Mammoth new CPMC hospital transforms Van Ness corridor

Sutter Health’s $2.1 billion new California Pacific Medical Center Van Ness campus opens its doors to patients on Saturday just seven months after its Mission Bernal campus opened.

The hospital will transfer patients from the Pacific campus early Saturday morning and patients from the California campus on Sunday morning into the new state-of-art hospital.

City and hospital officials cut the ribbon of the Van Ness campus on Friday that features a total 274 patient beds, a new pediatric floor, 64 patient beds for expecting mothers and 38 exam rooms in the 24-hour emergency department, and five living roof gardens, including an outdoor terrace.

The emergency department has two separate areas for children and adults.

All of the patient rooms are private and feature sweeping views of The City inside the nearly 1 million square-foot hospital.

Across the street is the new medical building that will open sometime in the spring. The medical center connects to the new Van Ness campus through an underground tunnel. Parking is also located underground.

In a lighthearted moment, Mayor London Breed even joked to former Mayor Willie Brown that he’s moving out of his place at the St. Regis and moving into the new Van Ness campus as the new campus from outside looks like a brand-new hotel.

In fact, previously on the site of the new hospital was the Jack Tar Hotel, renamed in its later years as the Cathedral Hill Hotel.

On a serious note, Breed touted one of the hospital’s most important feature which is using a new technology that will help the hospital withstand a major earthquake:

“When the next major earthquake hits, this hospital can provide critical care for the people of San Francisco for at least four days. That’s pretty amazing.”

Hospital officials said the new campus is using viscous wall damper technology from Japan that will help absorb most of the earthquake’s energy to reduce the amount of movement of the building.

State Sen. Scott Wiener said he had recalled the controversy surrounding the plans to build the hospital on Van Ness Avenue when he was running for San Francisco supervisor in District 6:

“I remember thinking at the time, boy this hospital better be good.”

Now finally built, Wiener, who took a tour of the new campus a few weeks ago, said:

“This has far exceeded anything I could have hoped for.”

CPMC’s CEO Warren Browner, who had negotiated with former Mayor Ed Lee on the deal to build the new campus on Van Ness back in 2012, said:

“This has been one of those days we have been waiting for forever. It’s hard to believe it’s actually here and about to be over.”

On hand for the ribbon cutting ceremony was San Francisco Lowell High School physics teacher Richard Shapiro who had a liver transplant two years ago said he was introduced two nuns who knew about this liver transplant.

He allowed the nuns to touch where he had his liver transplant and Shapiro said the nuns kept repeating “It’s a miracle.”

Shapiro said:

“I’m not going to forget that because ladies and gentlemen, it is a miracle. A miracle I am going to be forever grateful and I expect a great many more miracles are going to be occurring here in this new facility.”

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.