Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center staff, physicians and administrators completed their most skillful operation—moving more than 400 patients from the 1930s era hospital building into the shining new replacement facility— on Nov. 8 after 36 hours of non-stop activity.

"This is one of the largest moves in the country," said Pete Delgado, chief executive officer of LAC+USC Healthcare Network. "And it's also one of the best planned. We've spent two-and-a-half years planning this particular moment."

Starting on Nov. 7, dedicated teams transported patients from Women and Children's Hospital and the old County Hospital via ambulance and transporter van. In the planning for the move, administrators had estimated up to 30 minutes of travel time per patient, but according to officials, the actual time to transport each patient, from bed to bed, averaged only 17 minutes.

The move was orchestrated so smoothly that all but 11 patients from the jail and intensive care units were transferred the first day—far surpassing the staff's plans. The remaining patients were transported by 1 p.m. on Nov. 8.

After running through six different mock moves, LAC+USC staff and physicians seemed to be moving patients with ease and efficiency. "Our biggest challenge in the old hospital was that the elevators there are very slow," said Stephanie Hall, chief medical officer of LAC+USC. "So that created a bottleneck, but we knew that was going to be a problem, so we planned for it."

Officials placed the hospital on "internal disaster" mode, which meant that ambulance traffic was diverted to other area hospitals, clinics were canceled, and all non-emergency surgeries were rescheduled. "The local hospital community has been helping us to manage our patient census so that we make this move as efficient as possible," said Cynthia Stotts, patient move committee chair and assistant professor in the Keck School department of pediatrics. "Other local hospitals absorbed new patients for 36 hours, and they staffed up in anticipation."

The new hospital began accepting ambulance traffic after 3 p.m. on Nov. 8.