Patient Care

The Department of Medicine is tireless in its efforts to deliver the highest quality care for the safety-net population of Los Angeles County.

The Department of Medicine is the largest department at one of the most expansive academic medical centers in the country. The complex is comprised of LAC+USC Medical Center (LAC+USC) and the Keck Medical Center of USC (KMC). The latter includes USC Norris Cancer Hospital (Norris) and Keck Hospital of USC (KH), as well as several ambulatory venues: Healthcare Centers 1 and 2 (HC1 & HC2), located on the Health Sciences Campus; the Engemann Student Health Center, located on University Parking Campus – USC; the DaVita-USC Kidney Dialysis Center; the Arthritis Center; the USC Westside Center for Diabetes; USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, Keck Medicine of USC-Beverly Hills; Keck Medicine of USC-La Cañada Flintridge; Keck Medicine of USC-Pasadena; Keck Medicine of USC-Downtown Los Angeles; as well as USC Norris Oncology/Hematology in Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Irvine.

The Department of Medicine leads USC in the provision of clinical care in both the public and private venues of the Health Sciences Campus and is dedicated to providing quality, state-of-the-art patient care to both insured and uninsured patient populations. The Department has maintained its goal of providing optimal quality and efficiency of patient services, in both the private and public settings.

Clinical Practice

Keck Medicine of USC

The Department’s private practice has continued to experience steady growth since its inception in the 1980s. In the past ten years, overall activity has more than doubled and ambulatory visits have more than tripled to over 150,000 annually. The following are some of our most recent achievements:

• Continuation of our Primary Care Initiative with recruitment of another faculty member to round out our goal of hiring seven primary care physicians during the first phase of development
• Continued growth of Gastroenterology services, including Therapeutic Endoscopy and Inflammatory Bowel Disease
• Expansion of oncology services in Orange County with the opening of two additional offices

On the inpatient side, DOM accounts for 21% of all admissions at Keck Medical Center of USC. However, because of their consulting relationships with surgical colleagues, Department faculty provides care to a much larger number of patients. For example, the Department’s Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine physicians provide care to most of the patients in the intensive care units, although the admitting physicians usually are in other departments or divisions. Likewise, although our Nephrology and Hypertension faculty refer patients to the General Medicine team for admissions, the Nephrologists often consult on as many as 30 inpatients per day. In addition, at the Norris Cancer Day Hospital, the Department’s oncologists and hematologists account for the care of well over 70% of the patients.

In recent years, the ambulatory practice has grown in several areas. The Divisions with the highest rate of growth in the past year include Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases at 9%, Geriatric, Hospital, Palliative and General Internal Medicine at 11% and Infectious Diseases at 10%.

LAC+USC Healthcare Network

The Department of Medicine delivers a remarkable range and volume of high-quality inpatient and outpatient care at LAC+USC Medical Center. Each year its outstanding teaching programs provide direct education to 189 residents, over 80 subspecialty fellows and approximately 200 medical students at LAC+USC. The Department partners with the Medical Center’s administrative, physician and nursing leadership to address the needs of our patients and to continually enhance the safety and quality of our healthcare systems and services.

In calendar year 2016, the Department of Medicine accounted for approximately 50% of the average daily census at LAC+USC. Since opening the new facility in late 2008, the percentage of patients cared for by Department faculty has risen as high as 57%. When formal consultations are included, the Department continues to be actively involved in the care of more than 75% of all patients at LAC+USC. In addition to our excellent comprehensive inpatient service, the Department provides the supervision and care for more than 100,000 patients each year in our outpatient clinics.