UCSF Medical Center at Parnassus and Mount Zion to Expand Care

As UC San Francisco celebrates the successful opening of UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay, there's excitement also brewing at its other clinical care campuses.

The successful move of 131 patients to Mission Bay is part of a larger vision for maximizing capacity for growth of other programs at the Parnassus and Mount Zion campuses, where UCSF Medical Center will be expanding services in key areas.   

“The big concept here that we’re executing is to really focus and augment our areas of care,” said Ken Jones, chief operating officer of the UCSF Medical Center. “Parnassus will remain the expert hub for critically ill adult patients, such as those needing transplants or complicated neurological or musculoskeletal surgery.”

Mount Zion will focus on the needs of ambulatory patients, said Jones. Mission Bay is the third piece of the puzzle, with new facilities for treating complex illnesses in women, children and certain cancer patients.

The move opens up much-needed space for additional beds at Parnassus – to support growth in surgery and for patients admitted through the busy Emergency Department. The new space also allows for important renovations at Parnassus to update patient rooms, operating rooms and technology.

“We’ve already set a new standard with our medical center at Mission Bay, and we’re planning to do same thing with renovation and remodeling efforts at Mount Zion and Parnassus,” Jones said.

Mount Zion Becomes '23 Hour' Surgery Site 

UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion will continue to operate as a high-end surgery center and to treat women’s health and cancer patients. The campus will focus on primary care, including prevention and wellness, expert screening and diagnostic services, and treatment of chronic conditions.  

The medical center at Mount Zion will become a “23-hour stay” ambulatory surgery site, allowing certain patients whose surgeries may involve longer recovery times to be treated as an outpatient, rather than being admitted to the hospital. The center already had several overnight patients in its first week of operation. 

Mount Zion’s services for women’s gynecological care and the breast cancer center will continue to be areas of focus, along with an emphasis on wellness, quality of life and opportunities for support groups.

The Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center remains at Mount Zion as a critical hub for cancer treatment and research, with four linear accelerator vaults for radiation therapy and an infusion center for chemotherapy.

Women and cancer patients requiring more serious treatment and overnight hospitalization will be served at the new UCSF Bakar Cancer Hospital and the Betty Irene Moore Women’s Hospital at Mission Bay.

Parnassus Focuses on Critical Care

The move of some women and children’s services to Mission Bay has freed up critical space at Parnassus to expand its adult emergency department, adding 43 much-needed patient beds.  

The vacated sixth, seventh and 15th floors will allow an expansion of care for complex medical conditions such as blood diseases and cancers, neurological diseases, orthopedics and kidney, liver, lung and heart transplant services.   

Over the next few years, carefully timed renovations of various floors will help concentrate specialized units together on contiguous floors.

Beyond improving workflow, the renovations will significantly upgrade the facilities. For example, work will soon begin on a thorough renovation of the air handling systems for positive pressure patient rooms, which are critical for preventing infections in immuno-compromised patients.   

“Now that we have a whole floor to work with, we’re going to have a very elegant and effective way to deliver care to immune-compromised patients,” said Jones.

Additional renovations will enhance caregivers’ ability to monitor patients throughout the hospital, such as telemetry beds that communicate with nursing stations. Certain operating rooms will also be renovated over a precise time schedule to maintain sterile conditions and keep enough operating rooms open and active.  

All UCSF Medical Center locations will continue to be integrated with the University’s extensive research network, as well as the professional schools, serving as a training ground for the next generation of clinicians.

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