On February 1st, also known as Super Bowl Sunday, UCSF Medical Center opened its new Mission Bay campus for inpatients. The 878K-square-foot facility includes outpatient clinics as well as three hospitals: UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco, with 183 beds serving all pediatric specialties; UCSF Bakar Cancer Hospital, with 70 beds serving adult patients with orthopedic, urologic, gynecologic, head and neck, and gastrointestinal and colorectal cancers; and UCSF Betty Irene Moore Women’s Hospital, with 36 beds serving women of reproductive age to menopause and beyond.
Spiritual Care Services was there on that first day to greet the patients moving over from the Parnassus Heights and Mount Zion campuses, as well as their families and visitors, and chaplains will maintain a strong presence at both Parnassus and Mission Bay campuses to provide emotional and spiritual support wherever and whenever needed. An on-call chaplain is available 24/7 at Mission Bay by paging 415-443-5786 [LiSTeN], just as an on-call chaplain continues to be available 24/7 at Parnassus by paging 443-2273 [CARE].
One great feature of the new Mission Bay building is that it has five Meditation Rooms available to patients, family members, visitors, and staff members for meditation, prayer, or silence. The main Meditation Room is on the first floor near the Children’s Hospital lobby entrance, and it includes an adjacent garden with a walking labyrinth for outdoor contemplation and prayer (seen in this photo taken by Chris Diamond Santiago on Move Day):
Four smaller Meditation Rooms are located in the adult hospitals near the family lounges on the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth floors.
We are also fortunate to be able to provide Roman Catholic sacramental ministry for patients and their loved ones upon request. Pictured below are Fr. Raphael Lazier, Ms. Kate Perdigon (administrative analyst for the Mission Bay campus), Chaplain Pearl Jue (one of our year-long student chaplains), and Fr. John Paul Otanwa.
The first week has been extremely hectic and rewarding, and we look forward to many years of fruitful service at Mission Bay as well as Parnassus!
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