Newsbreak
UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay: Defining the future of health care
The century-old UCSF Medical Center is redefining the future of health care with its plan to open a sophisticated, sustainable and spectacularly designed hospital complex at Mission Bay.
UCSF is planning to build a 289-bed, integrated medical center with three specialty hospitals – for children, women and cancer patients – located on 14.5 acres of largely vacant land immediately south of UCSF’s thriving, 43-acre life sciences research and teaching campus.
The location strategically positions UCSF to further integrate patient care with research, strengthening the University’s historical, bench-to-bedside and bedside-to-bench collaboration among UCSF basic scientists, clinical researchers, physicians and trainees.
“The combination of the best in clinical care with the best in health sciences research at this new facility will improve patients’ lives and the practice of medicine in the Bay Area, nationally and around the world,” says Mark Laret, chief executive officer of UCSF Medical Center.
The new medical center supports UCSF’s mission to advance health sciences education in collaboration with research and patient care, according to UCSF Chancellor J. Michael Bishop. New opportunities for synergy promise to benefit patients treated at UCSF and beyond as discoveries are translated into improved care.
“UCSF has always been a leader in innovation, and now we are taking a bold step to further advance that leadership,” Bishop says. “The new medical center is a key part of the foundation for continuing UCSF’s role as a leading center for translational research. We intend to greatly enhance our ability to apply what we discover. Our patients will benefit, and so too will our students, who will be the researchers and clinicians of the future.”
Realizing the ambitious plans for a medical center at Mission Bay would:
- Fulfill UCSF’s long-term strategic vision to provide high-quality patient care with integrated clinical and research programs;
- Build state-of-the-art, sustainable health care facilities that are patient-focused and define the industry benchmark;
- Address functionally obsolete facilities at Parnassus and Mount Zion and add capacity to meet growing demand for services; and
- Comply with a state seismic law to ensure the safety of hospitalized patients.
Scores of faculty, staff, community members and others have been involved with the planning process, working with the San Francisco health care architectural firm Anshen + Allen in association with sustainability experts William McDonough + Partners.
“Our architectural vision is to create timeless and transformative buildings which are responsive to the unique needs of children, women and cancer patients, yet operate efficiently as one,” says Cindy Lima, executive director of administration at UCSF Medical Center and the project director. “‘Transformative’ describes a design that not only contributes in new ways of advancing health, such as patient safety and cutting-edge technology, but also contributes to healing through connections to nature and sustainability and support of patients and their families.”
With the unanimous approval of the design, budget and environmental certification by the UC Board of Regents at its last meeting, UCSF will submit structural plans to the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development in December. With state approval and secured financing for the $1.686 billion project, preliminary construction could begin in 2009. The new medical center at Mission Bay is slated to open in October 2014.
Financing is planned to be achieved through a combination of donor contributions, hospital reserves, debt financing and state support. San Francisco businesswoman and philanthropist Diane “Dede” B. Wilsey is serving as the volunteer chair of the campaign to raise $600 million in private donations. The campaign planning project team also includes business and civic leaders Barbara Bass Bakar, Ronald Conway, Carmen Policy and Richard M. Rosenberg.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to advance health care in San Francisco by creating one of the world’s leading medical centers,” Wilsey says. “This is a significant investment in our future.”