LAC+USC Medical Center renamed to L.A. General Medical Center


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L.A. General Medical Center during the day.
The hospital’s original Art Deco-style building, circa 1933, served as the location for exterior shots of the TV soap of the same name. (Wikimedia Commons)

The Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center has been renamed to L.A. General Medical Center, Supervisor Hilda Solis, Mayor Karen Bass and hospital leaders announced at the Health Sciences Campus Wednesday morning. 

The renaming aimed to reduce “widespread confusion” between LAC+USC and the Keck Hospital of USC across the street, Solis wrote in a statement, while reflecting the facility’s “rich history,” and remaining recognizable and easily understandable in Spanish and other languages. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to approve the change.

With the hospital’s new name comes a new motto: “Exceptional Care. Healthy Communities.” The rebranding followed a process involving surveys, focus groups, and “listening with patients, staff and community members,” Solis wrote. 

The hospital lacked a “consistent name or brand,” Solis said, and was known not as its official name, but as General Hospital. The hospital’s original Art Deco-style building, circa 1933, served as the location for exterior shots of the TV soap of the same name. The historic building, which currently houses a wellness center, is the subject of a Request for Proposals to be repurposed into 600 housing units, at least one-fourth of which would qualify as affordable housing.

Founded in 1878 in Boyle Heights, the hospital is one of the country’s busiest, serving about 1 million in-patients and 40,000 out-patients every year. Originally named the L.A. County General Hospital, the facility launched its affiliation with the USC Medical School in 1885. It was renamed to reflect its academic partnership in 1968 and was co-branded with USC since then.

The L.A. County-USC partnership grew rocky around 2019, when LAC+USC Medical Center officials began accusing the University of mismanagement — citing instances of double-booking doctors at Keck Hospital at LAC+USC, and understaffing in several departments — according to an L.A. Times report published last May. The Daily Trojan reported later that month that the relationship had been somewhat smoothed, though USC denied breaching the two-party contract with the hospital.