The University of California Board of Regents voted to approve the full budget, scope and design for the new hospital, a centrepiece of UCSF’s 30-year vision to transform its oldest campus at Parnassus Heights and continue driving innovations in research, education and healthcare. The Board also approved the California Environmental Quality Act findings and certified the Environmental Impact Report. The $4.3 billion budget for the new hospital and associated improvements will be funded from external financing, philanthropy and hospital reserves.

The planned hospital will address UCSF’s capacity constraints, which regularly result in an overcrowded emergency department and inability to accept patients seeking to be transferred to UCSF from other hospitals. Over the past year alone, 3839 patients were unable to transfer to UCSF from other facilities that could not meet their highly complex care needs. 

By building a new hospital, UCSF will increase its overall inpatient bed capacity by 37 per cent from 499 beds to 682 beds, and expand the emergency department by nearly 65 per cent. Parts of the existing Moffitt and Long hospitals at Parnassus Heights will be renovated, and seismic retrofitting work at Moffit will enable it to function as one hospital with connections on several floors. 

“UCSF plays a critical role in providing medical care to San Francisco residents from across the City, and importantly provides the most proximate emergency care for residents living on the west side of the City,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed wrote in a letter to the UC Regents supporting the project.

“UCSF has also been a strong partner with the City in Covid response and recovery, partnering with the City to provide care, treatment, testing, vaccination, and updates. It’s important for UCSF to be able to provide these crucial services to San Francisco residents with a facility that can sustain its needs.”

UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood commented: “When it opens in 2030, the new hospital will incorporate the latest innovations in technology, including advanced diagnostics and robotics, to drive new therapies and treatments that are backed by UCSF’s scientific research.

“The new hospital has been designed with the patient at the centre, with rooms designed for privacy and safety, and communal spaces that connect to nature and promote health and wellness.”

Translational health

The convergence of research, education and patient care at the Parnassus Heights campus is pivotal to UCSF’s role as San Francisco’s only academic medical centre. The University estimates that the new hospital will create about 1400 new jobs for staff and physicians on its completion.

San Francisco Supervisor Myrna Melgar, who represents the district around Parnassus Heights, also expressed support for the new hospital, citing the calibre of health professionals a modern hospital can attract and support, as well as its positive impact on the community.

Said Melgar: “Beyond expanding access to patient care, the new hospital will create thousands of permanent jobs, including 1000 unionised construction jobs to build the new hospital alone. As San Francisco’s second-largest employer, UCSF is a driving force in our economic recovery, and this project will provide valuable employment opportunities for residents.”

Designing a healing habitat

Architects and designers Herzog & de Meuron, in partnership with architect of record HDR, has designed the new 15-storey hospital to address the social, psychological, spiritual and behavioural components of health. The human-centred design of the new facilities will create a healing habitat that integrates with the surrounding nature, promoting physical and emotional health for patients, visitors and employees alike.

The hospital design complements broader plans to transform the Parnassus Heights campus. The strategy seeks to welcome the community, expand publicly accessible open space, and offer trails that will connect the campus from Golden Gate Park to the peak of Mount Sutro.

UCSF has received about $603 million from donors in support of the hospital, including $500 million from the Helen Diller Family Foundation for the planning, design and construction.

The design and development of the new hospital and the overall campus revitalisation plan have been informed by community feedback and outreach efforts conducted over several years.

UCSF expects to begin construction of the new hospital in 2023 with a grand opening in 2030, in time to meet the state’s seismic safety deadline for hospitals.