CPMC yields on S.F. subacute care

Rattled by accusations that it was putting financial concerns ahead of the sick and dying, Sutter Health’s California Pacific Medical Center announced Monday that it will continue caring for the 28 patients in its subacute unit at St. Luke’s Hospital in the Mission when it closes that facility.

Sutter had planned to close the unit next month as it prepares to replace St. Luke’s with its Mission Bernal Campus, one of two new hospitals the nonprofit will open in San Francisco. Mission Bernal will open next year, followed by the main campus at Van Ness Avenue and Geary Blvd. in 2019.

Sutter signed an agreement with the city in 2013 to build the new hospitals and demolish St. Luke’s. That agreement didn’t require the health network to maintain any subacute beds for longterm and acutely ill patients, and it had planned to place those patients in other facilities outside the city.

But the network reversed its stance following a confrontational hearing by four supervisors in July. The four — Ahsha Safai, Jeff Sheehy, Hillary Ronen and Sandra Lee Fewer — are all new to the board and were rankled by what they saw as a huge hole in the development deal signed by their predecessors.

The board members were joined by dozens of doctors, nurses, union workers and family members of terminally ill patients who chastised Sutter for attempting to close the city’s only subacute nursing unit.

CPMC CEO Dr. Warren Browner said the network will now work to house St. Luke’s subacute patients at one of the other three campuses — Mission Bernal, Van Ness or, most likely, Davies at Castro Street and Duboce Avenue.

“After several meetings with our patients and their families, and after consulting with city leaders, we have decided to provide continued care to these patients within the CPMC organization — here in San Francisco,” Browner said in a statement. “We hope that this solution will give families peace of mind, knowing that their loved ones will continue to receive the highest quality care here in the city, where they can easily visit and support them.”