Introducing Los Angeles General Medical Center: LAC+USC Medical Center Has a New Name

LOS ANGELES — On May 3 Los Angeles County Medical Center or LAC+USC leadership and Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis were joined by Mayor Karen Bass to announce that the county’s largest health care facility will now be known as Los Angeles General Medical Center or LA General. 

The unveiling of a new name for the historic facility marks a milestone for the entire community of Los Angeles. Just a few miles east of Downtown Los Angeles in the Boyle Heights neighborhood, the medical center dates to 1878 and serves thousands of residents across Los Angeles County. The LA County Health Services press release stated the facility’s new name and brand reflect an active and intentional commitment to strengthen the trust between the medical center and the community of Los Angeles and to continue to expand its role as a partner in building healthy, full, and long lives within the communities it serves.

Currently, Los Angeles General Medical Center provides care across a broad range of specialties, including trauma care and primary care. Its modern facilities include a Level-One trauma center, a training site for the U.S. Navy, and it is one of the nation’s premier teaching hospitals. The medical center campus is also home to a nonprofit organization, The Wellness Center, which provides a range of programs for community residents.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the facility pioneered its award-winning ‘Safer at Home’ initiative, providing COVID-infected Angelenos with resources to fully and safely recover at home. This was a critical program for the most populous county in the nation to meet the ever-increasing need for care during the pandemic. LA General Medical Center’s COVID-19 Safer at Home program won the prestigious Gage Award from America’s Essential Hospitals for healthcare innovation; the program was also was adopted by the World Health Organization during the oxygen crisis in India in 2021. The program has successfully cared for more than 4,000 COVID-19 patients at home, on oxygen, with excellent patient outcomes and high patient satisfaction. It was so successful that it was expanded beyond COVID-19 in 2022 for patients with other selected diagnoses.

Now, this program is officially expanding to serve patients with a wide array of health needs, including patients with skin or bone infections, kidney infections, bacterial pneumonia, exacerbations of COPD or asthma, and Congestive Heart Failure. Patients with these and other conditions who would have otherwise been hospitalized and away from their families are now being sent home with concierge-level, protocolized care, as well as pulse oximeters and other medical equipment to allow remote monitoring of their conditions. Follow-up includes daily calls, remote vital sign monitoring, and focused return visits. In the first eight months, 556 patients with 37 different diagnoses have been cared for at home instead of the hospital, saving nearly 1,742 bed-days, enough to admit 316 other patients.

Through this program, LA General is providing care to patients who need it most, as well as resources that directly address factors impacting access to care. LA General is charting the future of what health care looks like, providing world-class care to all regardless of income or background.

Los Angeles General Medical Center will continue its affiliation with Keck School of Medicine of USC for graduate medical education, training interns and residents who are the county’s next generation of physicians.

The medical center’s new name is followed by its new motto, “Exceptional Care. Healthy Communities.” The new motto summarizes the medical center’s mission to build healthy communities by being a trusted provider of excellent, whole-person care to all.

Topline Facts about LA General:

As a Level One Trauma Center, LA General runs the busiest emergency department and trauma center in the largest county in the US.

LA General is one of the nation’s premier teaching hospitals, training scores of doctors now practicing throughout the country. The hospital will continue its affiliation with the Keck School of Medicine of USC for medical training.

The facility is home to: One of only three burn center units in LA; A training site for the U.S. Navy; The Rand Schrader HIV/AIDS Clinic, one of the oldest and largest HIV clinics in the country.