Through innovation, education, and an unwavering commitment to equitable care, Los Angeles General Medical Center continues to redefine what public healthcare can achieve. We speak with CEO, Jorge Orozco, about the hospital’s legacy, future vision, and mission to deliver world-class care for every member of the community.
CARE WITHOUT COMPROMISE
Having grown up locally in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles (LA), and volunteered at Los Angeles General Medical Center (LA General) as a teenager, for Jorge Orozco, now CEO of the hospital, his connection to healthcare is both personal and professional.
“LA General is where my own family received care and a place our community has turned to for generations in moments of crisis, healing, and hope,” he opens.
His early experiences at the hospital gave Orozco a firsthand view of the compassion, skill, and dedication required to care for a community, and showed him healthcare is not only about treating illness but building trust and dignity.
Indeed, having served at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center for almost three decades prior to his appointment at LA General, Orozco’s experience transitioning from a volunteer to patient care provider to hospital leader continues to guide him today.
It is for this reason that he has never forgotten what it feels like to stand at a bedside and support a patient and is dedicated to keeping the patient, family, caregiver, and community at the center of every decision.
For Orozco, leadership in public healthcare is about more than managing hospitals but honoring their history and value to the community and building a future worthy of the people who depend on them.
BUILT TO SERVE
Recognized as one of the largest public safety-net Level I trauma centers in the US, LA General has a remarkable place in the history of American public healthcare.
In the 1960s and 1970s, LA General was one of the largest hospitals in the nation with 2,500 beds. Over time, and as healthcare evolved, the center became smaller in bed count but more advanced, specialized, and efficient.
Today, LA General remains the largest public hospital west of Texas with 600 beds, operated by Health Services Los Angeles County.
“Our mission is clear – to provide world-class care and education for all in our community,” Orozco states.
LA General is the linchpin of the region’s public healthcare safety net, unique not only in size but in the breadth and complexity of services concentrated on one campus.
“Because we have fewer beds than we once did, we have had to evolve with improved patient flow, redesigned services, expanded outpatient and virtual care, strengthened care coordination, and become more efficient in how we use every bed, resource, and clinical team,” he explains.
This evolution has made the center not only smaller than its historical footprint, but stronger and more agile and innovative.
“This combination makes LA General essential to the entire healthcare ecosystem: the place other systems depend on when patients need the highest level of care or specialized public-sector services regardless of insurance status, income, language, immigration status, or circumstance,” Orozco notes.
In this way, public hospitals do more than care for the underserved; they stabilize the entire region in times of need, and LA General is always there as a hospital of first-class care.
“Our message is simple: safety-net care can be world-class care. At LA General, that is not an aspiration – it is what our teams prove every day,” he emphasizes.
“Our mission is clear – to provide world-class care and education for all in our community”
Jorge Orozco, CEO, Los Angeles General Medical Center
SHAPING TOMORROW’S LEADERS
With education deeply embedded in LA General’s DNA, it has been a teaching hospital, innovation center, and training ground for some of the best and brightest healthcare professionals in the nation for more than a century.
Generations of physicians, nurses, residents, fellows, allied health professionals, and healthcare leaders have trained at the center, with many going on to shape the future of medicine either locally, nationally, or globally.
“We are a teaching hospital in the truest sense. Learning is not limited to classrooms or conference rooms; it happens at the bedside, in the emergency department (ED), operating rooms, clinics, on inpatient units, and in the moments when teams come together to solve complex problems for patients who need us most,” Orozco impassions.
LA General’s long-standing academic partnership with the Keck School of Medicine of USC has allowed it to train the next generation of physicians across nearly every specialty and subspecialty.
It also has a deep connection to the LA County College of Nursing and Allied Health, which has educated nurses for generations.
“We also serve as an important training environment for military medical teams, including US Navy personnel, who come here to learn from our experience with high-acuity trauma, emergency care, and complex public-sector medicine,” he adds.
A combination of excellence, urgency, innovation, and vision has made LA General a powerful force for good, caring for patients with complex medical, social, cultural, and economic needs.
“While they learn advanced medicine, they also learn humility, teamwork, equity, communication, and service, and see firsthand that world-class care must also be compassionate, culturally responsive, and accessible to all,” Orozco points out.
He believes the future of healthcare at LA General is shaped by the people it trains, which is why education is not separate from its mission, but central to it.
“When someone trains at LA General, they leave with more than technical expertise – they leave with a sense of purpose, commitment to equity, and the understanding that healthcare is not only about treating disease, but restoring dignity, reducing disparities, and strengthening communities,” Orozco remarks.
INNOVATION IN ACTION
Managing a high volume of demand while continuing to deliver first-class care and positive patient outcomes, LA General remains focused on the people behind the numbers.
Serving some of the most medically and socially complex patients in LA – such as those facing chronic disease, homelessness, or immigration-related barriers – it requires more than traditional hospital operations.
“This requires teamwork, innovation, disciplined systems, and a relentless focus on quality and safety. We are constantly redesigning care around the needs of our patients, many of whom face barriers that extend far beyond the hospital walls,” Orozco explains.
With one of the busiest EDs in the US and having had a decrease in the number of inpatient beds over the years, LA General has had to find new and innovative ways to provide care – and its teams have risen to the challenge.
“Over the past several years, we have made significant progress in quality, safety, access, and operational performance,” he reports.
Indeed, its teams have strengthened care coordination, improved patient flow, reduced hospital-acquired infections, advanced surgical efficiency, and expanded models of care that allow patients to receive the right medical attention in the right setting.
“Safer@Home is LA General’s fully remote care-at-home model, allowing carefully selected patients to receive hospital-level care at home for conditions most hospitals would continue to manage in an inpatient setting.
“This national, award-winning care model allows selected patients to receive fully remote, hospital-level care at home while remaining closely connected to their LA General care team.”
Published studies show that this model reduces length-of-stay by up to four days per patient, decreases revisits, and does not increase complications, saving the hospital thousands of dollars.
Other examples of LA General’s ongoing innovation are its ED SWIFT team, which has helped to reduce length of stay, and its work to transform the operating room.
Safer@Home is LA General’s fully remote care-at-home model, allowing carefully selected patients to receive hospital-level care at home for conditions most hospitals would continue to manage in an inpatient setting.
Jorge Orozco, CEO, Los Angeles General Medical Center
CULTURE OF EXCELLENCE
LA General’s quality outcomes have earned it consecutive Leapfrog “A” Hospital Safety Grades, reduced key hospital-acquired infections, improved mortality outcomes, and strengthened care across multiple service lines.
“The key to our success is our culture – quality is not one department’s job, it is everyone’s responsibility. In a hospital like ours, excellence has to be collective,” Orozco asserts.
As such, LA General does not lower expectations because its patients face extraordinary challenges – it raises its standards because they deserve extraordinary care.
The hospital was also recently designated as a Magnet® institution by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and listed among Forbes Top Hospitals rankings, recognitions which mean a great deal to LA General as they affirm what the hospital strives to prove every day – public safety-net hospitals can deliver care at the highest level.
The Magnet® designation from ANCC is one of the most respected honors in healthcare, reflecting nursing excellence and a culture that empowers nurses to lead change.
For LA General, the recognition is a tribute to its nursing workforce, whose skills, compassion, resilience, and commitment to patients meet some of the most complex medical and social needs in the city.
“Our nurses are extraordinary. They care for all manner of patients, including those who may have delayed care for years because of poverty, lack of insurance, immigration-related barriers, or limited access to the healthcare system – to deliver nationally recognized outcomes in that environment is remarkable,” he praises.
As such, LA General’s nursing teams have also earned prestigious professional recognition, including unit-level honors such as the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses’ (AACN) Beacon Award for Excellence for their specialty nursing care.
“These awards matter because they are not based on image; they are granted on evidence-based practice, healthy work environments, nursing workforce strength, and patient outcomes,” Orozco urges.
Being recognized among Forbes’ top hospitals is also meaningful because it places LA General in a national conversation about quality, value, safety, patient outcomes, and patient experience, and is particularly powerful for a public safety-net medical center.
“Our patients deserve the same level of excellence as patients anywhere else in the country, and these achievements show that we are delivering on that promise,” he affirms.
Orozco does not consider these awards as a ‘finish line’ but proof the hospital is moving in the right direction and motivated to keep improving.
“Recognition lifts the pride of our workforce, strengthens community trust, and sends an important message nationally: public hospitals not only matter – they lead. At LA General, excellence is not reserved for the few – this is our promise to everyone who comes through our doors,” Orozco says.
BEYOND THE HOSPITAL WALLS
Transforming its campus through significant investment and development over the last two years, LA General is reimagining what a public healthcare campus can be for the community.
“Our vision is to create a more integrated environment where medical care, behavioral health, recovery, housing, wellness, education, prevention, and community services are connected,” Orozco explains.
In this way, Orozco believes health does not begin or end inside the hospital’s walls – it is shaped by housing, nutrition, food security, mental health, transportation, safety, family support, and economic opportunity.
“Our campus transformation reflects that reality, such as The Wellness Center which is an important example of this broader vision,” he says.
It gives patients, families, staff, and community members access to services that support health beyond the clinical visit – including nutrition education, wellness programs, prevention resources, community classes, and support that helps people make healthier choices in their daily lives.
For many of LA General’s patients, this type of resource is essential to the continuum of care as it helps to bridge the gap between medical treatment and long-term health.
The Restorative Care Village is another major part of this work, bringing together services that help patients recover, stabilize, and transition safely after hospitalization.
For patients experiencing homelessness, behavioral health challenges, substance-use disorders, or complex medical needs, this type of integrated model can be life-changing.
The broader Healthy Village vision for the historic hospital campus is equally exciting as it creates an opportunity to honor the history of this iconic institution while building a future that is more connected to the community.
“We want the campus to be a place of healing, housing, learning, wellness, prevention, recovery, and opportunity.”
This is the future of public healthcare – not only treating illness but creating conditions that allow people and communities to thrive.
“At LA General, our goal is to create a true continuum of care — one that supports patients before, during, and after they come through our doors,” Orozco highlights.
NAVIGATING UNCERTAINTY
With potential changes to Medicaid funding creating additional pressures for healthcare organizations across the US, LA General is preparing to navigate these challenges while continuing to deliver exceptional care.
“Safety-net hospitals across the country are facing tremendous financial pressure, and LA General is no exception.”
Because the hospital cares for a large Medi-Cal and uninsured population, changes to Medicaid funding have a direct impact on its ability to provide care.
Guided by a core principle to protect patient care, LA General is taking a disciplined approach to cost management, workforce planning, operational efficiency, and revenue improvement.
Across LA Health Services, efforts have included reducing reliance on contract labor, managing overtime, standardizing supplies and labs, improving billing and collections, expanding telehealth where appropriate, and redesigning care to reduce avoidable utilization.
“But we also must be honest. Public healthcare cannot simply cut its way out of a funding challenge of this magnitude.
“Safety-net hospitals are essential infrastructure because we serve patients who would otherwise go without care and provide services the broader healthcare system depends on – trauma, emergency care, burn care, behavioral health, teaching, disaster response, and care for medically complex populations,” Orozco tells us.
As such, LA General’s responsibility is to be both innovative and steadfast as it continues improving efficiency, but the center will also continue advocating for sustainable investment in public healthcare.
“At LA General, exceptional care is not optional. It is our commitment to the community,” he prides.
THE ROAD AHEAD
Looking ahead over the next two years, LA General’s key priorities include remaining focused on access, quality, workforce innovation, and campus transformation.
First, the hospital must protect access to care for the communities that depend on it.
Second, LA General must continue strengthening quality and safety, building on the progress that earned it Magnet®, Forbes, and consecutive Leapfrog ‘A’ Hospital Safety Grades.
“Third, we must support our workforce. The people of LA General are our greatest asset, and their well-being, professional growth, and sense of purpose are essential to our future.
“I am also excited about innovations that bring advanced care to patients who have historically faced barriers,” Orozco says.
LA General’s Safer@Home fully remote care-at-home model, meanwhile, is helping selected patients receive effective care outside of a traditional hospital setting.
Campus transformation will also remain a major priority for the hospital, with the development of a more integrated health, housing, behavioral health, and wellness environment around the site having the potential to become a national model for public healthcare.
“The next two years will not be easy, but they will be important. We have a rare opportunity to show what public healthcare can become when excellence, equity, innovation, and community are aligned,” Orozco confidently concludes.
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