A history of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

A history of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
Located near the port area in southwestern Los Angeles County, Harbor–University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center is the southern campus of the UCLA School of Medicine. The original facility was constructed by the US Army in 1943 as the Los Angeles Port of Embarkation Hospital for the processing of Army personnel preparing to ship overseas during World War II. In addition to serving as a military medical facility, the expansive grounds were also used as a detention center for prisoners of war. At the conclusion of the war, the Army no longer needed the facility, and Los Angeles County was offered the entire 72-acre property and its collection of more than 40 barracks for the sum of $48,271. The medical buildings became Los Angeles County Harbor General Hospital, and in 1946 the hospital was dedicated to serve the indigent and the emergency medical care needs of the county's exploding postwar population. In 1951, an affiliation between Harbor General Hospital and the newly founded UCLA School of Medicine was realized, predating by several years the opening of the UCLA Medical Center on the Westwood campus. Financed by a $15.4 million bond measure overwhelmingly passed by Los Angeles County voters, construction of a new acute care facility was begun in 1960 and completed in 1963 as a 553-bed hospital that in 1978 was renamed Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. A major addition to the building was completed in 1994. Today, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center serves a catchment area of approximately 2 million citizens and offers a full spectrum of tertiary care in all medical and surgical specialties.

Critical to the development of the Harbor-UCLA campus as a productive academic center was the formation and maturation of the campus-based Research and Education Institute (REI). The success of the affiliation between Los Angeles County and the UCLA School of Medicine has depended heavily on the opportunities for academic enrichment offered by the REI to the medical center's faculty. From its humble beginnings a half century ago, the REI has become one of the most prominent independent research institutions in the United States. With an annual budget of $60 million, the REI provides the physical and organizational infrastructure for the extensive basic science and clinical research programs conducted by Harbor-UCLA faculty. As of July 1, 2004, the REI has been renamed the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA, or LA BioMed for short. A few of the medical milestones attributable to Harbor-UCLA researchers include the first successful delivery of a primate produced by artificial insemination, the development of the modern serum cholesterol test, the discovery of the molecular structures of human follicle stimulating and luteinizing hormones, the procedure for extraction and isolation of human growth hormone as well as its clinical use to treat hypopituitary dwarfism, the production of a highly sensitive antibody to thyroid stimulating hormone that enabled creation of a newborn screening test for congenital hypothyroidism, the development of a test to detect carriers of Tay-Sachs disease, the development of an enzyme replacement therapy for mucopolysaccharidosis I or Hurler syndrome, the development and clinical introduction of a povidone-iodine ophthalmic solution to prevent neonatal infectious conjunctivitis and its resultant blindness, the identification of nitric oxide as the endogenous mediator of erectile function, and the development of the nation's first paramedic training program for firefighters. Of course, the Pulmonary Hypertension Center, founded by Dr. Bruce Brundage, noted Cardiologist in 1990, has grown into a fabulous diagnostic and treatment center, providing state-of-the-art services to patients from around the city and around the world.

The diverse needs of patients, local government, and the medical education mission are all well served by the strong and abiding affiliation between the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and the UCLA School of Medicine.

Despite the challenges imposed by difficult economic circumstances and an increasingly diverse and indigent patient population in Los Angeles County, Harbor-UCLA has continued to thrive and even prosper. This has been due in large part to the abundance and variety of patients, the dedication of the house staff, and the educational and research expertise of the faculty. The infrastructural support and degree of self-governance afforded by the medical center administration, the campus-based research and group practice organizations, and the UCLA School of Medicine have allowed the successful amalgamation of the public health and academic missions of the institution. Harbor-UCLA Medical Center stands as testimony to the wisdom of a cooperative effort between local government and medical academia in providing high-quality, cost-effective elective and emergent clinical care in concert with medical education and research. This model represents important lessons learned that will be applicable to the ever-increasing challenge of health care delivery to the medically disenfranchised of the United States.