Jian Zhang, School of Nursing alumna and chief executive officer of Chinese Hospital (left), and Suresh Gunasekaran, president and chief executive officer of UCSF Health, tour an ICU in Chinese Hospital.
Chinese Hospital and UCSF Health have signed a collaboration agreement to enhance the quality of health care in the San Francisco community. The agreement builds upon a three-year-long partnership that successfully developed a primary stroke center, which was certified by The Joint Commission in May 2022. Together, they also provided palliative care and COVID-19 care to the community.
The new agreement aims to expand on the existing collaboration by combining the strengths and resources of both organizations. Specifically, it focuses on providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services in Chinese, such as the new stroke center at Chinese Hospital. By collaborating on programs and services for the community, including skilled nursing/subacute care, pulmonology care, cardiology, oncology, and other specialties, Chinese Hospital and UCSF Health hope to address health disparities and improve health care quality and access in the community.
The agreement is driven by a shared vision to create comprehensive and sustainable health care that is responsive to the community’s ethnic and cultural uniqueness, now and for the future. It also seeks to develop new programs that increase the availability of physician and administrative services to achieve measurable improvements in patient, family, and community health.
Dr. Jian Zhang, School of Nursing alumna and volunteer clinical faculty member, is the chief executive officer of Chinese Hospital. She emphasized the significance of the collaboration with UCSF Health, as both hospitals are the only two hospitals in San Francisco to be awarded the 4-star distinction by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
“By combining the strengths of the two organizations, we can provide better care and more access for our community,” said Dr. Zhang. “As the only remaining independent hospital in San Francisco, we can work closely with UCSF Health to provide comprehensive and high quality care that meets the equity challenges of today. With our recent remodel and increase in capacity, we are confident in delivering culturally appropriate and linguistically competent care for generations to come.”
Read the full story on the UCSF News website.