Catholic Healthcare West and our Sponsoring Congregations are committed to furthering the healing ministry of Jesus. We dedicate our resources to:
* Delivering compassionate, high-quality, affordable health services;
* Serving and advocating for our sisters and brothers who are poor and disenfranchised; and
* Partnering with others in the community to improve the quality of life.
** OUR VISSION **
A growing and diversified health care ministry distinguished by excellent quality and committed to expanding access to those in need.
** OUR VALUES **
Catholic Healthcare West is committed to providing high-quality, affordable health care to the communities we serve. Above all else we value:
* Dignity - Respecting the inherent value and worth of each person.
* Collaboration - Working together with people who support common values and vision to achieve shared goals.
* Justice - Advocating for social change and acting in ways that promote respect for all persons and demonstrate compassion for our sisters and brothers who are powerless.
* Stewardship - Cultivating the resources entrusted to us to promote healing and wholeness.
* excellence - Exceeding expectations through teamwork and innovation.
CHW is strengthened in service by the membership of Catholic hospitals, founded by congregations of religious women, and hospitals that are not Catholic, founded by local communities or dedicated physicians. The same work of healing is central to all we do.
For guidance and moral foundation, CHW's Catholic hospitals use The Ethical and Religious Directives, published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
For guidance and moral foundation, CHW's secular hospitals use the CHW Statement of Common Values.
History Of California Hospital Med Center
** Our History **
Beginnings
California Hospital Medical Center was founded in 1887 by Dr. Walter Lindley and two other physicians. It was originally a three-story building located at 315 W. Sixth Street in Los Angeles. On the first floor of the structure were offices of established physicians. On the second floor there were several small offices occupied by younger physicians and a dentist. Although there were no elevators in the building, the third floor contained a small hospital of six to eight beds.
Dr. Lindley conceived of a hospital owned and operated solely by physicians. The physicians in Lindley's building were "carriage trade" and were affiliated with the University of Southern California Medical School. Twenty-one physicians agreed to acquire property at the corner of 15th and Hope which was a quiet residential street of attractive homes. When the property on Hope Street had been acquired, the first physician-owned and operated hospital in Los Angeles was erected at 1414 S. Hope Street. It was the first building in California especially invented for medical purposes - a project that Walter Lindley supervised at every stage of its design and construction.
Leading the Way
By 1902, CHMC turned into the largest and best-equipped physician-owned hospital west of Chicago and less than 25 years later, CHMC's old frame buildings were replaced by a more modern nine-story brick building, resulting in another famous "first" - it was the first fireproof hospital in Los Angeles. Between 1870 and 1910, hospitals moved from the periphery to the center of medical education and medical practice. And the effects of this significant change rippled outward, altering the relationship of doctors to hospitals and to one another, and shaping the development of the hospital system as a whole.
The access that private practitioners gained to hospitals, without becoming their employees, became one of the distinctive features of medical care in America, with consequences not fully appreciated even today. In harmony with the growth of the city of Los Angeles along other lines was the innovative development of facilities for caring for the sick. California Hospital - the pioneer, private, general hospital, owned and operated by physicians - blazed the way and established a precedent which had a worldwide following.
Today, California Hospital is a 316-bed acute care hospital that provides services for the dynamic community of downtown Los Angeles and its surrounding neighborhoods.
