Prior to Wednesday's votes, the proposal for Cedars-Sinai won support from the hospital's departments of Medicine, Nursing, Pediatrics and Psychiatry. Supporters say specialized AIDS units, which already exist at several Los Angeles-area hospitals, are the way of the future in the treatment of AIDS.

The unit would be funded largely through a private, $2.5-million grant that was offered to Cedars-Sinai late last year. It would offer psychiatric care, social service counselors, family meeting rooms, a library of AIDS-related literature and a 24-hour outpatient clinic. Cedars-Sinai now houses 15 to 20 AIDS patients at a time, but those patients are scattered throughout the hospital in wards considered most appropriate for their symptoms.

Dr. Kenneth Elconin, who spoke against the proposal during a lengthy, private discussion among about 35 surgeons and administrators, said later that too many questions remained unanswered. He wondered how the unit would deal with AIDS patients that required long-term hospitalization-will they remain at Cedars or be transferred elsewhere? Will the five-year gift, for $500,000 a year, pay for necessary remodeling and still offset the cost of eight additional staff members within the unit? Will the hospital be able to recruit enough nurses to handle AIDS patients?