SACRED HEART HOSPITAL

'Sacred Heart Hospital' is the setting of the American sitcom ''Scrubs''. The set of Sacred Heart is in the former North Hollywood Medical Center (), a real decommissioned hospital at 12629 Riverside Drive in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Besides providing the set for Sacred Heart, the hospital also houses many other ''Scrubs'' sets (such as the apartments of J.D. and Dr. Cox, and the bar), the offices of many of the ''Scrubs'' crew, and post-production facilities (such as the voice-over studio and editing suite).

Contents

Overview

Location

Areas of the Hospital

References

Overview

Sacred Heart is an inner-city teaching hospital. It is run primarily by Chief of Medicine Dr. Robert "Bob" Kelso. There is also a Chief of Surgery, who seems to take a smaller role and has never been named.
Sacred Heart translated into French is Sacré Cœur, famously the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur in Paris. Sacred Heart is a devotional name used by some Roman Catholics to refer to the physical heart of Jesus Christ as a symbol of divine love.
Staff at the hospital are mostly of the opinion that it is a very good quality institution. Dr. Kelso once said that he thinks that people choose to be treated there because they see Sacred Heart doctors as professionals, but also because he leaks vicious rumors about competing hospitals to the press. Dr. John "J.D." Dorian once remarked that "Here at Sacred Heart, you get to work with some of the finest doctors in the country." However this is contrasted numerous times by people referring to it as a "hell-hole", a "dump", or, a "monster which feeds on [their] social lives". Dr. Perry Cox was once named as the finest physician in the city by a local magazine. The hospital's employees have gained the attention of the press on several other occasions too, most notably when J.D. and Dr. Chris Turk resuscitated a local news cameraman and were dubbed as heroes ("My Fifteen Minutes") and when Turk performed a ground-breaking surgery using hypnosis instead of traditional anesthesia ("My Day at the Races").
The hospital is owned by a pharmaceutical company run by Whitaker Chambers, whose son once worked at Sacred Heart as a medical student. There are several other notable board members and benefactors, including Jordan Sullivan (who gained the position from her deceased father), Mr. Summers, Mr. Franks, Mrs. Warner, and Mr. Zerbo.

Location

The locale of Sacred Heart within the fictional world of ''Scrubs'' is never revealed on-screen. Cast and crew of the show describe the setting as "San DiFrangeles" – a portmanteau of San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles that is meant to encompass a large part of California. Judy Reyes says, "We were really trying to make it like Anywhere, USA, and I think as the years passed we kind of like gave up on that idea. In some shots you see palm trees."^[1]

Areas of the Hospital

Sacred Heart is a large hospital, but there are certain featured locations where scenes tend to take place or the characters congregate. Interestingly, unlike many other hospital-themed shows, Sacred Heart's Emergency Room has never appeared on screen.
'Hospital Admissions:'
This large area at the front of the hospital acts as a waiting room for patients, as well as the hospital's main entrance, but also features a Reception Desk staffed by Nurses. There is also a gift shop, operated by Lisa. Characters sometimes discuss things at the Reception Desk.
'Intensive Care Unit (ICU):'
A large medical-surgical ward featuring an opened out area with beds, private rooms, and a Nurses' station. The main characters seem to spend most of their time there, as it is where Sacred Heart's most critical patients are kept.
'Hallway Nurses' Station:'
Another Nurses' Station, sometimes staffed by Carla or Laverne. Doctors will sometimes also congregate there to talk with Nurses.
'Patients Rooms:'
These rooms are most often seen adjacent to the ICU, but sometimes shown in other areas of the hospital when the doctors congregate with their patients.
'Hospital Roof:'
Often featured as a place where characters go, once home to a toilet, also has been used to play golf off of, and home to Ted's many suicide attempts.
'Operating Room(s):'
These rooms, with adjacent scrub rooms, are where surgery is performed. One of the operating room's also has an observation vestibule which enables family and hospital staff to observe surgery, while remaining outside of the sterile environment of the OR.
'Doctor's Lounge:'
This is where the characters hang out, relax, watch television or research diagnoses. There is also a Ms. Pac-Man machine and a coffee dispenser.
'Cafeteria:'
Where the characters hang out and eat their meals. Noted to be a cliquey place, with certain groups within the hospital sometimes eating separately from others. J.D. has sometimes stated that he does not like the food at the cafeteria, but he claims he is "used to it." There have been many different staff members working in the cafeteria, including Troy, Margo and Kenny.
'On-Call Room:'
A room containing beds where doctors who are on-call attempt to sleep. But as J.D. once noted, not a lot of sleeping actually takes place.
'The Morgue:'
Doug "Nervous Guy" Murphy works in the morgue, the only place in the hospital where he can be trusted not to kill anyone.
'Coffee Bucks:'
A new addition to Sacred Heart (season 6, "My Coffee"), this coffee shop is an extension of the building, built in the parking lot. Since it was built, the characters seem to meet here, rather than in the cafeteria. It is the workplace of ex-intern Jason "Cabbage" Cabbagio and, for a short time, the Janitor and the Sacred Heart support staff.
'Parking Lot:'
Outside the East Wing entrance of the hospital, this parking lot contains basketball hoops and the new Coffee Bucks, as well as the emergency room entrance and providing a place for staff to park their cars.
'Pediatric Ward:'
The pediatric ward specializes in the treatment of children. As of the fifth season, one of its employees is a woman named "Jamie;" whom the other women of Sacred Heart found especially attractive. Her exact position is unknown, or whether she is a Doctor or Nurse. The janitor also once decided to haunt it to scare the kids into keeping the place clean.

References

1. Audio commentary for "My T.C.W." (disk three, "The Complete Second Season [of] Scrubs" DVD set)