USC’s health system just got larger.
On July 1, Arcadia-based Methodist Hospital of Southern California officially joined Keck Medicine of USC as an affiliated hospital and was renamed USC Arcadia Hospital.
The hospital is a 348-bed full-service community acute care facility that includes emergency services, cancer and cardiac care, inpatient and outpatient surgery, and maternity services.
It was originally founded in downtown Los Angeles in 1903 by the Women’s Home Missionary Society of the Southern California Conference of the Methodist Church. The current Arcadia hospital campus opened in 1957.
Keck Medicine is USC’s nonprofit medical care subsidiary, providing clinical care to patients throughout much of Los Angeles County, as well as academic and research programs. It operates Keck Hospital of USC, USC Norris Cancer Hospital, USC Verdugo Hills Hospital and more than 80 outpatient locations in Los Angeles, Orange, Kern, Tulare, and Ventura counties.
As an affiliate, USC Arcadia Hospital will retain the assets it had under its Methodist Hospital name while falling within Keck Medicine’s organizational structure. This is different than an acquisition, in which one organization’s assets are dissolved and acquired by another.
Dan Ausman, who was chief executive of Methodist Hospital of Southern California, retained his title once the affiliation took effect.
The affiliation, which both hospitals agreed to last October, received final conditional approval from the office of state Attorney General Rob Bonta on June 3. The conditions include caps on contract renewals for at least five years, minimum bed requirements, the maintenance of cancer and cardiology care, imaging and surgical services and minimum levels of free charitable care. Keck Medicine must also invest $200 million in Methodist Hospital over a five-year period.
According to the announcement from Keck Medicine, Methodist Hospital’s affiliation with Keck will offer residents of the San Gabriel Valley greater access to specialized care, research and new technologies.
USC Arcadia Hospital also complements existing multispecialty outpatient services Keck Medicine currently offers in Arcadia.
“Our hospital will be stronger as part of Keck Medicine of USC,” Ausman said in the announcement. “The partnership brings our community expanded access to a full range of physician specialties, technology and clinical services that will benefit our patients, employees and physicians.”
As part of its $200 million commitment, Keck Medicine will invest in expanded neurosciences, cardiac care and oncology services, as well as develop academic and training relationships for USC residents and fellows at the hospital.
With this affiliation, Keck Medicine now has two community hospitals in the northeast area of Los Angeles, the other being USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, which serves La Cañada Flintridge, Glendale and the greater Foothills community.
“We are very fortunate to have found a complementary partner in USC Arcadia Hospital,” Rod Hanners, chief executive of Keck Medicine of USC, said in the announcement. “Its strength as a long-standing community hospital coupled with our academic health system will secure the legacy of both organizations and better meet the health care needs of the San Gabriel Valley community.”
In late June, just days before this affiliation took effect, Methodist Hospital received a $7.5 million donation from businessman, financier and Arcadia resident Charles Huang for a new operating room. The donation was the largest single gift in the hospital’s 119-year history.
