UCSF is currently recruiting pediatricians to act as preceptors for UCSF second year medical students, and hope you will consider serving in this critically important teaching role. As part of the "Foundations of Patient Care" course, students have four sessions this fall during which they are introduced to clinical Pediatrics. These are the only opportunities many students have to gain experience with children in the clinical setting prior to starting clerkships.   

Physician preceptors will be asked to precept four half-day sessions, on either Tuesday/Thursday afternoons or Wednesday mornings. The dates are:

• Tuesday afternoons (Dates: 10/9, 10/23, 11/6, 11/27)
• Wednesday mornings (Dates: 10/10, 10/24, 11/7, 11/28) - San Francisco based offices only
• Thursday afternoons (Dates: 10/11, 10/25, 11/8, 11/29)

Help make a lasting impression on a medical student with minimal time commitment! To learn more about the preceptorship program or to become a preceptor, please contact Patricia Ramirez in the Clinical Learning Unit at ramirezp@medsch.ucsf.edu or call (415) 476-5169.

Dignity Health, UCSF Medical Center

Dignity Health and UCSF Medical Center have signed a memorandum of understanding to integrate operations at their San Francisco hospitals.

The plan would integrate operations at UCSF’s Parnassus, Mount Zion, and Mission Bay campuses with Dignity’s Saint Francis Memorial and St. Mary’s hospitals.

UCSF and Dignity officials did not unveil further details of the integration plan but said it would not involve a merger or an acquisition.

UCSF and Dignity have worked on past projects, and officials said the goal of the new integrated system would be to lower costs and boost the quality of care. 

California Pacific Medical Center

California Pacific Medical Center announced that it had dismissed 120 consultants on a $2.5 billion construction project previously expected to begin in October.

Sam Singer, a CPMC spokesperson, said the hospital dismissed architects, engineers and planners—who collectively were costing about $3 million per month—until the project's future is more certain.

To meet state seismic building requirements, CPMC has proposed rebuilding St. Luke’s Hospital in the Mission District and constructing a new 555-bed hospital on Cathedral Hill. However, ongoing negotiations between CPMC and San Francisco officials have delayed the construction project.

Source: California Healthline, August 10, 2012.