New Hospital Opens

By Judy Lin

After years of planning, the move from UCLA's 53-year-old hospital to the brand-new Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Mattel Children's Hospital and Resnick Psychiatric Hospital took only one morning to accomplish.

But what a morning it was!

Starting at 5:30 a.m. Sunday, June 29, with a crescent moon still lingering in a dawn sky, some 2,100 nurses, lifters, porters, respiratory therapist, ambulance drivers and others taking part in the gargantuan effort began their tightly choreographed sequence to safely transport 335 patients from the old hospital to the new.

They'd practiced the drill for months, going over their parts again and again. Finally, the big day arrived, Westwood Boulevard and other nearby streets were closed off and the operation began with patients from Resnick Neuropsychiatric Institute moving by ambulance and shuttle bus. That mission accomplished, two teams — the Blue Team and the Gold Team — assembled in the cafeterias at both the old hospital and the new for "pow-wows" with Gerald S. Levey, Vice Chancellor of Medical Sciences and Dean of the School of Medicine, and other administrators.

Read the complete story in UCLA Today Online.

Published Jul 1, 2008 11:33 AM