Catalina Island Medical Center is located on Falls Canyon Road
With about 4,000 year round residents, Catalina Island is not only one of the top Southern California vacation destinations, it’s also a vibrant community filled with children and parents, teachers and students, employees and bosses. Like any community, Catalina has a school, churches and a hospital. Now known as Catalina Island Medical Center, Avalon’s hospital was built in 1960 to serve the needs of the island’s residents and visitors – a job it continues to do to this day.
CIMC employs three full-time physicians, who see patients in its doctors’ offices as well as in the hospital. The 12-bed hospital has a laboratory, radiology department, emergency room and physical therapy department as well as a in-patient care for the island’s skilled nursing patients. Routine medical care is handled Monday through Friday at the Medical Group Office, while the emergency department in the hospital is staffed 24 hours a day. While more severe trauma cases are flown to the mainland via specially equipped helicopter, the vast majority of cases can be addressed on the island. Catalina Island Medical Center sees several thousand patient visits and more than 1200 emergency room visits a year.