More than 200 people — including San Francisco Mayor London Breed, speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi, and State Senator Scott Weiner — met at Parnassus Heights on Saturday to celebrate the beginning of construction on UCSF Health’s new “Helen Diller Hospital”.
UCSF Health president and CEO Suresh Gunasekaran called it “one of the most advanced hospitals being built in the country.” At 880,000 square feet, it’s expected to cost about four-and-a-half-billion dollars, and won’t be done until 2030.
Among its many technological and design features: operating suites with MRI’s, scanners, and other imaging equipment, larger patient rooms, green space, and the incorporation of robotics into its various facilities.
The hospital will add 22 new operating rooms, more than 200 beds, and 31 new emergency care beds, greatly increasing UCSF Health’s overall care capacity.
With more than 24,000 employees, UCSF is San Francisco’s second-largest employer, and one of the city’s driving economic forces.
The project will only heighten this position: in addition to spending associated with construction, the university has committed $20 million to transit improvements around the area, including $11 million to SFMTA to augment the N-Judah Line. They’ve also committed to build more than 1200 housing units, and to plant more than 60 trees, creating a greenbelt that will lead from Golden Gate Park to Mt. Sutro.
