The Blue Ribbon Committee on San Francisco General Hospital's Future Location reached a consensus on Sept. 9 that the hospital should be rebuilt at the Potrero Avenue campus site.
David A. Kessler, dean of the UCSF School of Medicine and vice chancellor of medical affairs, and Sue Carlisle, associate dean of the UCSF School of Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital, issued an email about the future location of the public hospital on Friday.
Here's their full email message:
A strong consensus emerged from today's final meeting of the Blue Ribbon Committee on San Francisco General Hospital's Future Location that the hospital should be rebuilt at the Potrero Avenue campus site.
Sandra Hernández, MD, who chaired the Committee, said that before the end of the month she would issue a report to Mayor Gavin Newsom recommending that the city develop an institutional master plan to rebuild SFGH at the Potrero site. She said that based on the committee's consensus, the report would further recommend that a rebuild plan include:
1. Measures to ensure the continuation of high-quality patient care during construction.
2. Measures to mitigate any negative impacts on the adjacent community arising from the siting of a helipad at SFGH.
3. An analysis of the appropriate number of beds needed at a rebuilt SFGH to meet anticipated patient needs.
During today's meeting, the committee unanimously voiced its support for the rebuild of SFGH and for passage by the voters of the City and County of San Francisco of a general obligation bond to pay for the cost of the rebuild. The committee also voiced strong support for strengthening the relationship between SFGH and UCSF.
UCSF is proud to have had several representatives serve on the Blue Ribbon Committee. The University is committed to providing the best possible care at SFGH, both to ensure the hospital's critical role as a Level I Trauma Center and to ensure its role as a vital component of the city's health care safety net for the underserved.
During the course of the work of the Blue Ribbon Committee, we stressed the University's commitment to maintaining academic excellence at SFGH, through our support of the clinical training and the research programs, which both focus on caring for the patient population at SFGH.
We realize that the quality of clinical care at SFGH is inextricably tied to the excellence of our academic programs and we understand that research is a vital part of the mission and climate of SFGH. As such, we are strongly committed to maintaining a critical mass of research at the Potrero Avenue site.
With the recommendation of the Blue Ribbon Committee to rebuild SFGH at the Potrero site, we now must focus on sustaining and improving the research facilities for our faculty at that site. Since the existing SFGH research facilities are located in seismically compromised buildings, it is imperative for us to work with the leadership of the City and County of San Francisco, including the San Francisco Department of Public Health, to produce and implement a plan to provide for a new inpatient hospital at the Potrero site and for replacement research facilities.
As such, UCSF will lead the effort to provide seismically sound research facilities to support the clinical and academic programs at SFGH.
Therefore, Vice Chancellor Bruce Spaulding will reconvene the Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) subcommittee on SFGH to recommend the size, nature and configuration of the new research facilities at SFGH.
The subcommittee, formed as part of the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on the LRDP Amendment to develop a plan for replacement research facilities at SFGH, met from October 2001 through December 2002. Its planning process was suspended until the San Francisco Health Department determined the location for replacement hospital facilities for SFGH.
Upon conclusion of the subcommittee's work, Vice Chancellor Spaulding will provide the subcommittee's recommendations to the Chancellor and the Chancellor's Executive Committee for consideration.
