The University of California, Irvine Medical Center (UCIMC or UCI Medical Center) is a major research hospital located in

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

, California. It is the

teaching hospital A teaching hospital is a hospital or medical centre that provides medical education and training to future and current health professionals. Teaching hospitals are almost always affiliated with one or more universities and are often co-located ...

for the

University of California, Irvine School of Medicine The University of California, Irvine School of Medicine (UC Irvine School of Medicine or UCI School of Medicine) is an LCME accredited medical school, co-located in Orange County's cities of Irvine, California, Irvine on the University of Californ ...

History

Plans had been in place since the founding of the school for a medical center, and space was set aside on campus. This would model the hospital campuses at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

and the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

. The medical school wasn't originally planned to begin until the university had time to establish itself and stabilize sources of funding. Political divisions between the

American Medical Association The American Medical Association (AMA) is a professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. Founded in 1847, it is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was approximately 240,000 in 2016. The AMA's sta ...

and Californian osteopaths brought the medical school to UCI early. The California College of Medicine was the oldest continuously operating medical college in the Southwest United States. Starting in 1896 as the Pacific College of Osteopathy, it was renamed as the College of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons. Pressure by the AMA brought an end to its tenure in the osteopathic discipline, and the newly renamed California College of Medicine merged with the UC system in 1965, after efforts to keep it in LA or move to Long Beach broke down. Dean of Medicine Stanley van den Noort was adamant about opening a teaching hospital on campus, placing him in political opposition to Governor Jerry Brown. Brown managed to block the release of funds earmarked for the hospital's construction and then divert them toward the founding of UCSF's dental school. He then vetoed a compromise for UCI to take care of Orange County Medical Center's patients in exchange for a 200-bed hospital. Under pressure from Brown the UC purchased the OCMC in 1976 from the county who no longer wished to maintain the aging and problematic facilities. This acquisition effectively halted the push for an on-campus hospital. An attempt to establish a hospital through private venture ended with the death of the entire planning committee in a plane crash. Those opposed successfully lobbied the state to build the Irvine Medical Center against the school's wishes, making a hospital at UCI impractical due to the proximity. The university has since greatly expanded the facility and services of the medical center. Since then, the medical center has grown in size and reputation. It is building a new hospital, to be completed in early 2009, and is home to the

Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center The University of California, Irvine Medical Center (UCIMC or UCI Medical Center) is a major research hospital located in Orange, California. It is the teaching hospital for the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. History P ...

, a National Cancer Institute-designated center for cancer treatment and research. Other onsite buildings include the Neuropsychiatric Center, the UCI Health Sciences Laboratories building and clinical outpatient pavilions on the medical center site, as well as community family health centers in Irvine, Santa Ana, Westminster and Anaheim. Just prior to UCI's acquisition in 1976, the medical center had about 2,100 employees. Today, UC Irvine Medical Center has more than 3,500 employees. In 2000 the medical center began publishing the

Western Journal of Emergency Medicine The ''Western Journal of Emergency Medicine: Integrating Emergency Care with Population Health'', (WestJEM) is a bimonthly peer-reviewed, fully open access medical journal. WestJEM focuses on how the systems and delivery of emergency care affec ...

. Since 2001, the '' U.S. News & World Report'' has listed UC Irvine Health programs in urology, gynecology, geriatrics, cancer, digestive disorders, nephrology, orthopedics, and ear, nose & throat among the top 50 nationwide. In 2016, two UC Irvine Health specialties were included among the top 50 nationally: 40th for orthopedics and 41st for ear, nose and throat. It has the county's only

Level I trauma center A trauma center (or trauma centre) is a hospital equipped and staffed to provide care for patients suffering from major traumatic injuries such as falls, motor vehicle collisions, or gunshot wounds. A trauma center may also refer to an emergen ...

and its sole multiple-organ transplant center, and is the only hospital in the area offering a number of specialized surgeries. The medical center has been home to a number of firsts—including the first heart transplant in Orange County, the first implant on the West Coast of an insulin pump in a patient with diabetes, and a number of research breakthroughs involving therapy for cancer and other diseases. The UC Irvine Medical Center was in the news in October of 2021, when former President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

was hospitalized there with early-stage

sepsis Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...

due to a non-COVID-related urinary tract infection; he was expected to fully recover, and his illness raised awareness of the center and of the serious condition.

Controversies

In 1995, three doctors at the UCI Center for Reproductive Health were accused of taking eggs from a woman without her consent and transferring them to another woman, who delivered a baby. Investigators later found that these doctors had stolen eggs from 100 women. Although the misuse of eggs was not illegal at the time, the doctors involved were indicted for

mail fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical or electronic mail system to defraud another, and are federal crimes there. Jurisdiction is claimed by the federal government if the illegal activity ...

and

tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the tax ...

, and the two fled the country. In 2003, UCI hired Jagat Narula and Mani Vannan as the chief and division chief of cardiology. Neither was board certified in internal medicine nor cardiology, and neither had a California medical license. In 2003, Dr. Glenn Provost presented a 13-signature petition outlining anesthesia safety problems. He stated that soon after complaining about a supervisor forcing him "to take patients to the operating room without consent, chart, or preoperative check-in by the operating room nurse ... in an attempt to cut costs," he was fired and blackballed. Persons close to the case feel that there was a vendetta against Dr. Provost by Cynthia Anderson, the prior chair. In 2005, it came to light that 32 patients had died while waiting for liver transplants at UCI. Some livers were available, but, for two years, UCI did not have a full-time surgeon to implant them, in contravention of federal regulations. UCI's designated surgeon was actually on staff at UC San Diego, 70 miles away. A patient at UCI, Elodie Irvine, filed a lawsuit. Ms. Irvine, who had liver and kidney disease, had 95 organs offered for transplant by the

United Network for Organ Sharing The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) is a non-profit, scientific and educational organization that administers the only Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) in the United States, established () by the U.S. Congress in 1984 ...

during her stay at UCI. The hospital allegedly told the patient that they were waiting for organs, when in fact they rejected every organ offered to them. Only one UCI physician advised her to look elsewhere for a transplant. Over the years, there have been several cases of sexual harassment allegations against the employees of UC Irvine Medical Center. In June 1994, Christina Grudzinski, a second-year resident, accused her attending physician and her chief resident of sexual harassment. She later sued the university after the situation was unresolved and claimed the university faculty retaliated against her by firing her. She lost the court proceedings to the university in 2002 after the trial court and all of the higher courts on appeal ruled her lawsuit was "frivolous" and ordered her to pay $1.1 million back to the university in court fees. Carlin Motley, a fundraiser for the hospital, filed a lawsuit in 2018 claiming she was not protected from a university volunteer who stalked and sexually harassed her for more than one year prior. The lawsuit remains ongoing.

Capabilities

University of California, Irvine Medical Center is the only university hospital in Orange County with more than 400 specialty and primary care physicians. The medical center offers a full scope of acute- and general-care services including cancer care, digestive diseases, heart health neurology, neurosurgery, orthopaedic surgery, primary care, surgery, and women's health. It is the only hospital in Orange County recognized in ''U.S. News & World Report''’s annual listing of "America's Best Hospitals" and first to receive Magnet Designation for nursing excellence. The medical center has also been named one of the nation's top hospitals for quality and safety by the Leapfrog Group. Located in the City of Orange, 13 miles from the UCI campus, UC Irvine Medical Center has 411 licensed beds and is the principal clinical facility for the teaching and research programs of the UC Irvine School of Medicine. The seven-story UC Irvine Douglas Hospital was completed in late 2011. Additionally, there are 45 licensed beds in their Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, 19 high-tech operating rooms including two hybrid cardiac care operating rooms, and eight beds in the Burn Intensive Care Unit. The University Children's Hospital at UC Irvine Medical Center is devoted to the care of children from before birth through adolescence. Perinatologists at UC Irvine Medical Center are available for the expert management of high-risk pregnancies and critically ill newborns are cared for in the county's most sophisticated neonatal unit. The medical center houses a 24-hour emergency department and is designated as Orange County's only Level I Trauma Center − the most comprehensive for the treatment of life-threatening injuries. UC Irvine Medical Center is also home to the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, the only facility in Orange County designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute. It offers patients a full range of cancer therapies and research programs, including laser and radiation therapy, endoscopic ultrasound, and immunotherapy.

UC Irvine Douglas Hospital

On February 7, 2005, construction begun on a $375 million replacement central hospital adjacent to the existing UCI Medical Center facility. In addition to expanding patient services (with 191 new rooms, 15 state-of-the-art operating rooms, and three procedure rooms), the new hospital provides the UCI School of Medicine with a modern facility for conducting the latest medical research and training future and practicing physicians. It also employs architecture that offers private patient rooms, natural light for daytime illumination, and carefully designed labs and offices. The new seven-story facility was designed by HOK architects, TMAD Engineers, Nabih Youssef & Associates Structural Engineers, and the project contractor was Hensel Phelps Construction Company. In early 2009, UC Irvine opened the new UC Irvine Douglas Hospital, renamed after a $21 million posthumous gift from the estate of M.A. Douglas.

UC Irvine Health Sciences

The UCI Medical Center is part of the UC Irvine Health Sciences system, which is composed of a number of patient care locations that serve Orange County. In addition to the main hospital in Orange, other facilities include: * Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic in

Irvine, CA Irvine () is a master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on December 28, 1971. ...

* Family Health Center in

Anaheim, California Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most ...

* Family Health Center in Santa Ana, California * OB/GYN University Associates in

Long Beach, CA Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the list of United States cities by population, 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the List of citie ...

* Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Center in Costa Mesa, CA * Pacific Breast Care Center in Costa Mesa, CA * Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine in Costa Mesa, CA * UC Irvine Health Gavin Herbert Eye Institute in

Irvine, California Irvine () is a master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on December 28, 197 ...

(on the outskirts of the UCI main campus) ** National Keratoconus Foundation * UC Irvine Health Gottschalk Medical Plaza in

(on the UCI main campus) * UC Irvine Health Manchester Pavilions in Orange, CA * UC Irvine Health Medical Pavilions in Orange, CA * UC Irvine Health Primary and Specialty Care in

Tustin, CA Tustin is a city located in Orange County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. In 2020, Tustin had a population of 80,276. The city is located next to the county seat, Santa Ana, and does not include the unincorporated communit ...

* University Head & Neck Surgeons in

References

External links

UCI Medical Center

UCI Health SciencesThis hospital in the CA Healthcare Atlas
A project by OSHPD {{authority control Teaching hospitals in California Hospitals in Orange County, California Emergency services in Orange County, California Medical Center Hospitals established in 1965 Hospital buildings completed in 2009 Buildings and structures in Orange, California