Organizational History
Plans had been in place since the founding of the school for a medical division. Space was set aside on campus for what was envisioned to become the heart of busy medical, veterinary, and dental facilities, with a major hospital as the centerpiece. This would model the emerging and eventually preeminently successful hospital campuses at the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, San Diego. The medical school wasn't originally planned to begin until the university had time to establish itself and stabilize sources of funding. Political wrangling between the American Medical Association and Californian osteopaths brought the medical school to UCI early.
The California School of Medicine was the oldest continuously operating medical college in the Southwest United States. Starting in 1896, as the Pacific College of Osteopathy, it changed name to 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 School of Medicine merged with the UC system in 1965, after efforts to keep it in LA or move to Long Beach broke down. Problems for UCI however were just beginning.
Dean of Medicine Stanley van den Noort was adamant about gaining a teaching hospital on campus. This placed him and a portion of the faculty on a collision course with many powerful political figures on the local and state level especially 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 van den Noort worked up 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. The controversial acquisition effectively halted the push for an oncampus hospital angering many faculty.
Van den Noort continued to lobby in vain for an oncampus facility pointing out the benefits a main campus hospital could have on the development and flow of research ideas on campus as well as the financial drain OCMC would have on the school. Many hospital staff were also wary of joining the school. An abortive attempt to establish a hospital through private venture ended with the death of the entire planning committee in a plane crash. UCI's supporters were again dealt a blow when opposing political pressure successfully lobbied the state to build the Irvine Medical Center against the school's wishes, ending UCI's chances due to its proximity. In 1983 Chancellor Aldrich chose to drop his support ending ambitions for the time being. 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 county’s only 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—among them, 243 who were working at the medical center when it changed hands.
UC Irvine Medical Center was named by U.S. News and World Report as one of the nation’s top 50 hospitals for gynecology, cancer, digestive disorders and urology. It has the county’s only Level I trauma center and its sole multiple-organ transplant center, and is the only hospital in the area offering a number of specialized surgeries, including brain surgery for epilepsy. 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.
Read more about this topic: UC Irvine Medical Center
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