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DPH reports falling vacancy rates, new recruitment events; unions urge city to unfreeze physician slots
Summary
DPH presented an update showing reduced vacancy and turnover rates, improvements in nurse hiring, and active recruitment for behavioral health clinicians. Union stewards and commissioners urged the mayor's office to unfreeze physician positions that remain paused after the city hiring freeze, citing the cyclical nature of medical training.
Louanna Kim, Chief Human Resources Officer for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, briefed the Health Commission on May 5 on a multi-quarter human resources update showing lower vacancy rates and improved retention.
Kim said DPH has centralized onboarding, standardized equity and compliance training, expanded professional development, and strengthened labor-management committees. She reported reductions in overall vacancy and turnover and said nurse vacancies are now below 5% (down from 14% in 2021) while behavioral health clinician vacancies have fallen to about 10%.
Kim outlined key metrics: average time from request-to-fill to start date for hires in the current fiscal year was about 87 days (median 77 days) based on a 401-position sample. DPH has increased hiring throughput, at times exceeding 80 hires per pay period, and reported improved onboarding conversion rates for nurses to over 90%.
Recruitment events and pipelines Staff described an interview-style recruitment event for behavioral health clinicians that invited prequalified candidates to information sessions and consolidated interviews; DPH reported substantive yields from those events, with dozens of candidates offered or nearing start dates. DPH also said it has expanded outreach beyond the Bay Area, joined HBCU Connect and is engaging with social work and counseling programs in other regions.
Physician vacancies and hiring-freeze concerns Union speakers raised concerns about physician and medical-director vacancies. Roger Wu, senior steward for UAPD (Doctors' Union), and Pierre King, UAPD business representative, asked the commission and mayor's office to unfreeze several physician positions and to issue committed offers where candidates are at risk of taking other jobs. Kim said about eight physician positions were approved in the two weeks before the meeting and that senior physician positions were approved the prior week; she committed to reporting back with specific approval dates and status for remaining physician classifications.
Why it matters DPH emphasized recruitment and retention as central to restoring service capacity across clinics and hospitals. Commissioners noted that physician positions are sensitive to training cycles and urged faster approvals to avoid losing newly graduated candidates.
Speakers quoted and cited - Louanna Kim, Chief Human Resources Officer, San Francisco Department of Public Health - Roger Wu, Senior Steward, UAPD (Doctors' Union) (public comment) - Pierre King, Business Representative, UAPD (public comment)
Ending Commissioners asked staff to return with additional detail on physician recruiting and the status of specific positions at the next regular update; DPH said it will provide a deeper dive on recruitment pipelines and hiring approvals.
