USC buys Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale

The University of Southern California announced Tuesday the purchase of  Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale, now renamed USC Verdugo Hills Hospital.

Neither USC nor the hospital would disclose the amount the school paid to buy the 158-bed facility. The acquisition gives Keck Medicine of USC its first emergency room and a centralized Obstretrics and Gynecology ward. Currently, its OB/GYN services are scattered throughout the Los Angeles region, says Tom Jackiewicz, CEO of Keck Medicine of USC.

What's more, Jackiewicz  says because Verdugo Hills is not a teaching hospital, USC will be in a position to provide medical care there at a lower cost.  

"Because we’re a teaching institution, we’re a research institution, we provide very high-level, high intensity care to patients," he says. "But it’s also more costly: As an academic medical center you really need to be in a position to provide both."

Jackiewicz says USC has  agreed to spend $30 million in capital improvements on USC Verdugo Hills hospital. That money is slated for renovations – including seismic retrofitting and the creation of electronic medical records so that patient information can be easily shared with Keck Hospital of USC and the USC Norris Cancer Hospital. 

The purchase will provide USC Verdugo Hills Hospital patients with access to all of USC’s specialty medical care.  And Jackiewicz says the school is planning to open a cardiac catheter center at Verdugo for the treatment of heart attacks. 

This story has been updated to clarify that the acquisition of Verdugo Hills gives the Keck Medical Center of USC — not USC itself — its first emergency room.