San Francisco General Hospital Foundation (the Foundation) will receive an historic grant of $75 million from Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan’s donor advised fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation for San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (The General), the City’s largest safety net provider and only trauma center.
This grant is the largest single gift the Foundation has received since it was established in 1994, and is believed to be the largest single private gift from individuals to a public hospital in the United States.
This grant is the vital piece necessary to complete The General’s new acute care and trauma center. This grant will fund critical state-of-the-art equipment and technology for the new building and will help convert the existing hospital building into an ambulatory care facility. The new acute care and trauma center will open in December 2015. The grant builds on the earlier investment made by San Franciscans in 2008 when voters overwhelmingly approved an $887.4 million bond to begin the process of building a new facility.
Additionally, the grant will enable the Foundation to provide ongoing support to The General and to the more than 100,000 patients it serves each year. It will also support the Foundation’s efforts to increase awareness for the key role The General plays in public health throughout the community.
“As someone who has seen firsthand the quality of emergency care at San Francisco General, I can say that I am personally grateful for this $75 million grant from Mark and Priscilla – the largest gift to our City’s hospital ever,” said San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee. “This grant illustrates my call for 21st Century philanthropy and is a game changer for the rebuild of San Francisco General, leveraging more investment for state of the art technology to treat some of the most critically injured patients and deliver innovative high quality, compassionate patient care. San Francisco’s residents and visitors will benefit from this grant for generations because thousands of first responders and health care providers will have the 21st Century hospital they need to save lives around the clock. I know this gift will inspire others to support our General.”
“Through my training at The General, I know firsthand the vital health care and trauma services this hospital provides to anyone who lives, works or travels through San Francisco,” said Dr. Priscilla Chan. “Day in and day out, I witness the compassion and dedication of my colleagues as they work tirelessly to deliver the best available care to all of our patients. Mark and I are proud to support such an important public hospital.”
“Priscilla and I believe that everyone deserves access to high quality health care. The General serves anyone who lives, works in or visits San Francisco. We can think of no better place to focus our philanthropy in San Francisco than The General,” said Mark Zuckerberg. “The Bay Area is our home, we work here, we live here, and we want to invest in efforts that can make a difference in people’s lives here.”
“We are profoundly grateful to Mark and Priscilla for their support and investment in The General and its future. We know that private philanthropy is increasingly important for public hospitals and public health and expect Mark and Priscilla’s leadership to inspire additional private support from the San Francisco community,” said Amanda Heier, CEO of the Foundation. “We look forward to continuing to work with them to support our hospital and community for generations to come.”
“As the only trauma center in the City, The General saves lives every day, no matter who you are. The generous grant from Mark and Priscilla will help transform The General into a state-of-the-art hospital and trauma center and enable us to better serve our patients,” said Sue Currin, RN, MSN, CEO at The General. “Located in the Mission, The General also serves as a community hospital and a safety net to more than 100,000 patients annually. We provide high quality care with compassion and respect to all regardless of their ability to pay.”
“I know personally that San Francisco General Hospital saves lives every day. It’s one of our most important institutions that serves San Franciscans of every community, regardless of income. I’m enormously grateful to Mark and Priscilla for this historic contribution to our community and I look forward to shepherding acceptance of this unprecedented gift to a public hospital through the Board of Supervisors.” London Breed, President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
“We are profoundly grateful to Priscilla and Mark for this investment in the City’s health care system,” said David Sanchez, San Francisco Health Commissioner and member of the SFGH Foundation board. “As a trauma center, The General provides life-saving care to everyone in need, and as a community hospital it serves generations of families in the Mission, Bayview, Chinatown, and across the city.”
The new hospital will include two additional trauma rooms and three more operating rooms. The new Emergency Department will double in size from the existing one and has the capacity to more than quadruple the number of beds in the event of a major emergency. Other enhancements for patients include 90 percent private patient rooms, 28 more intensive care beds, two additional palliative care rooms, four pediatric exam rooms and one dedicated pediatric waiting room in the Emergency Department. The General will be the only hospital in the City with a base-isolated foundation, the most advanced seismic resistant design known today. It will be a “green” building for reduced water and energy use, and is seeking LEED Gold Certification. In recognition of this transformative gift, the City has begun the process of adding their names to the hospital which will be named Priscilla and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.
The General has served the City and County of San Francisco and northern San Mateo County for 140 years, from the Gold Rush to the 1906 earthquake to the HIV/AIDS epidemic to the 2013 Asiana Airlines crash at San Francisco International Airport. As the City’s public hospital, The General is a member of the San Francisco Health Network, an integrated delivery system operated by the Department of Public Health that provides all levels of care to San Franciscans.
Today, The General remains at the forefront of health care. It became the first hospital in the country to be certified for a Traumatic Brain Injury program in 2011 and is the only Baby-Friendly certified hospital in San Francisco. The General houses nationally recognized Centers of Excellence, including those in neurotrauma, stroke and orthopaedics and it provides groundbreaking programs that improve access and quality of care to the most vulnerable populations. In partnership with University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, The General provides valuable training for future leaders in health care. With the new hospital opening in December 2015, The General’s capabilities will continue to grow, serving diverse patients with some of the City’s most complex and chronic problems.
Source: PR Newswire
