Update from the Chancellor and President/CEO, 11/20/2019
Letter from the Chancellor and President/CEO, 5/28/2019
Are you cancelling your affiliation with Dignity Health, or just changing the terms?
We are no longer pursuing negotiations for a more integrated affiliation through which UCSF would have played a larger role in Dignity Health’s four Bay Area hospitals.
Does this mean that UCSF Health will end all of its current associations with Dignity Health?
No, we are not ending the type of collaborations we already have with Dignity Health. We have collaborated with Dignity Health over the last 20 years and work with them to provide critical patient services, including hospital medicine, mental health, neurology, neurosurgery and pediatric burn care, among others.
Will you continue to look for ways to work with Dignity Health?
Yes. The critical patient needs that drove our discussions with Dignity Health still remain and we have a responsibility to meet them. We are committed to finding a viable path forward to help meet patient needs and increase access to crucial health services, including in the areas of adolescent and adult psychiatry, surgical services, primary care and cancer care.
Do you intend to bring any proposals regarding Dignity Health to the June Health Services Committee or July Regents?
No.
What kind of an affiliation were you planning with Dignity Health?
The plan was still under discussion and had not been finalized. What was envisioned was creating a stronger link between UCSF Health and four Dignity Health hospitals – Saint Francis Memorial Hospital and St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco, Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City and Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz. We were not considering a merger or any arrangement in which Dignity Health would have had a role at UCSF’s facilities.
You have stated that not proceeding with this affiliation would jeopardize UCSF’s ability to care for an increasing number of patients who need its services. What will you do now to ensure you can take care of the patients who need your care?
The critical patient needs that drove our discussions still very much exist. Going forward, we will work to find a new path forward to help meet the serious patient needs that exist today and will exist in the future. We will explore solutions that take into account the concerns we heard.
Why didn’t you consult your own faculty before planning this?
We did. A proposed affiliation with Dignity Health was expressly endorsed by the UCSF Academic Senate, which officially represents all UCSF faculty, and the chairs of our clinical departments. Over the past three years, we have engaged more than 100 faculty members. Our faculty leaders had a clear voice in crafting strong guidelines for any affiliation, including specifically with Dignity Health.