Medical Facilities

Riverside County hosts many medical facilities and hospitals that provide a high level of care and attention to its patients. Loma Linda Medical Center, located within the region, ranks in the top 50 of all hospitals in the country — compared to 4,515 hospitals throughout the United States.

The UCR/UCLA Program in Biomedical Sciences was established in 1974 with a dual goal of recruiting outstanding students to UC Riverside and increasing the number of medical students entering clinical training at UCLA. Students in the program completed their undergraduate work and the first two years of their medical education at UC Riverside, then transferred to UCLA for their third and fourth years, earning their M.D. from the David Geffen School of Medicine.

Between its inception and the opening of the UCR School of Medicine in 2013, approximately 850 students went through the program, which was renamed the UCR/UCLA Thomas Haider Program in Biomedical Sciences in 1997.

The success of the Haider Program served as the foundation for the development of the UCR School of Medicine. In 2003, then-Chancellor France A. Córdova brought together a blue-ribbon panel to begin the planning process for a four-year medical school. In July 2008, the UC Regents approved UCR’s proposal for a school of medicine and by February 2010 Dr. G. Richard Olds, came on board as founding dean and vice chancellor of health affairs.

Preliminary accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) was delayed for one year by California’s budget woes, but in October 2012, the School of Medicine received that long-sought accreditation and recruiting for the inaugural class of 2013. That class of 50 students arrived in August 2013, beginning their path toward becoming a physician. In June 2017, the school graduated its first class of medical students and secured full accreditation from the LCME.

Governor Gavin Newsom signs the Budget Act of 2020, providing the UCR School of Medicine with a budget allocation of $25 million per year. The funding will allow the medical school to double its enrollment to 500 over the next several years. The funding became a reality thanks, in part, to the support of California Senator Richard Roth and Assembly members Jose Medina and Sabrina Cervantes.