Cedars-Sinai (Los Angeles). Businessman Kaspare Cohn founded Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in 1902 in a two-story Victorian home. The 12-bed operation grew into the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital and in 1961 merged with Mount Sinai Hospital, which got its start as a two-room hospice in 1918.
Today the 886-bed nonprofit hospital is an academic medical center boasting more than 2,000 physicians, 350 residents and fellows, 14,000 employees and 2,000 volunteers.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a Magnet hospital for excellence in nursing, was named one of America's Best Hospitals in 2015 by Healthgrades and was ranked the No. 2 hospital in California by U.S. News & World Report for 2014-15. It was also nationally ranked in 12 specialties, with four making the top 15 nationally: diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology and GI surgery ranked No. 6, orthopedics ranked No. 7 and cardiology and heart surgery ranked No. 8.
Part of the founding mission of Cedars-Sinai is a commitment to community health. In 2014, it contributed more than $732 million to charity care, Medi-Cal and Medicare, research, education and hundreds of community service programs. It serves the largest number of Medicare patients of any hospital in California.
A generous 1976 donation from art collectors Frederick and Marcia Weisman allowed Cedars-Sinai to build an impressive, 100 percent donated collection of sculptures, paintings, photographs and lithographs that now includes more than 4,000 pieces from the likes of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Judy Chicago, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Salvador Dali, Willem Sonnier de Kooning, Marc Chagall and Joan Miro. The art is strategically placed throughout Cedars-Sinai to create a healing environment for patients, their family members and staff.
In their own words:
"Cedars-Sinai is a leader in providing high-quality healthcare encompassing primary care, specialized medicine and research. Since 1902, Cedars-Sinai has evolved to meet the needs of one of the most diverse regions in the nation, setting standards in quality and innovative patient care, research, teaching and community service. Today, Cedars-Sinai is known for its national leadership in transforming healthcare for the benefit of patients. Cedars-Sinai impacts the future of healthcare by developing new approaches to treatment and educating tomorrow’s health professionals. Additionally, Cedars-Sinai demonstrates a commitment to the community through programs that improve the health of its most vulnerable residents."