Newswise — A $10-million gift from the Annenberg Foundation has been awarded to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, which will feature the most advanced medical technology in the world. To acknowledge the grant, the hospital's main concourse connecting the Reagan Hospital, the neuropsychiatric hospital and the Mattel Children's Hospital will be named the Wallis Annenberg Concourse.
"This is a very generous gift from Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation. This commitment to our capital campaign makes the dream of building UCLA's replacement hospital a reality," said Dr. Gerald S. Levey, vice chancellor of medical sciences and dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "This charitable gift will augment government funding, enabling us to create a hospital that will discover new cures and better medical treatments that will ultimately save lives and improve quality of life."
After the 1994 Northridge earthquake damaged the existing UCLA medical center, UCLA's leadership embarked on a mission to bring the finest in hospital design and technology to Los Angeles. World-renowned architects I.M. Pei and C.C. Pei were brought in to design a beautiful, cutting-edge facility that incorporated the best ideas in medical science and patient care. Shortly afterward, an extraordinary alliance between UCLA, both state and federal governments, private donors, and an array of civic and cultural leaders was formed to create a world-class facility to serve the evolving health-care needs of the community for years to come.
The new center, which will house the UCLA Medical Center, the Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA and the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA, is a technological and architectural masterpiece designed to meet the evolving needs of a 21st-century patient-care and research center. It will feature the latest technology, including wireless access to reports, lab results, clinical imaging and patient vital signs; audiovisual communications; diagnostics; robotics; imaging systems; and advanced audio and high-resolution video conferencing capabilities.
The new building also features 520 large, private patient rooms, sun-filled views, daybeds to accommodate family members, wireless Internet access, room service with customized meals, outdoor play areas for pediatric patients, gardens and more. In addition, the entire facility is surrounded by green spaces, natural light, high-quality woods, carpeting, fountains and open terraces to inspire and welcome patients, guests and staff.
Highly advanced technology not yet invented when planning first began is now woven into the fabric of the medical center, helping to provide a more people-friendly environment and giving clinicians new ways to monitor patients, fight disease, track information and survey patient progress.
The Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center represents an entirely new level of hospital construction. Designed by the Peis — along with a team headed by Perkins & Will, Pei Partnership Architects and RBB Architects — the building is intended to foster a healing and supportive patient environment. Thousands of new, state-of-the-art technologies were made to blend seamlessly with clinician expertise; structures were built to create the sense of several smaller hospitals rather than one large one; and services were clustered to maximize efficiency.
The new building will not open to the public until the entire staff has been fully trained and every piece of equipment is fully operational. Over the next nine to 12 months, UCLA's expert transition team will fit up the internal systems, install and test clinical and Internet equipment, and train more than 10,000 UCLA employees to ensure the most seamless hospital move possible.
About the Annenberg Foundation
Established in 1989 by Walter H. Annenberg, the Annenberg Foundation provides funding and support to nonprofit organizations in the United States and globally through its headquarters in Radnor, Pa., and offices in Los Angeles, Calif. Its major program areas are education and youth development; arts, culture and humanities; civic and community life; health and human services; and animal services and the environment. In addition, the Foundation operates a number of initiatives which expand and complement these program areas. The Annenberg Foundation exists to advance the public well-being through improved communication. As the principal means of achieving this goal, the Foundation encourages the development of more effective ways to share ideas and knowledge.
About the UCLA Health System
For more than half a century, UCLA has been recognized as a leader in patient care, medical research and teaching, and its medical center has been ranked the No. 1 hospital in the western U.S. for the past 18 years by U.S. News & World Report. The legacy that began in 1955 when UCLA Medical Center first opened its doors in Westwood has grown to include four hospitals and a network of community offices, known collectively as the greater UCLA Health System. Offering patients of all ages a wide range of services and comprehensive care, from routine to highly specialized medical and surgical treatment and programs in geriatric, adult, adolescent and child psychiatry, the UCLA Health System includes the UCLA Medical Center (soon to be recognized as the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center), Santa Monica"UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital, the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital, and Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA. For information about clinical programs or for help in choosing a personal physician, call (800) UCLA-MD1 or visit http://www.uclahealth.org.
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