.
Cedars of Lebanon Hospital Kaspare Cohn Hospital was founded in 1902, named for its major donor, a Jewish businessman who later founded the bank that became
Union Bank & Trust Company and is now part of
U.S. Bancorp. The hospital's first superintendent,
Sarah Vasen, was a graduate of the University of Iowa Medical School who had been the superintendent and obstetrician for the Jewish Maternity Home in Philadelphia. She was one of Los Angeles’ first women doctors. In 1930, the hospital moved to a new building in
Hollywood and changed its name to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, and reputed to have medicinal properties.
Mount Sinai Hospital The Bikur Cholim Society, named for the
Talmudic obligation to care for the sick, opened a hospice In 1923 that became Mount Sinai Home for the Incurables. It was renamed Mount Sinai Hospital in 1926 and moved to a 50-bed facility on Bonnie Beach Place in Los Angeles. In 1955, it moved to Beverly Boulevard, now the location of Cedars-Sinai.
Merger of Cedars of Lebanon Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital Discussions to merge Cedars of Lebanon and Mount Sinai began in the 1960s. Population growth in Los Angeles, along with the opportunity to expand free care, research and medical education required a larger patient base and expanded facilities. The merger process, led by Irving Feintech and Steven Broidy Sr., led to groundbreaking in 1972 for a 1.6-million-square-foot medical center. It received its first patients in 1976. The new hospital was designed jointly by
Albert C. Martin & Associates and
Charles Luckman Associates. The main contractor was
Robert E. McKee, Inc. The merged hospital retained its Jewish identity, including a
mezuzah at the entrance to each room, a
kosher kitchen offering meal options to patients and visitors, a
sabbath elevator The
Burns and Allen Research Institute, named for
George Burns and his wife,
Gracie Allen, is located inside the Barbara and Marvin Davis Research Building. Opened in 1996, it houses biomedical research aimed at discovering genetic, molecular and immunological factors that trigger disease. In 2006, Cedars-Sinai added the Saperstein Critical Care Tower with 150 ICU beds. ==Rankings==