Q&A: UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay

Why is a new hospital complex needed?

UCSF’s current facilities are at capacity and unable to meet growing demand, so adding a new medical center will allow UCSF to see more patients in need of the specialized treatments and care we offer. Building these new hospitals creates a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to grow our programs for children, women and cancer patients at Mission Bay, while simultaneously allowing for expansion of critical programs at all UCSF facilities.

The new hospital complex will also address the need for improved facilities, and make way for updates at our other campuses, including the retrofits required to meet state-mandated earthquake safety standards. Additionally, the new medical center will be located directly adjacent to our Mission Bay research campus, which will help to advance the important work UCSF is known for: rapidly translating research findings into patient therapies and cures.

Will the new UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay be a green building?

Yes. Design, construction, operations and purchasing strategies for the new hospital complex will uniquely integrate the best green practices available, including features of the Green Guide for Healthcare, the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards; and discoveries from evidence-based design – a body of knowledge that demonstrates the built environment positively affects healing, health, safety and well-being. The medical center is targeting LEED Gold certification.

Applications of sustainable design will range from the individual patient to global levels. For example:

• Patient rooms will include materials that have undergone unprecedented assessment to eliminate most known toxic elements.
• Patient care units will be configured to allow daylight and views into most working stations, and will be among the best in comparison to typical modern U.S. hospitals.
• Extensive green roofs and gardens across the hospital complex will be among the most of any urban U.S. hospital.

Who is designing the new hospital complex?

Under the leadership of UCSF Medical Center CEO Mark Laret, hundreds of representatives from across UCSF are helping to guide the design efforts, working across departments and functions to create a state-of-the-art medical center that functions efficiently and offers the very best patient care. Additionally, frequent meetings with the community have been held to provide feedback and input into the design process.

Stantec Architecture (formerly Anshen + Allen) in association with William McDonough + Partners was selected by UCSF for the architectural design of UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay. Stantec's San Francisco office, is an award-winning firm specializing in health care, research and academic facilities. William McDonough + Partners is a leader in design for sustainability and eco-effective design. The team also includes Rutherford & Chekene and ARUP engineers.

Why is hospital construction so expensive?

The design of UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay is setting benchmarks for building efficiency and is competitive with other academic hospitals’ cost, when adjusted for market escalation.

Hospitals are highly technical buildings that require complex and adaptable infrastructures to accommodate ever-evolving, state-of-the-art equipment and emerging technologies. They must support a spectrum of clinical demands from medical gases and filtered air to infection control and radiation safety. Hospitals are heavily used buildings, operating 24 hours, seven days a week under high performance and emergency operations standards. California seismic regulations for hospitals are unique and expensive. California hospitals must be built to be about 50 percent stronger than office buildings – from the foundations and steel structures to extensive bracing of pipes and equipment. Meeting Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) standards requires qualified architects and engineers, detailed reviews by OSHPD and extensive inspections during construction – all adding complexity, time and cost.

Additionally, because so many California hospitals are under the same seismic deadlines, demand is outstripping supply for qualified general contractors and subcontractors – particularly mechanical, electrical and plumbing. Between 2002 and 2008, escalation on hospital construction in California rose over 100 percent, pushing the cost for construction to the $850 to $1,100 per square foot range. Fortunately, the current market downturn is slowly impacting the hospital construction sector, allowing UCSF to reduce its escalation projections and take advantage of depressed prices, wherever possible. Variable projections for increases to select commodities partially offset the benefit of the recession.

Why is a new children's hospital needed at UCSF?

Each year, physicians throughout the Bay Area and beyond refer their young patients to UCSF for the expertise, medical leadership and compassion that define the institution as a regional resource with a national reputation. However, the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital currently located on several floors of an adult hospital on our Parnassus campus is consistently at full capacity, space-constrained, and in need of facility updates and improvements.

Moving the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital to the new complex at Mission Bay will give children and their families a state-of-the-art hospital designed just for them—a supportive, healing facility where health professionals can use the most sophisticated technology to diagnose, treat, and cure the diseases and disorders of childhood. Patient rooms and open spaces will be designed creatively with families in mind, treatment areas will feature appropriately sized tools and equipment for small patients. And at the Mission Bay research facilities located just next door to the hospital, UCSF scientists will continue their work to understand and cure the diseases that prevent children from growing into healthy adults.

Why is there a need for a women's hospital?

UCSF was one of the first institutions in the country to be designated as a Center of Excellence in Women’s Health by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and is recognized as a pioneering leader in the field. As such, the treatments we provide to serve the unique needs of women are in very high demand. The new UCSF Women’s Specialty Hospital at Mission Bay will allow us to offer more of those groundbreaking treatments to more patients, and it will further UCSF’s work in defining the next generation of women’s health care. Patients from teens to the elderly will receive integrated, coordinated care, in a warm, healing and women-centered environment. And as part of the fully integrated hospital complex, women will have access to multidisciplinary teams offering leading-edge, patient-centered treatments for conditions ranging from infertility to complex obstetrical disorders to pelvic pain to gynecological and breast cancers.

Why is a new cancer hospital needed at UCSF?

UCSF has been a leader in cancer research and clinical care for decades, and was designated a National Institutes of Health Comprehensive Cancer Center in 1996. Building a new Cancer Hospital at Mission Bay will enable UCSF to not only maintain its position as a world leader but to also propel UCSF to a new level of excellence in cancer treatment and patient care. Locating a cancer hospital adjacent to the new cancer research laboratories at Mission Bay will provide synergistic opportunities for the discovery and development of new treatments. Cancer specialists at the hospital will also be able to serve the unique needs of cancer patients from the children’s and women’s hospitals.