Getting Care at Affiliated Organizations

At UCSF Health, we want you to be fully informed about your health care options.

We have affiliations with other health care organizations in order to help patients in many communities access high-quality care. However, some of these organizations have policies that are different from those of UCSF Health. For example, some restrict certain diagnostic or treatment services, such as elective abortions and end-of-life care.

UCSF Health is committed to delivering comprehensive medical care that meets patients' needs and promotes health equity. Accordingly, our agreements with these organizations make it clear that UCSF Health staff members, faculty and trainees working at one of these facilities will have the ability and right to:

• Make clinical decisions consistent with the standard of care and their independent professional judgment, respecting each individual patient's needs and wishes.
• Inform patients of all their health care options, prescribe any interventions that are medically necessary and appropriate, and transfer or refer patients to other facilities when they determine it is in the patient's interest.
• Provide any item or service they deem necessary and appropriate in the event of an emergency.

If a UCSF Health care provider refers you to an organization with service-restricting policies, you'll be informed about the restrictions as well as alternatives for care at UCSF Health and elsewhere.

For more information, see the full text of the UC Regents' Policy on Affiliations With Healthcare Organizations That Have Adopted Policy-Based Restrictions on Care and UC Interim Policy on Affiliations with Certain Healthcare Organizations.