The University of California Board of Regents on Thursday unanimous approved a plan to work with Los Angeles County to reopen troubled Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital.

The partnership hopes to fully reopen the Willowbrook hospital by 2013, with UCLA managing the county-owned facility. The acute care portion of the hospital closed two years ago after a series of patient injuries and deaths lead to multiple investigations. Although a critical care clinic still operated on the site, surrounding private and public hospitals have been overwhelmed by a wave of former county patients at their facilities.

The plan, which had already been approved by county supervisors, calls for the county and the university system to create a non-profit entity to run the hospital, with UC providing physician services and medical oversight. The facility would have only 120 beds instead of the former 233. It will feature an emergency room and three operating rooms but no trauma center.

To lessen the risk for the UC system, Los Angeles biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong pledged a $100-million guaranty from his family foundation to help underwrite the hospital’s operational costs.

"The vote today is a momentous and a historic one," Soon-Shiong told the Business Journal. "It can serve as a model for the nation as a way to address the needs of underserved communities through public-private partnerships."