Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Cedars of Lebanon Hospital

Kaspare Cohn Hospital was founded in 1902, named for its major donor, a Jewish businessman^[11] who later founded the bank that became Union Bank & Trust Company^[12] and is now part of U.S. Bancorp.^[13] The hospital's first superintendent, Sarah Vasen, was a graduate of the University of Iowa Medical School who had been the superintendent and obstetrician for the Jewish Maternity Home in Philadelphia.^[14] She was one of Los Angeles’ first women doctors.^[15]

The hospital was intended to serve both the Jewish community and the patients of Jewish doctors, who were denied admitting privileges in other hospitals because of discrimination.^[16]

In 1930, the hospital moved to a new building in Hollywood and changed its name to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital,^[15] after the trees mentioned frequently in Scripture^[17] and reputed to have medicinal properties.^[18]

Mount Sinai Hospital

The Bikur Cholim Society, named for the Talmudic obligation to care for the sick, opened a hospice In 1923 that became Mount Sinai Home for the Incurables. It was renamed Mount Sinai Hospital in 1926 and moved to a 50-bed facility on Bonnie Beach Place in Los Angeles. In 1955, it moved to Beverly Boulevard, now the location of Cedars-Sinai. ^[15]

Merger of Cedars of Lebanon Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital

Discussions to merge Cedars of Lebanon and Mount Sinai began in the 1960s. Population growth in Los Angeles, along with the opportunity to expand free care, research and medical education required a larger patient base and expanded facilities.^[19]

The merger process, led by Irving Feintech and Steven Broidy Sr., led to groundbreaking in 1972 for a 1.6-million-square-foot medical center. It received its first patients in 1976.^[15] The new hospital was designed jointly by Albert C. Martin & Associates and Charles Luckman Associates.^[20] The main contractor was Robert E. McKee, Inc.^[21]

The merged hospital retained its Jewish identity, including a mezuzah at the entrance to each room, a kosher kitchen offering meal options to patients and visitors, a sabbath elevator^[22] and a full-time Jewish chaplain.^[15]

In 1994, the Cedars-Sinai Health System was established, constituting the Cedars-Sinai Medical Care Foundation, the Burns and Allen Research Institute, and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.^[23] 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.^[24] Opened in 1996, it houses biomedical research aimed at discovering genetic, molecular and immunological factors that trigger disease.^{[25][26][27][28][29][excessive citations]}

In 2006, Cedars-Sinai added the Saperstein Critical Care Tower with 150 ICU beds.^[25]

In 2013, Cedars-Sinai opened its Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion on the eastern edge of its campus at the corner of San Vicente Boulevard and Gracie Allen Drive which houses its 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.^[30]

Quaid twins overdose

In 2008, the twin daughters of actor Dennis Quaid were born prematurely and cared for at Cedars. They were accidentally given the wrong version of the blood thinner heparin, which had 1000 times the strength of the version intended.^[43] The twins survived.^[44]

The news was leaked to the website TMZ, which published it^[45] before Quaid's extended family learned of it. The hospital promised an investigation into the leak.^[43]

The California Department of Health Services investigated and cited failures "to adhere to established policies & procedures for safe medication use."^[46] The resulting malpractice claim was settled out of court, and included a commitment by Cedars to introduce electronic record keeping, bedside bar coding and computerized physician-order entry systems to improve patient safety. The hospital also implemented additional procedures for pharmacy and nursing staff.^[47]

Excess radiation during CT scans

From 2008 to 2009, 260 patients received excess radiation during CT brain perfusion scans, with the error discovered after a patient reported hair loss.^[48] The FDA and California Department of Public Health launched investigations, and Cedars-Sinai implemented stricter protocols and provided care and apologies to affected patients.^[49]