Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a non-profit, tertiary 958-bed hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in the Beverly Grove neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over 2,000 physicians and 10,000 employees. A team of 2,000 volunteers and more than 40 community groups support a patient-base of over 16,000 people. Over 350 residents and fellows participate in more than 60 graduate medical education programs.
Cedars-Sinai focuses on biomedical research and technologically advanced medical educationâ€"based on an interdisciplinary collaboration between physicians and clinical researchers. The facility has research centers covering cardiovascular, genetics, gene therapy, gastroenterology, neuroscience, immunology, surgery, organ transplantation, stem cells, biomedical imaging and cancerâ€"with more than 800 research projects underway (led by 230 principal investigators).
Certified as a level I trauma center for adults and pediatrics, Cedars-Sinai trauma-related services range from prevention to rehabilitation and are provided in concert with the hospital's Department of Surgery. Cedars-Sinai is affiliated with the California Heart Center, University of Southern California and David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
As of 2017, U.S. News & World Report ranked Cedars-Sinai #4 in the western United States, with number one being the UCSF Medical Center. Cedars-Sinai also earned national rankings in 12 adult specialties including #5 for gastroenterology, #9 in cardiology and heart surgery, #9 in orthopedics, #10 in urology, #12 in gynecology, #14 in diabetes and endocrinology, and #14 in neurology and neurosurgery. Located in the Harvey Morse Auditorium, Cedars-Sinai's patient care is depicted in the Jewish Contributions to Medicine mural. The heart transplantation program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has experienced unprecedented growth since 2010. Statistically, Cedars-Sinai currently performs more annual heart transplants than any other medical center in the world, having performed 95 heart transplants in 2012 and 87 in 2011.
History
A Visit To Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles - As of 2013, U.S. News & World Report ranked Cedars-Sinai #13 out of hospitals across the United States and #3 in the western United States, behind only ...
Founded and financed by businessman Kaspare Cohn, Cedars-Sinai was established as the Kaspare Cohn Hospital in 1902. At the time, Cohn donated a two-story Victorian home at 1441 Carroll Avenue in the Angeleno Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles to the Hebrew Benevolent Society to create the hospital as a memorial to his brother Samuel. The hospital had just 12 beds when it opened on September 21, 1902, and its services were initially free.
From 1906 to 1910, Dr. Sarah Vasen, the first female doctor in Los Angeles, acted as superintendent. In 1910, the hospital relocated and expanded to Stephenson Avenue (now Whittier Boulevard), where it had 50 beds and a backhouse containing a 10-cot tubercular ward. It gradually transformed from a charity-based hospital to a general hospital and began to charge patients.
The hospital relocated again in 1930 to 4833 Fountain Avenue, where it was renamed Cedars of Lebanon after the religiously significant Lebanon Cedars, which were used to build King Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem in the Bible. Cedars of Lebanon could accommodate 279 patients.
In 1918, the Bikur Cholim Society opened a second Jewish hospital, the Bikur Cholim Hospice, when the Great Influenza Pandemic hit America. In 1921, the hospice relocated to an eight-bed facility in Boyle Heights and was renamed Bikur Cholim Hospital. In 1923 the Bikur Cholim Hospital became Mount Sinai Home for the Incurables.
On November 7, 1926, a newly named Mount Sinai Hospital moved to a 50-bed facility on Bonnie Beach Place. In 1950, Emma and Hyman Levine donated their property adjacent to Beverly Hills, and by 1955 the construction completed and Mount Sinai Hospital opened at 8700 Beverly Boulevard (now Cedars-Sinai Medical Center). Cedars of Lebanon and Mount Sinai Hospitals merged in 1961 to form Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Donations from the Max Factor Family Foundation allowed the construction of the current main hospital building, which broke ground on November 5, 1972, and opened on April 3, 1976.
In 1994, the Cedars-Sinai Health System was established, comprising the Cedars-Sinai Medical Care Foundation, the Burns and Allen Research Institute and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The Burns and Allen Research Institute, named for George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen, is located inside the Barbara and Marvin Davis Research Building. Opened in 1996, it houses biomedical research aimed at discovering genetic, molecular and immunological factors that trigger disease.
In 1994, the original building was damaged in the Northridge earthquake and demolished.
In 2006, Cedars-Sinai added the Saperstein Critical Care Tower with 150 ICU beds.
In 2008, Cedars-Sinai served 54,947 inpatients and 350,405 outpatients, and there were 77,964 visits to the emergency room. Cedars-Sinai received high rankings in 11 of the 16 specialties, ranking in the top 10 for digestive disorders and in the top 25 for five other specialties as listed below.
In 2013, Cedars-Sinai opened its 800,000-square-foot Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion, which consists of eight stories of program space located over a six-story parking structure, on the eastern edge of its campus at the corner of San Vicente Boulevard and Gracie Allen Drive. Designed by architectural firm HOK, the Pavilion brings patient care and translational research together in one site. The Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion houses the Cedars-Sinai's neurosciences programs, the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and Regenerative Medicine Institute laboratories, as well as outpatient surgery suites, an imaging area and an education center.
Rankings
Cedars-Sinai ranks as follows in the nationwide U.S. News Best Hospitals 2013â€"14 report:
Cedars-Sinai ranks as follows in the Los Angeles area residents' "Most Preferred Hospital for All Health Needs" ranking:
In 2013, Cedars-Sinai Hospital was ranked in 12 specialties by U.S. News & World Report.
Worth Magazine selected Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute as one of the United States' Top 25 Hospitals for Cardiac Bypass Surgery.
Cedars-Sinai's Gynecologic Oncology Division was named among the nation's Top 10 Clinical Centers of Excellence by Contemporary OB/GYN in 2009.
Notable staff
- Keith Black, department chair of Neurosurgery and director of the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute, has successfully performed over 4,000 brain surgeries and has made significant medical advances relating to neurosurgery.
- David Ho was a resident at Cedars-Sinai when he encountered some of the first cases of what was later labeled AIDS.
- Verne Mason, internist and chairman of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's medical advisory committee. Mason gave the disease sickle cell anemia its name.
- David Rimoin, chair of Pediatrics for 18 years, specialized in genetics and was a pioneer researcher in dwarfism and skeletal dysplasia. Together with Michael Kaback, discovered the enzyme screening for Tay Sachs disease, reducing incidences of the deadly disease by 90 percent.
- William Shell was a director of Cardiac Rehabilitation at Cedars-Sinai.
- Esther Somerfeld-Ziskind, a neurologist and psychiatrist who was chair of the Department of Psychiatry.
- Adam Springfield, who acted on the PBS series Wishbone, is now a Labor and Delivery scheduler.
- Jeremy Swan co-invented the pulmonary artery catheter together with William Ganz while at Cedars-Sinai.
Notable deaths
- July 11, 1937: Composer George Gershwin died of a brain tumor.
- May 29, 1951: Fanny Brice died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
- February 1, 1966: Hedda Hopper, gossip columnist and actress, died of pneumonia.
- December 20, 1973: Actor and singer-songwriter Bobby Darin died after a surgical team worked for over six hours to repair his damaged heart.
- May 4, 1975: Moe Howard, American actor and comedian, leader of the Three Stooges, died from lung cancer.
- August 19, 1977: Actor and comedian Groucho Marx died of pneumonia.
- July 12, 1979: Singer-songwriter Minnie Riperton died from metastatic breast cancer.
- December 15, 1983: American film actress Eden Hartford died from cancer.
- November 4, 1982: Actress Dominique Dunne died five days after being strangled by her former boyfriend.
- May 16, 1984: Actor and entertainer Andy Kaufman from renal failure that was related to lung cancer.
- December 10, 1987: Violinist Jascha Heifetz died at age 86 from complications arising from a fall and subsequent neurosurgery.
- April 26, 1989: Actress and comedian Lucille Ball died of a dissecting aortic aneurysm.
- May 20, 1989: SNL comedian Gilda Radner died of ovarian cancer.
- July 10, 1989: Mel Blanc, famed voice artist, died from cardiovascular disease.
- July 18, 1989: Actress Rebecca Schaeffer was shot at her home by stalker Robert John Bardo, and died a few minutes later in the hospital.
- February 24, 1990: Singer Johnnie Ray died of liver failure.
- July 21, 1991: Actor Theodore Wilson died of a stroke.
- November 10, 1992: Actor Chuck Connors died of lung cancer and pneumonia.
- October 31, 1993: Actor River Phoenix was pronounced dead at the hospital after a drug overdose at Johnny Depp's Nightclub The Viper Room.
- February 23, 1995: Temptations bass singer Melvin Franklin died of heart failure after he was admitted following a series of seizures.
- March 26, 1995: Rapper Eazy-E, real name Eric Lynn Wright, formerly of N.W.A, succumbed to AIDS. He had been admitted to the hospital earlier, then announced his condition publicly.
- May 24, 1996: Actor John Abbott died of natural causes.
- October 28, 1996: Actor and comedian Morey Amsterdam died from a heart attack.
- March 9, 1997: Rapper Christopher Wallace, also known as The Notorious B.I.G., died as a result of 4 gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen, suffering internal organ damage and blood loss.
- May 14, 1998: Singer and film actor Frank Sinatra died from a heart attack.
- August 2, 1998: Shari Lewis, puppeteer and star of Lamb Chop's Play-Along and Charlie Horse Music Pizza, died from uterine cancer and viral pneumonia.
- November 18, 1999: Television actress Beatrice Colen died from lung cancer.
- February 7, 2000: Magician Doug Henning died of liver cancer.
- July 15, 2001: Rapper Anthony Ian Berkeley, also known as Poetic, the founder of Gravediggaz, died of colorectal cancer.
- January 7, 2002: Actor Avery Schreiber died from a heart attack.
- February 24, 2003: Pastor E.V. Hill died from pneumonia.
- July 4, 2003: Soul singer Barry White died from kidney failure.
- July 12, 2003: Jazz musician Benny Carter died from complications of bronchitis.
- August 30, 2003: Actor Charles Bronson died from pneumonia.
- November 12, 2003: Actor Jonathan Brandis died from injuries after a suicide attempt.
- January 23, 2005: The Tonight Show host Johnny Carson died of respiratory failure arising from emphysema.
- January 6, 2006: Musician Lou Rawls died from cancer.
- February 24, 2006: Actor Don Knotts died from pulmonary/respiratory complications due to pneumonia that was related to lung cancer.
- August 13, 2006: Actor Tony Jay died at the age of 73 due to complications from having a non-cancerous tumor removed from his lungs during a surgery.
- January 27, 2007: Actress and producer Marcheline Bertrand died after an eight-year battle with ovarian and breast cancer.
- August 12, 2007: Merv Griffin, host of The Merv Griffin Show and creator of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, died from prostate cancer.
- October 30, 2007: Singer Robert Goulet died from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
- August 24, 2007: Film Producer and Political Activist Aaron Russo died from bladder cancer.
- November 11, 2007: Film/Television Director Delbert Mann died from pneumonia.
- Rapper Dolla died after being shot five times at Beverly Hills Shopping Mall on May 18, 2009.
- August 21, 2009: Entrepreneur Frank Fertitta Jr. died from heart complications.
- December 20, 2009: Actress Brittany Murphy died from cardiac arrest due to pneumonia.
- March 23, 2011: Actress Elizabeth Taylor died from heart failure.
- April 11, 2011: Designer Bijan Pakzad died from a stroke.
- November 8, 2011: Rapper Heavy D died from complications from pneumonia after collapsing outside his home.
- January 26, 2012: British actor Ian Abercrombie died from kidney failure.
- July 8, 2012: Actor Ernest Borgnine died from renal failure.
- September 3, 2012: Actor Michael Clarke Duncan died from heart complications.
- February 18, 2013: Owner of the Los Angeles Lakers Jerry Buss died at age 80 after being hospitalized with an undisclosed form of cancer. His immediate cause of death was listed as kidney failure.
- October 14, 2014: Actress Elizabeth Peña died at the age 55 after a brief illness.
- January 5, 2015: Actress Francesca Hilton died at the age of 67 after suffering a large stroke.
- January 9, 2015: American film producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr. died at age 88 of congestive heart failure.
- December 31, 2015: Singerâ€"songwriter, actress Natalie Cole died at age 65 of congestive heart failure.
- February 4, 2016: Model Katie May died at the age of 34 from a stroke.
- June 6, 2016: Actress Theresa Saldana died at the age of 61 from pneumonia.
- November 24, 2016: Actress Florence Henderson died at the age of 82 from heart failure.
- December 28, 2016: Actress Debbie Reynolds died at the age of 84 from a stroke, just one day after her daughter Carrie Fisher died.
- February 25, 2017: Actor Bill Paxton died at 61 from a stroke.
- June 16, 2017: Director John G. Avildsen died at 81 due to complications from pancreatic cancer.
- September 15, 2017: Actor Harry Dean Stanton died at 91 after an illness.
Notable births
- Donald Roulet, civil rights activist and head of the Roulet family, June 1, 1936.
- Leon Russell’s daughter, Tina Rose, November 13th, 1977.
- Daughter of rock musicians Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, Frances Bean Cobain, August 18, 1992.
- Michael Jackson and Debbie Rowe's son, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., February 13, 1997.
- Britney Spears and Kevin Federline's first son, Sean Preston, September 14, 2005. Their second son, Jayden James, September 12, 2006.
- Salma Hayek gave birth to daughter, Valentina Paloma Pinault, in September 2007.
- Crown Prince Pavlos and Marie-Chantal's son, Aristidis-Stavros, June 29, 2008.
- Miranda Kerr and Orlando Bloom's son, Flynn Christopher Blanchard Copeland Bloom, January 6, 2011.
- Victoria Beckham and David Beckham's daughter, Harper Seven Beckham, July 10, 2011.
- American actress Molly Sims and Scott Stuber's elder son, Brooks Alan Stuber, June 19, 2012.
- Chris Pratt and Anna Faris' son, Jack Pratt, August 25, 2012.
- Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's second child and son, Saint West, December 5, 2015.
- Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s twins, Rumi and Sir Carter, June 13, 2017.
- Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott's daughter, Stormi, February 1, 2018.
- Chiara Ferragni and Fedez's son, Leone, March 19, 2018.
Controversy
According to articles in the Los Angeles Times in 2009, Cedars-Sinai was under investigation for significant radiation overdoses of 206 patients during CT brain perfusion scans during an 18-month period. Since the initial investigation, it was found that GE sold several products to various medical centers with faulty radiation monitoring devices.
State regulators had also found that Cedars-Sinai had placed the Quaid twins and others in immediate jeopardy by its improper handling of blood-thinning medication.
In 2011, Cedars-Sinai again created controversy by denying a liver transplant to medical marijuana patient Norman Smith. They removed Mr. Smith from a transplant waiting list for "non-compliance of our substance abuse contract", despite his own oncologist at Cedars-Sinai having recommended that he use the marijuana for his pain and chemotherapy. Dr. Steven D. Colquhoun, director of the Liver Transplant Program, said that the hospital "must consider issues of substance abuse seriously", but the transplant center did not seriously consider whether Mr. Smith was "using" marijuana versus "abusing" it. In 2012, Cedars-Sinai denied a liver transplant to a second patient, Toni Trujillo, after her Cedars-Sinai doctors knew and approved of her legal use of medical marijuana. In both cases, the patients acceded to the hospital's demand and stopped using medical marijuana, despite its therapeutic benefits for them, but were both sent six years back to the bottom of the transplant list. Mr. Smith's liver cancer returned after Cedars-Sinai refused to replace his liver, and he died in July 2012. His death inspired Americans for Safe Access to lobby for the California Medical Cannabis Organ Transplant Act (AB 258), which was enacted in July 2015 to protect future patients from dying at the hands of medical establishments prejudiced against the legal use of medical cannabis.
Patient data security breaches
On June 23, 2014, an unencrypted employee laptop was stolen from an employee's home. The laptop contained patient Social Security numbers and patient health data. On June 18 through June 24, 2013, six employees were terminated for inappropriately accessing 14 patient records around the time Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's daughter was born at the hospital.
Art collection
First developed by philanthropists Frederick and Marcia Weisman, Cedars-Sinai's modern and contemporary art collection dates to 1976 and includes more than 4,000 original paintings, sculptures, new media installations and limited-edition prints by the likes of Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Diebenkorn, Sam Francis, Claes Oldenburg, Willem de Kooning, Raymond Pettibon and Pablo Picasso. Ninety to 95 percent of the collection is on display at any given time. Nine large-scale works are located in courtyards, parking lots and public walkways throughout the approximately 30-acre campus. The collection consists entirely of gifts from donors, other institutions and occasionally the artists themselves.
References
External links
- Official Cedars-Sinai website
- Cedars-Sinai Medical Center - California Healthcare Atlas, California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development
- "Articles about Cedars Sinai Medical Center". latimes.com. Retrieved 23 June 2017.Â
- "Cedars-Sinai". YouTube.Â
