Harbor UCLA Medical Center began as as the station hospital at the Los Angeles port of Embarkation. In June 1946, the United States Army sold the entire facility as war surplus to the Los Angeles County Department of Charities. Harbor General Hospital opened one month later with 60 beds and 70 employees. In 1951, Harbor General Hospital affiliated with the University of California as a teaching hospital for the UCLA School of Medicine. Following the passage of a bond issue in the mid-1950's, a new eight-story replacement facility opened in 1963. Adjacent to the hospital is a complex of one-story building trailers and wooden barracks which are primarily used as research laboratories and clinics. There have been remodeling programs to keep the hospital updated with the changes in medical practice.

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center is affiliated with LA BioMed and with the Medical Foundation,INC. LA BioMed is a nonprofit corporation, which receives a large portion of their annual budget from NIH, which enables the hospital to administer over 600 research projects. This make Harbor the only county facility to be linked with such a prestigous research institution. The Medical Foundation,Inc is also a nonprofit corporation, which has an agreement with the County and UCLA to generate additional funds for the hospital to aid in the purchasing of medical equipment, pay faculty salaries, as well as to supplement other funds for teaching and research. Harbor-UCLA Medical Center's funded research expenditures exceed 71 million dollars annually with major clinical discoveries in perinatal, vaccine, and women's care research. Currently, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center is a 356-bed general acute care facility and major teaching hospital owned by the County of Los Angeles, and it serves as the southern campus of the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine. The Medical Center utilizes 326 full and part-time faculty and 408 volunteer faculty with privileges. All full and part-time faculty have teaching appointments with the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Virtually, the entire staff devotes their time to teaching, patient care, and research. The hospital has independent residencies in almost all specialties and consultations are available in all subspecialty areas. The hospital admits over 20,000 patients a year and has more than 275,000 outpatient visits annually, and serves over 3 million people in southwestern Los Angeles, providing both primary care and referral facilities for the area.