute care of patients who present without prior appointment, either by their own means or by ambulance...
, inpatient and outpatient services. These include medical, surgical
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
, emergency/trauma, obstetrical
Obstetrics
Obstetrics is the medical specialty dealing with the care of all women's reproductive tracts and their children during pregnancy , childbirth and the postnatal period...
, gynecological and pediatric
Pediatrics
Pediatrics or paediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician or paediatrician...
services as well as psychiatric
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
services for adults, adolescents and children. Some LAC+USC doctors are faculty of the Keck School of Medicine of USC; care is also provided by more than 1,000 medical residents
Residency (medicine)
Residency is a stage of graduate medical training. A resident physician or resident is a person who has received a medical degree , Podiatric degree , Dental Degree and who practices...
.
LAC+USC is one of the busiest public hospitals in the Western United States
Western United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...
, with nearly 39,000 inpatients discharged, and one million ambulatory care
Ambulatory care
Ambulatory care is a personal health care consultation, treatment or intervention using advanced medical technology or procedures delivered on an outpatient basis Ambulatory care is a personal health care consultation, treatment or intervention using advanced medical technology or procedures...
patient visits each year. The Emergency Department is one of the world's busiest, with more than 150,000 visits per year. LAC+USC operates one of only three burn
Burn (injury)
A burn is a type of injury to flesh caused by heat, electricity, chemicals, light, radiation or friction. Most burns affect only the skin . Rarely, deeper tissues, such as muscle, bone, and blood vessels can also be injured...
centers in Los Angeles County and one of the few Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Units in Southern California. LAC+USC is also the home of the Los Angeles County College of Nursing and Allied Health, which has prepared registered nurses for professional practice since its founding in 1895.
New facility
Patient
A patient is any recipient of healthcare services. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, advanced practice registered nurse, veterinarian, or other health care provider....
from Women's and Children's Hospital and the historic white 800-bed hospital on the hill to a new, $1 billion, state-of-the-art 600-bed replacement hospital just south of it was completed, and the new hospital was fully opened for service. The new hospital consists of three linked buildings: a clinic tower, a diagnostic and treatment tower, and an inpatient tower. It was built because the old building did not meet new earthquake and fire codes enacted in the aftermath of the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The old building remains open for offices and support services only. The new facility has a larger number of intensive care beds to handle patients in the aftermath of disasters.
History
The Los Angeles County Hospital and the University of Southern California Medical School were first affiliated in 1885, five years after USC was founded. The present-day LAC+USC complex is adjacent to the University of Southern California Health Sciences Campus, which includes the USC Keck School of MedicineKeck School of Medicine of USC
The Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California is a major center of medical research, education and patient care. Founded in 1885, the Keck School of Medicine is the oldest medical school in Southern California.Located on the university’s Health Sciences campus three miles ...
, USC School of Pharmacy, USC University Hospital
USC University Hospital
The USC University Hospital is a private teaching hospital, part of the Keck School of Medicine, located on the University of Southern California Health Sciences Campus adjacent to the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center in East Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California.- External links :* * *...
and the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital.
LAC+USC's three-year cardiology fellowship program was on probation because of "insufficient teaching time by the faculty"; training and teaching plans are being reformed. The cardiology fellowship has been reaccredited and is again matriculating fellows. New staff have been hired and the issues cited relating to teaching have been resolved.
Film and television appearances
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
was born in the charity ward of this hospital on June 1, 1926. The hospital also has a jail ward. In 1954, Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
was processed in the jail ward as his wife gave birth to their third child one floor below. He had been arrested for attempting to rob a pharmacy to get a morphine fix.
The distinct Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
-style main building served as the exterior of the hospital in the 1998 movie City of Angels. In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the episode entitled "The Good Wound", exterior shots of the older LAC+USC facility to represent the hospital where Riley was being held. The outside of the hospital appeared in the television series Dr. Kildare
Dr. Kildare
Dr. James Kildare is a fictional character, the primary character in a series of American theatrical films in the late 1930s and early 1940s, an early 1950s radio series, a 1960s television series of the same name and a comic book based on the TV show, and a short-lived 1970s television series...
, where it was known as "Blair General Hospital". There were a number of scenes filmed in one of the hospital's larger operating theaters in the TV series Ben Casey
Ben Casey
Ben Casey is an American medical drama series which ran on ABC from 1961 to 1966. The show was known for its opening titles, which consisted of a hand drawing the symbols "♂, ♀, *, †, ∞" on a chalkboard, as cast member Sam Jaffe intoned, "Man, woman, birth, death, infinity." Neurosurgeon Joseph...
. The hospital also appears in the movie El Norte
El Norte (film)
El Norte is an American and British film, directed by Gregory Nava. The screenplay was written by Nava and Anna Thomas. The movie was first presented at the Telluride Film Festival in 1983, and its wide release was in January 1984....
. The stairs and front entrance of the original LAC+USC Medical Center is seen in a scene in the 1993 film Blood In, Blood Out when one of the main characters is released after being treated for gunshot wounds. The exterior is also used in shots portraying Jessica Alba's hospital stay in the 2008 horror movie The Eye
The Eye (2008 film)
The Eye is a 2008 supernatural horror film starring Jessica Alba. It is a remake of the Pang Brothers' 2002 film of the same name.-Plot:Sydney Wells is a successful classical violinist who has been blind since the age of five. Fifteen years later, Sydney undergoes a cornea transplant, which causes...
.
Beginning in 1975, the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
General Hospital
General Hospital
General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
began using the facility for its exterior shots, appearing primarily in the show's opening sequence, where it still remains. The lower floors of the show's Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
studio are modeled after the actual hospital's emergency room entrance, allowing for the show to shoot outdoor scenes in their own parking lot. On their spin-off, General Hospital: Night Shift
General Hospital: Night Shift
General Hospital: Night Shift is an American prime time serial that first aired on SOAPnet for a 13-episode run from July 12, 2007 to October 4, 2007. A spin-off of the ABC Daytime soap opera General Hospital, the show is SOAPnet's first original scripted drama series and follows the nighttime...
, the upper floors were edited in digitally to fit on top of the show's studio, creating a CGI look, modeled after the real hospital's original exterior.
The government agent in E. T. came from here
See also
- Knocking, a documentary on Jehovah's Witnesses, featuring LAC+USC Medical Center