✕ At one point in time, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, Calif., was probably the most recognized hospital in the U.S. Through most of the 1970s, the facility was a stand-in for “Rampart General Hospital” in the television medical drama series “Emergency!” A half century on, the hospital continues to serve more than 3 million residents of southern Los Angeles County, recording upward of 300,000 clinic visits and more than 90,000 emergency visits each year. Yet the time has come for it to cede the stage to its replacement—a $1.8-billion reconstruction that will be the largest capital improvement in health care ever undertaken by Los Angeles County. The 72-acre campus is home to one of five Level 1 trauma centers within Los Angeles County and the only one in the southern portion. “The goal is to expand the medical center’s capabilities and integrate with the existing campus that opened in the 1960s,” explains Gillian Tiede, assistant deputy director at Los Angeles County Public Works.…