San Francisco General Hospital is the Heart of San Francisco. We save lives. We are a Level 1 Trauma Center and the City's safety net, serving anyone in need. Nestled at the foot of Potrero Hill in the city's Mission District, the public hospital has been an essential part of San Francisco 's health care system since 1872. Considered one of the finest public hospitals in the US, the General, as many refer to it, offers humanistic, cost-effective and culturally competent care to an international community of patients regardless of their ability to pay. This history has had a strong impact on the hospital's culture and creed.
Mission: To provide quality healthcare and trauma services with compassion and respect.
Vision: Rebuild San Francisco General
Hospital and Trauma Center so we can continue to provide healthcare and
trauma services for people in need.
Values
- Patient and staff safety
- Quality healthcare
- Disease prevention
- Staff retention and recruitment
- Culturally responsive care
- Efficient resource management
- Academic excellence in training and research
- Promote patient safety
- Enhance clinical care
- Promote staff retention & recruitment
- Maintain hospital infrastructure
- Comply with all regulatory standards & attain specialty certifications
- Maintain services during hospital rebuild
Facts
San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (SFGH) is a
general acute care hospital providing a complete variety of health
services, including inpatient, outpatient, trauma, emergency, skilled
nursing, diagnostic, mental health, and rehabilitation services for
adults and children.
Patients
SFGH serves a diverse patient population. Staff at SFGH
provide services in more than 20 languages. Patients at SFGH are
ethnically and racially diverse: 18% are African American, 21% are
Asian/Pacific Islander, 24% are Caucasian, and 31% are Hispanic. SFGH
serves about the same number of men as women (51% men, 49% women). About
57% of patients are under the age of 45, about 34% are between 45 and
64 years old.
County Hospital
SFGH is owned by the City and County of San Francisco and
operated by the Department of Public Health's Community Health Network,
which is responsible for the administration of SFGH.
Historical Partnership
The University of California, San Francisco has been the
City's partner for providing patient care since 1873. All of the
physicians at SFGH are UCSF faculty, committed to providing high quality
care to the people of San Francisco. Today, some 1,600 UCSF physicians,
specialty nurses, health care professionals and other professionals
work side-by-side with 2,600 City employees at SFGH.
Trauma
SFGH operates the City's only trauma center, treating over
3,900 severely injured patients annually. The trauma center is
designated as "Level 1", the highest level available. This designation
means that SFGH must provide comprehensive care to the most severely
injured patient 24 hours a day/7 days a week. It necessitates a wide
range of resources, including in-house trauma surgeons specializing in
orthopedic-, general-, and neurosurgery, anesthesiologists, other
promptly available specialists, and a highly-specialized nursing staff.
Emergency
SFGH operates a full-service emergency department, treating
patients for emergencies such as heart attacks, asthma, cuts, sprains,
allergic reactions, and gastrointestinal bleeding. The emergency
department at SFGH is the first responder for trauma patients and is the
only center in San Francisco for sexual assault evaluation, paramedic
medical direction, care of patients in custody, and extensive social
service and interpreter services. The Emergency Department saw 53,000
patients last year, and had approximately 18,000 ambulance arrivals.
Psychiatric Care and Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES)
PES at SFGH provides 24-hour, 7-day a week emergency
assessment, stabilization and disposition for acutely ill adult
psychiatric patients who are San Francisco residents. PES is the only
designated evaluation facility for adult patients placed on psychiatric
holds, known in public-safety parlance as "5150". PES provides emergency
assessment and hospital placement for San Francisco patients placed in
sub-acute facilities that are experiencing an acute exacerbation. SFGH
is the largest acute inpatient and rehabilitation hospital for
psychiatric patients in San Francisco. Over 7,200 Psychiatric Emergency
encounters in FY2009-2010 with 21% were admitted.
Inpatient Hospital
SFGH, its physicians and staff treated an average of 275
acute medical, surgical and psychiatric patients per day in FY
2009-2010. That year,15,934 patients were admitted, 1,222 babies were
born, and 1,786 women, many of whom are high-risk, received pre-natal
care at SFGH. In addition to the acute beds, SFGH operates 30 medical
skilled nursing beds, 59 mental health skilled nursing beds and47 mental
health rehabilitation beds in FY2009-2010. These beds are occupied
almost 100% of the time.
Surgery
SFGH has ten operating rooms. One is always reserved for
trauma patients. 6,588 surgical procedures were performed; half 45% of
them were emergencies in FY 2009-2010.
Primary Care and Clinical Services
SFGH provides primary care that is comprehensive, continuous,
accessible, organized, coordinated and accountable. Outpatient clinics
at SFGH had 488,865 encounters last year, almost half of which were for
patients seeking to see their primary care doctor.
Research
The SFGH campus is home to more than 20 UCSF research
centers, affiliated institutes, and major laboratories. More than 160
UCSF principal investigators conduct research through programs based at
the hospital campus with an annual budget over $107 million. These
research activities support SFGH's patient care by enabling SFGH to
attract leading physician-scientists, who provide patient care as well
as pursuing their research activities.
Medical Education and Training
SFGH is staffed by one of the top medical programs in the
country - the UCSF School of Medicine, along with the UCSF Schools of
Nursing, Dentistry, and Pharmacy. On any given day, about one-third of
all UCSF residents and fellows - more than 200 physicians - are working
and training at SFGH. As an academic hospital, SFGH is on the cutting
edge of the latest medical advances. SFGH promotes academic excellence
through its wide range of services for a diverse patient population.
Partners for Patients
Patient care at SFGH is provided primarily by UCSF
physicians, specialty nurses, lab professionals, and health care
professionals who are employed by UCSF, and by nurses and health care
professionals employed by the City.
UCSF Doctors
The City pays UCSF for the patient care services provided by
UCSF doctors and health care professionals through an affiliation
agreement. UCSF doctors and health care professionals work together with
City nurses, administrators and health care workers to serve patients
at SFGH.
Workers
There are over 5,000 people working at the San Francisco
General Hospital Trauma Center. More than 3,000 are employees of the
City and over 2,000 are employed by UCSF.
Budget
Of SFGH's operating budget of $639 million, about 80 percent
comes from payments from Medi-Cal, Medicare, other insurance plans, and
directly from patients for care delivered by UCSF physicians and allied
health care professionals. Less than 20 percent of SFGH's budget comes
from the city's general fund.
Payer Mix
SFGH's inpatients payer mix includes those insured by
Medi-Cal (39%), Medicare (19%), commercial insurance and other sources
(9%). SFGH's outpatients payer mix includes those insured by Medi-Cal
(24%), Medicare (16%), commercial insurance and other sources (20%).
Uninsured
SFGH is the major health care provider for the estimated
150,000 people in San Francisco who are without health insurance
coverage. Although about 8% of patients served at SFGH are homeless, a
large number of these uninsured patients are working full time.
Location
SFGH has been continuously located in the Mission District
of San Francisco, since 1872 at 1001 Potrero Avenue, just west of
Potrero Hill and Highway 101, and north of Cesar Chavez Street.
The Campus
an Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center campus
occupies approximately 24 acres. The main hospital building is both an
acute and ambulatory care building, containing the outpatient clinics,
an emergency department, and inpatient beds. Other SFGH buildings are
occupied by outpatient clinics, research, and support services.
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