Founded in 1878, Los Angeles County LAC+USC Healthcare Network (LAC+USC) is the nation's largest academic institution. It is one of the largest acute care hospitals in America and has been the primary facility of the University of Southern California School of Medicine since 1885. Originally established as a 100-bed hospital with 47 patients, it now is licensed for 600 beds and budgeted to staff 745 beds.

LAC+USC provides a full spectrum of emergency, inpatient and outpatient services. These include medical, surgical and emergency/trauma services in General Hospital. In Women's and Children's Hospital it provides obstetrical, gynecological, pediatric and specialized neonatal intensive care services as well as psychiatric services for adults, adolescents and children. The Medical Center also operates a hyperbaric chamber on Catalina Island.

As the largest single provider of healthcare in the County, LAC+USC provides the community with more than 28 percent of its trauma care. It operates one of three burn centers in the County and one of the few Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Units in Southern California. It provides care for half of both AIDS patients and sickle cell anemia patients in Southern California. It maintains inpatient and outpatient services for the most acute cases of mental illness. It trains approximately 1,500 medical professionals per day, including more than 870 medical residents in nearly all medical specialties, 160 students of nursing and health professionals such as pharmacists; midwives; physician assistants; physical, occupational, speech and respiratory therapists; dieticians; podiatrists; and laboratory and radiologic technologists.