UCSF Health Leaders Describe Goals of New Health Care System at Town Hall

By Jyoti Madhusoodanan

UCSF Health leaders Mark Laret (far left), Sam Hawgood (center) and Talmadge King Jr. answer questions about the new health system at a Nov. 16 town hall event at the Parnassus campus. Photo by Susan Merrell

In October, UC San Francisco introduced UCSF Health, a health care system that expands the delivery of care throughout the Bay Area.

At a town hall meeting on Nov. 16, UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood, MBBS, who is also chair of UCSF Health; Mark Laret, president and CEO of UCSF Health, and Talmadge King, MD, dean of the School of Medicine and vice chancellor for medical affairs, described the goals of this new health system.

They explained the importance of the success of the new organization to the overall University and its advancing the missions of patient care, research, and health sciences education.

Reorganizing the governance structure to align the medical center and School of Medicine under the UCSF Health system was essential to capitalize on UCSF’s core strengths, Hawgood explained. He elaborated on the joint ventures and new service agreements that constitute UCSF Health, adding that UCSF Health will be partnering with other health care providers over the next calendar year.

“We recognized that we needed to gain scale through affiliations and partnerships,” said Hawgood. “We realized that organizing ourselves internally as one integrated health system would give us the agility to be successful in these rapidly changing times for health care.”

In his remarks, King highlighted some of the ways UCSF Health is expected to enhance research and graduate education, such as by increasing revenue streams and greater opportunities for medical learning in this expanded system. Lastly, Laret elaborated on the new governance model for UCSF Health and various new individual responsibilities under the new structure.

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