Adecade ago, 131 patients became the first to set foot in the new $1.5 billion, state-of-the-art UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay. Welcomed by balloons, party horns and smiling UCSF Health staff and clinicians, the arrival of both adults and children at the hospitals’ opening marked a new chapter for UCSF, the city and the tens of thousands of patients who have followed in their footsteps.
When it opened in early 2015, the complex represented San Francisco’s first new hospitals in 30 years. Mission Bay’s crumbling railyards and large dirt lots had given way to four new medical facilities: UCSF Betty Irene Moore Women’s Hospital, UCSF Bakar Cancer Hospital, the UCSF Ron Conway Family Gateway Medical Building and the city’s first standalone children’s hospital – UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco.
It was a dream that was more than a decade in the making.
“When we opened our doors in February 2015, our vision was clear: to create a healing environment that puts patients first, brings world-class expertise closer to those who need it and ensures that everyone, regardless of background, has access to the highest quality care,” said Suresh Gunasekaran, UCSF Health president and chief executive officer.
UCSF broke ground in 1999 for its new campus at Mission Bay, which stood for years as an abandoned railyard.
Compassionate care, cutting-edge treatment
Patient-centered care and innovation was baked into the design. New parents could welcome their babies into the world at the women’s hospital, assured that any special care for infants was just a corridor away at the connected children’s hospital. The pediatric emergency department and helipad provided ready access to children throughout Northern California who needed immediate, child-centered specialty care. The adjacent cancer hospital offered access to the latest clinical trials and treatments. And the complex’s four-plus acres of terrace and rooftop gardens provided families the space to pause and heal in nature.