Loma Linda University Medical Center

Loma Linda University Medical Center
Geography
Location Loma Linda, California, United States
Coordinates 34°03′09″N 117°15′51″W / 34.05250°N 117.26417°W / 34.05250; -117.26417Coordinates: 34°03′09″N 117°15′51″W / 34.05250°N 117.26417°W / 34.05250; -117.26417
Organization
Care system Private
Hospital type Teaching Hospital
Affiliated university Loma Linda University
Services
Emergency department Level I Trauma Center
Beds 922
History
Founded 1905 (1905)
Links
Website Official website
Lists Hospitals in California

Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC) is a teaching hospital, children's hospital, and research center on the campus of Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, California, United States. The medical center serves as a level I trauma center for San Bernardino County and the rest of the Inland Empire. The hospital has two helipads for use by an air ambulance or other helicopter medical transport.

The main tower of the center was built in 1967 and is 11-stories high. It is one of the tallest buildings in the Inland Empire. Because of its height and white coloration, it is possible to view the main hospital building from various locations around the San Bernardino valley and mountains. The hospital is currently undergoing a seismic upgrade project.

Loma Linda University Medical Center made international news on October 26, 1984, when Dr. Leonard L Bailey transplanted a baboon heart into Baby Fae, an infant born with a severe heart defect known as hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Baby Fae died a few weeks later; however, this effort led to the successful infant heart transplant program, with transplantation of human-to-human infant transplants.[1] LLUMC is home to the Venom E.R., which specializes in snake bites. In 2014, LLUMC was ranked the 14th best hospital in California by the U.S. News & World Report.[2]

Loma Linda University

Main article: Loma Linda University

LLUMC is the teaching hospital for Loma Linda University, which includes schools of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, allied health, religion, public health, and science and technology.

Children's hospital

Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital is the sole children’s hospital for almost 1.3 million of California’s youth (San Bernardino, Riverside, Inyo,and Mono Counties).

With over 275 beds just for children, the American Board of Surgeons has designated the Children’s Hospital as a Level 1 Trauma Center, providing the highest level of trauma care within the Inland Empire four-county area. Each year, more than 15,000 children stay at the hospital and over 130,000 children visit the hospital for ambulatory care. The only medical facility in the Inland Empire specializing in the care of children, Children’s Hospital transports over 1,100 critically ill or injured children each year from surrounding hospitals.

Proton treatment and research center

The James M. Slater Proton Treatment and Research Center at Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC) offers proton therapy treatments for prostate, lung, brain and other types of cancers. This center is the nation's first hospital-based proton treatment center. Since its opening in 1990 over 14,500 patients have been treated. Through a multidisciplinary approach, teams of experts including radiation oncologists, nurses, technicians and staff treat patients with care to ensure they experience fewer side effects and better outcomes with the power and precision of proton therapy.

Proton radiation treatment differs from standard radiation therapy. If given in sufficient doses, conventional radiation therapy techniques will control many cancers. Because of the physician's inability to adequately conform the (conventional) irradiation pattern to the cancer, healthy tissues may be damaged with radiation. Consequently, a less-than-desired dose frequently is used to reduce damage to healthy tissues and avoid subsequent unacceptable side effects. The characteristics of proton beam therapy enable the physician to deliver full or higher doses while sparing surrounding healthy tissues and organs. Proton treatment is notably valuable for treating localized, isolated, solid tumors before they spread to other tissues and to the rest of the body.

Using high-energy protons for medical treatment was first proposed in 1946. Protons were first used to treat patients with certain cancers less than 10 years later. Research and laboratory applications increased rapidly in the next three decades. It was not until the opening of the James M. Slater Proton Treatment and Research Center at Loma Linda University Medical Center in 1990, however, that the full benefits of proton treatment could be offered to patients with a wide variety of cancers.

The synchrotron was invented in the 1950s to produce higher-energy particles for studying subnuclear matter. Much of that work was done at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). Fermilab physicists and engineers built the proton accelerator that exists at Loma Linda University Medical Center today. LLUMC's accelerator is the world's smallest variable-energy proton synchrotron. It is designed to deliver a beam of energy sufficient to reach the deepest tumors in patients.

Heart and surgical hospital

In May 2008, it was announced that LLUMC had been in talks since December and had finalized a buyout of the 28-bed California Heart and Surgical Center (CHSC) located approximately two miles east of the main campus on the border of Loma Linda and Redlands, California.[3] This was a marked departure of their previous position of opposition to the facility when it was first proposed in 2005. The CHSC would have been a for-profit facility while the LLUMC is a non-profit facility and it was feared by area hospitals, including Loma Linda, that the CHSC would take all the paying patients.[4] However, Loma Linda finalized the construction and furnishing of the center and in January 2009, they received state approval to open and begin operations at the Heart & Surgical Hospital.[5] The daVinci Robot that was operated at the Medical Center to perform minimally invasive robotic surgeries was moved to the Surgical Hospital. There are also plans to install a second.

Medicare lawsuits

In 2004, Loma Linda University Behavioral Medicine Center paid 2.2 million dollars to settle a federal lawsuit that the organization had over-billed federal health insurance programs. The lawsuit alleged that its billing service had prepared two different cost reports, one for internal use and an inflated one to bill Medicare.[6]

In 2005, A group of 20 physician corporations paid US$2.2 million to settle a federal lawsuit over fraudulent Medicare billings reviewed under the Physicians at Teaching Hospitals (PaTH) initiative.[7] The lawsuit alleged that the hospital had been billing Medicare for procedures done by residents and interns as if they had been done by the attending physicians. [8]

Seismic upgrade project

The main hospital building is currently undergoing a seismic upgrade project. It is being headed by Turner Construction Company of New York, NY. The project includes reinforcing the main building to bring it up to California state standards.[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Altman, Laurence K. (October 28, 1984), "BABOON'S HEART IMPLANTED IN INFANT ON COAST", New York Times, retrieved 2008-01-18
  2. ↑ "Best Hospitals 2014-15". Best Hospitals in California. U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved 13 December 2014.
  3. ↑ "LLUMC announces plans to purchase California Heart and Surgical Hospital", Loma Linda University TODAY, 12 May 2008, retrieved 2008-09-08
  4. ↑ "Loma Linda University Medical Center buys hospital it tried to block", pe.com, 1 May 2008, retrieved 2008-09-08
  5. ↑ "Loma Linda University Heart and Surgical Hospital gets set to see patients", pe.com, 1 May 2008, retrieved 2009-02-03
  6. ↑ "Loma Linda Behavioral Medicine Center Medicare Fraud Whistleblower", lawyersandsettlements.com, April 25, 2005, retrieved 2012-01-19
  7. ↑ "False Claim Act Update & Alert", taf.org, December 6, 2004, retrieved 2013-02-27
  8. ↑ "2005 False Claims Act Settlements", taf.org, October 7, 2005, retrieved 2012-01-18
  9. ↑ "Loma Linda University Medical Center Seismic Upgrade", www.turnerconstruction.com, retrieved 2008-09-08

External links

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