CPMC Hopes to Move Acute Care to One Facility

In what could become a "politically explosive" issue, the California Pacific Medical Center wants to turn one of its two San Francisco campuses into a $400 million acute care hospital and "downgrade" the other to a skilled nursing facility, the San Francisco Business Times reports. The CPMC board of directors will meet March 22 to discuss the location of the new acute care hospital, but San Francisco officials must approve the proposal. Already, some officials have expressed concern about the loss of an acute care facility in one area of the city. Supervisor Mark Leno said, "No neighborhood wants to lose service and care, no mother wants their child to lose access that they have become accustomed to." In addition to neighborhood concerns, the state-mandated seismic upgrades could influence the decision. Only the acute care facility would be subject to the "strict" regulations (Doherty, San Francisco Business Times, 3/13).