UCSF Medical Center Officially Designates Part of Facility a Children’s Hospital

University of California-San Francisco Medical Center officials yesterday designated part of the facility as the UCSF Children's Hospital, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The move comes one month after Gov. Gray Davis (D) signed a bill allowing UCSF and four other university system hospitals to "officially call themselves children's hospitals." The designations bring to 13 the number of facilities dedicated to children. UCSF opened one of the nation's first pediatric departments in 1913 and has 138 beds reserved for pediatric patients, who constitute about one-third of the hospital's patients. The official children's hospital designation should assist the center's funding efforts and help the hospital attract "top" pediatric specialists, the Chronicle reports. "I really believe donor activity for UCSF has been limited because people have not seen us as being a visible children's hospital. I think if more people knew about us and knew what we did here, then they would be very interested in supporting us," Roxanne Fernandes, director of patient care services, said (Estrella, San Francisco Chronicle, 11/9).