White Memorial Medical Center is a non-profit, faith-based, teaching hospital, which provides a full range of inpatient, outpatient, emergency and diagnostic services to communities in and near downtown Los Angeles. White Memorial Medical Center (WMMC) is owned and operated by Adventist Health, staffed by 1,879 employees, nearly 700 volunteers, 462 physicians, and 86 residents. The Seventh-day Adventist medical center has maintained its mission of keeping the community healthy since 1913, serving more than 126,000 patients each year.HistoryOn September 29, 1913, the small storefront medical clinic in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights, opened its doors for the first time with the aid of the clinic's director, Dr. August Larsen. The second-hand medical instrument equipped clinic provided treatment at no cost and served as a training ground for physicians attending the College of Medical Evangelists—now Loma Linda University. It was until 1915, when the talented Dr. Percy Magan serves as the new director of medical education at the clinic, leaving a prestigious teaching post and practice. A contribution of $30,000 from philanthropist Josie Phillips allows the hospital to nearly double its capacity expanding from 59 beds to 94 beds in 1922.In 1937, the new WMMC building opens—the first fireproof hospital in the state. The designer is noted architect Myron Hunt, who also designed the Rose Bowl. The 1950s decade brought many expansions to WMMC, including a new wing that doubled the bed capacity of the hospital and included a radiation laboratory, electro-encephalobraphy unit, psychiatric ward and complete emergency facilities. It was during this decade that the new White Memorial Church was completed adjacent to the hospital. The opening of a $4.2 million Diagnostic and Treatment Center, now called the North Tower, became the highlight of the year 1968. In 2010, a $250 million project to rebuild White Memorial became complete—made possible in part by $89 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding for seismic upgrades and $30 million in community support.
