Cedars of Lebanon Hospital

Cedars of Lebanon Hospital

Kaspare Cohn Hospital was founded in 1902, named for its major donor, a Jewish businessman^[11] who later founded the bank that became Union Bank & Trust Company^[12] and is now part of U.S. Bancorp.^[13] 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.^[14] She was one of Los Angeles’ first women doctors.^[15]

The hospital was intended to serve both the Jewish community and the patients of Jewish doctors, who were denied admitting privileges in other hospitals because of discrimination.^[16]

In 1930, the hospital moved to a new building in Hollywood and changed its name to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital,^[15] after the trees mentioned frequently in Scripture^[17] and reputed to have medicinal properties.^[18]

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. ^[15]

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.^[19]

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.^[15] The new hospital was designed jointly by Albert C. Martin & Associates and Charles Luckman Associates.^[20] The main contractor was Robert E. McKee, Inc.^[21]

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^[22] and a full-time Jewish chaplain.^[15]

The Cedars-Sinai Health System was established in 1994, combining the Medical Center with the Burns and Allen Research Institute, the Cedars-Sinai Medical Foundation and the Physician-Hospital Organization.^[23] The Burns and Allen Research Institute is dedicated on George Burns' 100th birthday two years later in 1996.^[24]

The Saperstein Critical Care Tower opened in 2006 with 150 ICU beds.^[25] By 2010, Cedars-Sinai had 958 beds and 2,000 doctors. The institution maintains research institutes specializing in areas including genetics, neurosurgery, cancer, and cardiology, and serves a diverse population, including low-income and elderly patients.^[26] Cedars-Sinai also became known around this time for its medical education.^[27] The Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion opened in 2013. It houses the neurosciences programs, the Heart Institute and Regenerative Medicine Institute laboratories, outpatient surgery suites, an imaging area, and an education center.^[28]

The Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion, housing the Smidt Heart Institute and Samuel Oschin Cancer Center, opened in 2013.^[29] Cedars-Sinai acquired Marina Del Rey Hospital and its neighboring medical office building in 2015.^[30]

Huntington Health became an affiliate of Cedars-Sinai in August 2021. Since then, Huntington Health has hired more specialists and expanded access to cancer care and clinical trials. Fair Oaks Women’s Health also joined Cedars-Sinai. Huntington Health’s NICU and pediatric doctors can consult with Cedars-Sinai specialists remotely and send complex cases directly to Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s in Los Angeles.^[31]

The Shapell Guerin Family Foundation gave $100 million to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to establish a children’s health care center named for the Guerin family in 2022. This was the largest lifetime gift in Cedars-Sinai’s history.^[32]

Cedars-Sinai founded its Health Sciences University in October 2024. The university offers training in clinical, basic, and translational sciences, as well as research and vocational programs. At the time, Cedars-Sinai was staffed with 315 graduate students and postdoctoral scientists and 540 medical residents and fellows.^[33] By 2024, Cedars-Sinai received 171 grants from the National Institutes of Health, totaling nearly $100 million.^[34] Cedars-Sinai and Torrance Memorial Medical Center were affiliated under a new parent organization in the same year.^[35]

Cedars-Sinai was the largest hospital in Southern California by net patient revenue in 2025. The nonprofit academic medical center is licensed for 915 beds, has over 3,000 physicians on staff, and employs more than 16,000 people across its hospitals and medical network.^[36] The quaternary care facility maintains a connection to research, and education.^{[37][26][15][38]}

Quaid twins overdose

In 2008, the twin daughters of actor Dennis Quaid were born prematurely and cared for at Cedars. They were accidentally given the wrong version of the blood thinner heparin, which had 1000 times the strength of the version intended.^[54] The twins survived.^[55]

The news was leaked to the website TMZ, which published it^[56] before Quaid's extended family learned of it. The hospital promised an investigation into the leak.^[54]

The California Department of Health Services investigated and cited failures "to adhere to established policies & procedures for safe medication use."^[57] The resulting malpractice claim was settled out of court, and included a commitment by Cedars to introduce electronic record keeping, bedside bar coding and computerized physician-order entry systems to improve patient safety. The hospital also implemented additional procedures for pharmacy and nursing staff.^[58]

Excess radiation during CT scans

From 2008 to 2009, 260 patients received excess radiation during CT brain perfusion scans, with the error discovered after a patient reported hair loss.^[59] The FDA and California Department of Public Health launched investigations, and Cedars-Sinai implemented stricter protocols and provided care and apologies to affected patients.^[60]