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City officials and health leaders say hiring times at SFGH have dropped after process overhaul
Summary
Supervisors and Department of Public Health officials reported progress cutting time-to-hire for nurses and other classifications at San Francisco General Hospital after a joint DPH/DHR process redesign, but nurses and staff urged continued focus on ancillary roles, retention and registry use ahead of the new hospital opening.
Supervisor John Avalos opened a Budget and Finance Committee hearing on May 13 by asking the Department of Public Health to report on staffing levels at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) and progress since a prior hearing about long hiring timelines.
Barbara Garcia, Director of the Department of Public Health, told the committee that DPH and its human resources team had prioritized Affordable Care Act readiness and a major hiring push tied to the new SFGH. Garcia said the department had increased recruitment and worked with unions and DHR to speed hiring while trying to preserve merit-based civil service safeguards.
Ted Yamasaki of the Department of Human Resources said that a cross-agency, data-driven review had found that hiring a registered nurse previously took about 190 to 200 days. He described a new expedited process called the PCCP that uses continuous applicant intake, on-demand online assessments, pre-submitted vetting documents and concurrent steps to cut delays. Yamasaki said the PCCP aims to reduce typical time-to-hire to around 40 days.
Ron Weigel, DPH's human resources director, described operational results: the department has filled many positions in recent months, doubled HR staffing to support the work and reduced use of temporary registry workers. Weigel said some short-term registry use would be unavoidable during the move into the new hospital to backfill while permanent staff train in the new facility.
Nurses and union representatives who spoke during public comment generally welcomed the reforms but warned that improvements for registered nurses must be matched by hiring of other classifications. Norlisa Cooper, a registered nurse at SFGH, asked specifically where CNAs, unit clerks and kitchen staff fit into hiring plans, saying "we must provide and have a diverse workforce" to deliver culturally competent care.
Several front-line staff described continuing operational strains: Mandana Ciadad, a radiology charge tech, said years of registry reliance and broken equipment make it hard to retain technicians; Jason Negron, an ED nurse who participated in the staffing-model lean process, said the new emergency department will need roughly a 25% staffing increase to operate safely and warned that closures could return without commitments to hire the necessary additional positions.
Supervisor Avalos asked DPH and DHR to provide more granular vacancy counts and follow up on miscellaneous classifications. The committee filed the item with a motion taken without objection, and members asked DPH to return with monitoring data as hiring continues toward the new hospital opening.
Next steps: DPH agreed to provide follow-up vacancy counts, additional detail on miscellaneous classifications and updates on registry reduction as the department implements PCCP and prepares for the hospital transition.
