San Francisco supervisors press hospitals as CPMC moves remaining St. Luke—s subacute patients to Davies

The Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee heard testimony on the planned winding down of St. Luke—s hospital—s subacute admissions and the city—s efforts to retain local subacute capacity. Department of Public Health policy analyst Sneha Patel told supervisors the city faces a demographic shift and a shrinking post-acute bed supply: seniors 65 and older are projected to rise from 14 to 21 percent of the population by 2030, about 9 percent of hospital discharges go to skilled nursing facilities and less than 0.5 percent go to subacute beds. "Some patients who cannot be safely discharged home do rely on skilled nursing facilities," Patel said, framing the department—s push to identify unused hospital space and free-standing facility options.

Director of Public Health Barbara Garcia said DPH is pursuing short-term options with St. Mary—s Medical Center and Chinese Hospital, and will pursue zoning and incentive work with city agencies to preserve or create beds. Garcia also agreed to try to provide discharge data showing how many San Francisco residents have been sent out of county for…