Clinical Environment

The Mattel Children’s Hospital, located within the new I.M. Pei designed Ronald Reagan Medical Center, provides the environment for fellowship training. The Pediatric Service has 100 beds (including the new NICU and PICU) and admits approximately 7000 pediatric medical patients per year. The nursery service has 44 bassinets, and the Obstetrical Service averages 3600 deliveries per year. Because of the referral nature of the Obstetrical Service, there is a particularly high proportion of high-risk infant births.

300 to 350 new patients are referred to the Division of Hematology/Oncology yearly. These patients have various disorders of red cells, white cells, platelets and soluble coagulation factors that constitute our areas of expertise. Approximately 110 new pediatric cancer patients are referred yearly; one-third of these patients have leukemia, while the remainder have solid tumors. This exposure will allow the fellows to develop competence in the recognition, diagnostic evaluation and management of the broad spectrum of disorders that comprise the field of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.

There are usually 12 to 20 in-patients under the primary care of the Division of Hematology/Oncology as well as several patients for whom consultation is being provided. The Division also provides follow-up care to most of the pediatric patients with disorders in its sphere of expertise. This provides approximately 300 out-patient visits in the Hematology/Oncology clinic every month. In addition, we staff outreach clinics at the Kern County Medical Center in Bakersfield, the Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar and the UCLA Oncology Clinic in Santa Clarita. UCLA is a member Institution of the Children’s Oncology Group and we admit many of our eligible oncology patients to C.O.G. protocols.

UCLA has been a center for pediatric and adult bone marrow transplantation since 1973. A new critical isolation unit in the new hospital is dedicated to provide multi-disciplinary care to these patients. Children with leukemia, aplastic anemia, solid tumors, congenital immunodeficiency, and inborn errors of metabolism are referred to UCLA for performance of allogeneic, autologous, matched unrelated bone marrow, peripheral blood and umbilical cord stem cell transplantation.