Health & Fitness

Cedars-Sinai, Torrance Memorial Team Up for Public Health Care

The announcement for a formal affiliation is designed to strengthen both organizations' ability to serve the community.

From Cedars-Sinai Medical Center: Cedars-Sinai and Torrance Memorial today announced plans for a formal affiliation designed to strengthen both organizations’ ability to serve the community and to enhance access, coordination and quality of care for the public.

Under the proposed affiliation, each institution will retain its respective board of directors and continue to operate separately but will affiliate under a new parent organization with a new board of directors, named
Cedars-Sinai Health System.

The proposed affiliation will provide a platform for future collaborations in primary and specialty care,
expanded access to the latest clinical trials and an efficient sharing of resources among both institutions.
While the proposed affiliation has been approved by each institution’s board of directors, it will soon be
submitted for review by various regulatory agencies that approve proposed affiliations of this type. The
regulatory approval process is expected to take about six months.

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Torrance Memorial includes the 470-bed Torrance Memorial Medical Center in addition to a multispecialty
physician group (Torrance Memorial Physician Network), an independent physician association (Torrance
Health IPA) and an accountable care organization (Torrance Memorial Integrated Physicians), which
collectively include more than 500 physicians. Torrance Memorial also has several outpatient centers
located throughout the South Bay region.

Cedars-Sinai includes the 886-bed Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the 145-bed Marina Del Rey Hospital, a
multispecialty physician network of 887 doctors (Cedars-Sinai Medical Network) and many primary care,
urgent care and specialty care centers throughout the Los Angeles region. It also is a major research and
education center, with more than 1,500 current research projects and 480 clinical trials, and trains 473
medical residents and fellows.

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The affiliation will focus on new opportunities for coordination of care and resources between the two
organizations and joint programs to provide access to more people for needed medical services as well as
access to clinical trials and the latest developments in medical research. Each organization will continue to
have its own board, its own hospital medical staff and related physician organizations, and its own
employees. Each organization’s president and CEO (Craig Leach at Torrance Memorial and Thomas M.
Priselac at Cedars-Sinai) will continue to lead their respective entity, with Priselac also to serve as
president and CEO of the parent entity, Cedars-Sinai Health System.

Both organizations will continue their longstanding partnerships with local community organizations aimed
at improving health.

Cedars-Sinai (founded in 1902) and Torrance Memorial (founded in 1925) are two of California’s longest serving nonprofit healthcare organizations. In the past several years, they have collaborated on a variety of projects such as the establishment of a telestroke program to more quickly diagnose and treat stroke
patients.

“In seeking an affiliation, we wanted to find a partner that had a good understanding of and respect for our
history, our mission and the communities we serve,” said Leach, Torrance Memorial’s president and CEO.

“Working with Cedars-Sinai over the years, we have been impressed not only with their quality and
commitment, but with their ability to work constructively with a wide variety of stakeholders, to listen
carefully, and to develop programs that effectively serve the community’s needs.”

Priselac, Cedars-Sinai’s president and CEO, emphasized the importance of developing collaborative efforts
in the proposed affiliation.

“While both Torrance Memorial and Cedars-Sinai have strong track records for serving the region, the
governance structure of the proposed affiliation is designed to foster collaboration and share resources to

further enhance those capabilities to benefit patients and the community,” Priselac said.

Image via Pixabay

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