UCSF Medical Center CEO Updates Regents on Mission Bay Hospital Project
UCSF is proceeding with plans to build an 869,000-plus-gross-square-foot academic medical center at Mission Bay, which may be the largest single project in the history of the University, according to Mark Laret, chief executive officer of UCSF Medical Center.
Laret presented an update on the project, sharing a preliminary design of the Mission Bay medical center, to the UC Regents at their meeting on Tuesday at UCSF Mission Bay.
The new medical center at Mission Bay will be uniquely designed to meet the needs of children, women and cancer patients in a world-class, sophisticated, efficient, flexible and family-centered healing environment. It also will play an important civic role, in part by offering emergency department services to any child without regard to ability to pay in an area of San Francisco that is historically underserved, Laret said.
Upon completion of the first phase in late 2013 or early 2014, plans for the 289-bed hospital complex will include:
"The reason we believe so strongly in having this hospital at Mission Bay is the fulfillment of our unique capability to integrate research with clinical care, and that symbiotic relationship has made UCSF the great institution that it is," Laret said.
UCSF has involved the community in the planning process and has incorporated their feedback into decisions about the project. UCSF also has engaged city agencies and elected officials, informing them about the project during the planning process. And working in partnership with the UC Office of the President, the design team led by architects Anshen+Allen and others, UCSF has worked to ensure that the project delivery is efficient, cost-effective and timely.
For their part, the Regents approved the campaign to raise $500 million in private donations for the project in May 2007 and approved $34 million in planning funds for the project in September 2006. The Regents will next be asked to approve the project budget, which is estimated to cost $1.265 billion in 2008 dollars, and to review the design in May. In July, the Regents will be asked to approve the design and to certify the Environmental Impact Report.
The second driver for the new hospital complex is to comply with a California seismic law that requires hospitals to either retrofit or replace facilities to ensure the safety of persons in the event of an earthquake. UCSF must retrofit or replace Mount Zion hospital by 2013, with a potential extension to 2015, and retrofit or replace Moffitt Hospital on the Parnassus campus by 2030.
The third driver for new facilities is that UCSF must address its old and obsolete facilities at Mount Zion and Parnassus campuses. UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Children's Hospital cannot meet the evolving needs of 21st century health care with outdated facilities. In today's health care marketplace, patients are demanding facilities that offer warm, friendly and family-centered environments. In addition, facilities must be able to accommodate ever-changing technology and health care practices.
The fourth driver is to resolve capacity constraints to accommodate increasing patient demand for services. UCSF's inpatient census has grown from 400 in 2001 to more than 500 in 2008. "We are running at capacity almost every weeknight," Laret said.
Growth and expansion at existing facilities at Parnassus are capped due to the space ceiling requirement at the flagship campus. UCSF cannot build new facilities unless it razes other outdated buildings on the Parnassus campus.
By moving the children's hospital to Mission Bay, UCSF will free up three hospital floors in Moffitt-Long hospitals on the Parnassus campus. This will allow UCSF to expand highly complex or tertiary care adult services at Moffitt-Long. In addition, the land at Mission Bay could allow UCSF to completely replace Moffitt Hospital in the years to come.
By moving some cancer care services currently offered at Mount Zion to Mission Bay, Mount Zion will have more space to accommodate the growing patient demand for outpatient care services.
- a 183-bed children's hospital with urgent/emergency care and pediatric primary care and specialty outpatient facilities
- a 70-bed adult hospital for cancer patients
- a 36-bed birth center inside the women's hospital for women's cancer care, specialty surgery and select women's outpatient services and
- an energy center, helipad, parking and support services
Drivers of Change
UCSF has several reasons, or drivers, for building a state-of-the-art hospital complex at Mission Bay, Laret said. Chief among them is for UCSF to fulfill its long-term vision for the clinical enterprise to create integrated inpatient, outpatient and research facilities at Parnassus and Mission Bay, and outpatient services with research facilities at Mount Zion. The hospital's integration with the existing Mission Bay campus will strengthen "bench to bedside" and "bedside to bench" collaboration among basic scientists, clinical researchers and physicians. The collaboration of multidisciplinary medical specialists will create a rich environment for new discoveries in the care of fetal, pediatric, maternal, women and cancer patients. Building a new medical center at Mission Bay aligns with the UCSF Strategic Plan's initiative to provide the highest-quality care. In fact, the UCSF Strategic Plan specifically calls on UCSF to "expand clinical capacity to address immediate and long-term capacity needs" in part by building "a new medical center for children, women and cancer patients at Mission Bay by 2014." The entire strategic plan is available here.This is a preliminary schematic design of UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay. (See larger)
Progress on Planning
To plan for the new medical center at Mission Bay, UCSF formed internal "user group" teams representing a cross-section of representatives from the clinical enterprise. The teams have developed schematic designs for each part of the hospital complex, working directly with the building architects and designers. Importantly, the medical center at Mission Bay will be certified by the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) construction standards, including forthcoming LEED for health care guidelines. The new medical center will incorporate and integrate the best green practices into the design, construction, operations and purchasing strategies. The design team, which includes representatives from UCSF, Anshen+Allen, William McDonough + Partners -- a world leader in design for sustainability and eco-effective design -- Rutherford & Chekene and ARUP engineers, developed core design principles for the project. These design principles call for:- creating inspiring and transformative places for patients, families, staff and the community;
- providing flexible and expandable space that supports translational research collaboration;
- responding to the unique identities and programmatic needs of children, women and cancer patients in a patient-centered, healing environment and
- maximizing operational efficiencies and incorporating evidence-based design and sustainable principles to establish a benchmark for hospitals across the nation.