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Mayor submits $887.4 million bond proposal for San Francisco General Hospital rebuild
Summary
Mayor announced a proposed $887,400,000 bond measure to replace San Francisco General Hospital, describing a planned 284-bed, nine-story facility and saying the city has completed predevelopment work and will begin construction next year if voters approve the measure.
Mayor and hospital leaders on Wednesday formally submitted to the Board of Supervisors a proposed $887,400,000 bond measure to rebuild San Francisco General Hospital.
The mayor told the Board the request represents a preplanned, fiscally scoped effort: the city has invested more than $25 million in predevelopment work, proposes to invest an additional $5 million in completing predevelopment, and—if voters approve the bond measure by a two-thirds vote—would begin construction next year. The mayor said the proposed replacement would have 284 beds in a nine-story facility (seven stories aboveground, two below) with two underground levels and will be connected to the existing campus. He said the measure is structured so that property tax rates would not increase beyond what property owners pay today.
Jean O’Connell, chief executive officer at San Francisco General Hospital, called the hospital “the lifeblood” of the city’s health-care delivery system and emphasized the hospital’s role as the region’s only Level I trauma center. Union and labor leaders, including SEIU 1021 President Demita Davis Howard, voiced support for the proposal. Trauma surgeons and medical staff argued the current facility has reached the end of its useful life and that a modernized hospital is necessary to maintain trauma, emergency and specialty services for the city and region.
Dr. Andre Campbell, a trauma surgeon, and Dr. Jeff Critchfield, chief of the medical staff, described the hospital’s role in trauma care and in treating complex and chronic conditions. Mayor and hospital leaders stressed partnerships with UCSF and other institutions and said the bond would anchor health-care infrastructure within the city for decades.
No Board vote on the bond measure took place at the hearing; the mayor submitted the measure for Board consideration. The mayor said the city expects broad board sponsorship and pledged to organize a citywide campaign; he and hospital officials warned the measure requires a two-thirds vote of city voters to pass.
