History

Childrens Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) was incorporated in 1901. The unusual spelling of Childrens without an apostrophe can be traced back to the original Articles of Incorporation.  The explanation for the missing apostrophe is blamed on the old typewriter and the fact that its apostrophe key was not working.  In 1961, when the Board of Directors changed the name of the hospital from Childrens Hospital Society of Los Angeles to Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles, again the apostrophe was left out.  Over the past century, the different spelling has come to convey the notion of “a hospital for children”.

In 1984, the hospital's physicians completed the process of incorporating as a medical group, naming themselves Medical Group of Childrens Hospital.

Two of the Medical Group’s leading members, Arnold Platzker, M.D., Division of Pediatric Pulmonology and Gordon McComb, M.D., Head, Division of Neurosurgery, created and developed the idea for the original structure of the Medical Group. 

For the next year and a half, a group of division heads created their Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation.

1984 - All twenty-one medicine specialties and three surgical specialties were members of the Medical Group. 1991 - The physicians changed the name from Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles Medical Group to University Childrens Medical Group (UCMG) to reflect the importance of the academic affiliation with the University of Southern California School of Medicine. 1993 - All of the remaining surgical specialties had joined UCMG and in 1996 the Departments of Radiology and Pathology joined. Since then, membership in UCMG grown from 75 to more than 400 physicians, 342 of whom are pediatric specialists and 67 are primary care physicians including general pediatricians and adolescent medicine physicians. 2009 - The physicians voted to change the name to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles Medical Group Today - The Childrens Hospital Los Angeles Medical Group is now the largest pediatric multispecialty medical group in the United States. In addition to our stellar achievements in pediatric specialty medicine, we have grown our business services management culminating in the creation of Pediatric Management Group (a physician practice management company) in November 1996.