[reading names] >> good evening, commissioners. my name is denise. i'm a resident of the tenderloin. i have lived there for the past 23 years. at last's september's planning commission meeting, i stood here and voice my concerns about the cpmc project. as a community member, i did not believe that the cathedral hill hospital would benefit the tenderloin. since last september, i have seen changes made by cpmc. the community has many serious concerns that need to be addressed. we do not want to see this

project bill, cpmc will agree to serve the community -- project built unless the cpmc will agree to serve the community. they must provide charity care to our community. cpmc service provider it tomedi- cal patience is proportionately low compared to other san francisco hospitals. according to theimp in 2007 -- the imp in 2007, twice as many patients were seen from knob hill as opposed to the tenderloin. i am a low-income tenderloin patient with many severe health problems. i suffer from diabetes with multiple health conditions and also a e manyye probl -- also many i problems -- eye problems.

i do not want to see a project to build without community support. thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. thank you for allowing me to speak to you. [tone] [laughter] there we are. last year, i spoke to you and i did so against my dr.'s advice. i had just come out of the hospital. i am in great shape now. i care for the most vulnerable people in our city. i believe that the proposal to rebuild think luke's hospital is

appropriately sized. i listen. i am not a health care expert, but i am a lerarner. a technologically advanced hospital is the very best way to provide care today and in the future. i believe we have found that for st. luke's. it is my concern for my city that we have seismic beds. one is that they might fall down. five is services continue.

the building may stand, but the services may be disrupted. we need those. i think it is right. i speak as a community leader. i think it is right that people push against cpmc on charity care. it was the st. luke's doctors and nurses that led the push against cpmc originally. i believe that was correct. st. luke's provides a great deal of charity care. we need to keep it in the city for our people. st. luke's has improved and cpmc is improving charity care. thank you very much. president olague: maybe you heard your name. >> thank you, presidents, and members of the health and planning commission.

my name is kenneth. i'm the medical director of nebraska medical services. it is a non-profit organization. a lot of them do only have medi- cal. we have four clinics in san francisco. it is my pleasure to offer support for the rebuild. contrary to the testimony, which portray a very different picture of what i know of cpmc, cpmc has been a good neighbor to our community and our patients. we have received numerous donations and grants from cpmc to help us take care of patients who have never had access. we are the home to a quarter of

healthy san francisco patients in the city of san francisco. cpmc provide the emergency and in-patient care for our health feet san francisco patients -- healthy san francisco patient. a number of people who are only on medi-cal are delivered on an annual basis. close to 100 receive a free care at cpmc. cpmc has made efforts to hire more bilingual staff and translators so patients can go comfortable. they provide culturally sensitive selection for our patients. on behalf of the community, we support rebuilding cpmc. we ask that you will do the same without delay. thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. i am dean of our school of

public health at berkeley and had the pleasure of cochairing the blue ribbon commission with bishop anders. i am pleased to be in front of you again and speaking in support of the plan. it is the kind of integrated system of care that this city needs and that this country needs, particularly in this time, in the challenges we face. there has been considerable community input. i think what you have heard tonight is right on target. the citizens have spoken in terms of the need for charity care. hopefully, health reform holds up and we will have more citizens in this city have some health insurance coverage, and can get the care they need from st. luke's. i follow cpmc's response to the blue ribbon committee's recommendations. i am pleased to say that they

have largely been responsive. they are putting two and $50 million into the facility and they are going to do it with a -- $250 million into the facility and they're going to do it as part of an integrated system. i personally have worked with the president in reforming our nation's health care system and creating the integrated delivery system that cpmc is planning for the city of san francisco. in conclusion, i want to urge your very careful and continued support of this project. i'm sure as it goes along, it may be able to be improved upon. we should certainly do that. thank you very much. >> as we call your name, please be ready to speak. [reading names]

>> my name is jessica and i have been a nurse for 33 years at california pacific medical center, 25 years in labor and delivery. cpmc is planning a huge structure in a higher-density area. this area already has many large hospitals, as was discussed. this will overwhelm an already highly congested area. in my 40 years as a nurse, i have never worked at a hospital that has had enough parking, no matter how many spaces the project and provide. this will add even more congestion andincreasing safetyr pedestrians. patience, visitors, and staff will be particularly vulnerable

at night. as a labor and delivery nurse, i am concerned about the distance my patients will have to travel and delays that may arise having to get to the hospital in an emergency. i feel the move will further isolate and already underserved community. even more distressing is the thought of one of our patients delivering in the street or on a bus, trying to get across town to our facility, the new facility. concentrating services in one part of the city also poses a significant risk in case of a disaster such as an earthquake. if van ness is blocked, the hospital will not be accessible. i want to work in a earthquake- safe environment, but feel other options should be explored to serve the community as a whole, rich, poor, the uninsured, and the injured. thank you for listening to me.

>> thank you all for coming. >> good evening, members of the planning commission and health commission. i have been a registered nurse for the past 30 years. for the past 13, i have worked cpmc's labor and delivery unit. i am concerned about the plan to downsize st. luke and concentrate specialty services at cathedral hill. whether than improving patient outcomes, this would take away convenient accessibility from patients who lived in the southeastern part of san francisco. this would cause a delay in getting to the medical facility and potentially poor outcomes. cpmc's analysts claim looking specialty services in one place improves patient outcomes, but

this is unclear. for example, as a labor and delivery nurse it is extremely rare to have a liver patient who has cancer. the oncology physician would be readily available to come to our facility for" and management. prioritizing this rare occurrence over many patients' access to care does not make sense. i propose that st. luke's remain a full-service hospital, with expansion to include some specialty services, and that the grand plan for cathedral hill be downsized. thank you for your time and consideration. >> good evening. i want to read a statement from mary, who had to leave because she works. my name is jane martin. as a nurse working at st. luke's hospital for more than 35 years, i would love to tell you how it is to work there.

currently, st. luke's hospital represents a segregated form of health care and feels like a third world country when you walk through the halls. we take care of people struggling with drug addictions, alcoholics, and people overwhelmed with psychological issues. there are no resources for these patients. consequently, there are limited resources for staff to care for them. we do our best, but many times it does not feel like it is working. i still love with a specialty service located at st. luke's hospital, would have a better player mixed to provide better care for all our patience. it just seems fair to me. i want to say she has been a wonderful advocate as a nurse and has come under fire for speaking out at hearings like this time and time again. it is amazing that she continues to do it despite the harassment she experiences. >> our next speakers are [names]

please all three come up to the side. >> good evening, commissioners. i have been a cpmc employee for over 30 years. i am a member of the union. i supported the cathedral hill building because it will help put service workers like me to better fit our patients. the current facilities are outdated. they are too old to handle the proper cooking equipment needed to feed hundreds of patients daily. in recent years, the patient population of pacific has grown a lot. we now serve 200 to 350 patients

every meal. we need to install more grills, a steamer to do the job. as union shop steward, we have asked cpmc to upgrade the equipment, but they cannot because the kitchen does not have the necessary ventilation to support the new equipment. as a result, food service workers struggle to serve food on time to patients. in the last four months, we had to make food trays 1300 times because food was too cold to eat by the time it reached the patient. that does not make patience happy at all. as food service workers, we pride ourselves on delivering good, healthy meals to help patients heal their index. i believe with the new cathedral held project, we can do so more

consistently. as a union shop steward, i will make sure to meet with the management regularly to ensure that we do that. we have formed a food and nutrition committee to review the issue regarding the food- service department to provide the best for our patients. please do not allow an opportunity for access to health fadeaway. >> good evening and thank you. i am a registered nurse in post- acute services at cpmc for over 15 years. last september, i spoke to the planning commissioners to outline the current shortage of beds in san francisco, and described cpmc's proposal to cut a% of -- 80% of sniff beds.

they said they will include some 100% more in the final plans. we feel like the foster child for many years now. we have enjoyed live notices, partial closures, and a reduction in ancillary staff. where our beds were slated to be completely closed in 2009, that sniff is even in the plans would not have happened without the tireless work of the post-acute nurses, the concerned community, and political advocacy groups. the concern i have now is cpmc's they mention of other community or campus-based beds. there is a difference between a hospital base and a freestanding base. the patients we care for have

central lines at the bedside. we have ambulatory dialysis. we have chronic conditions and acute conditions. we care for primarily are mostly poor or elderly or disabled patients on medicare and medical. we have strokes and heart and circulatory diseases, cancer, respiratory diseases, kidney diseases. we see post-transplant. they are acute and they are ill, and they are not appropriate for community-based snifs. they need one attached to the hospital. thank you. >> followed by [reading names] >> i have been a pediatrician at st. luke's hospital for the past 11 years. i last spoke to the help

commission three years ago, in strong opposition to the proposed closure of our beloved hospital. i am now happy to have the opportunity to return and support the cpmc plans to rebuild. i represent my fellow physicians and the nurses and therapists who have the privilege of caring for children every day. the dedication and passion that we brought to the save st. luke's effort continues. morale is high as we look to the future. we have been working closely with the architects and administrators to ensure that the communities we serve a continue have -- continue to have access to medical care through the rebuilding process. this is a state of the art facility where we can provide quality care. the will be separate child- friendly rooms for families, electronic medical records, and

dedicated laboratory and radiation services. these advances will help us see more patients more efficiently. the labor and delivery and postpartum units have been expanded to safely deliver babies into the loving arms of their community. many design improvements will help us improve patient care. i am a mother of three young girls raised to be part of the mission neighborhood. st. luke's is our hospital, our families, our friends, our school community. the simple truth is we need this hospital, and we need to begin rebuilding it now. thank you very much. president olague: thank you. >> good evening, commissioners, madam director, department of public health. i am the executive director of mission neighborhood centers, a nonprofit multi-purpose

community-based organization in the mission community and an anchor institution. we provide services to low income, primarily hispanic families. that includes higher-risk youngsters, headstart families, and 1200 seniors from the intermission and the excelsior. we operate 10 different facilities. most recently, we opened a center in bayview hunters point through a collaborative effort. as you are well aware, but you hunters point is probably the most toxic area in the city and county of san francisco. it is also the area that most low-income folks are moving to. in response to primarily the relocation of low-income families in the mission, we formed a collaborative and introduced a continuum of care

facility, providing services to 34 children, all children of working, poor, low-income families. i am proud to say we are here this evening in support of the rebuild plans of cpmc, including the rebuild of st. luke's hospital. we are not here to tell cpmc how to work with community, but rather to say that we appreciate that cpmc knocked on our door when we first moved in to bayview hunters point and asked how they could assist in providing services directly to the bayview child health center, the only child facility in the bayview hunters point operated by cpmc. we are here again to say thank- you to cpmc. they are reaching out to low- income working people. we are here to support their

rebuild plants. thank you very much and good evening. [applause] president olague: thank you. michael smithwick, followed by jon daniel. >> i am dr. richard gibbs. with my wife dr. krishna gibbs, we founded and still administrate the san francisco free clinic. when we opened 16 years ago, we put out the call to the medical community for a project that would only serve people with no health insurance of any kind. we got an overwhelming response. over 155 positions, doctors, and their staff offered to help providing care to the uninsured. 95% of those responses came from california pacific medical center. in the 17 years the clinic has been open, we have treated thousands and thousands of

people with no health insurance. cpmc has donated x-rays, mammograms, colonoscopy is, exercise tolerance tests, encouragement, help us to apply for grants, and literally hundreds of specialty visits that have been donated to our patience when needed. the have been a huge part of our ability to deliver care. they are good people. they knocked on our door. i tell a similar story to the gentleman that just spoke. they knocked on our door and offered to help. it has been tremendous, freely given, never asking anything in return. it has literally been hundreds of services donated from every level of the hospital, from the nursing staff to the position staff. my hope is that you will agree with their plans for rebuilding.

thank you. president olague: if i called your name and you can make your way to the microphone, that would be great. >> good evening. my name is gordon mar, with jobs for justice, a coalition of community and labor organizations in san francisco, working together to build a strong economy for all san franciscans. we have joined with the good neighbor coalition and the coalition for health care planning in san francisco, in sort of a unified community and labor effort around cpmc's development plan. collectively, our coalitions represent over 70 community and labor organizations here in the city, with direct representation of tens of thousands of residents, particularly low-

income residents. we have come together there has been concerned about -- we have come together with concern about the jobs that will open up, and wanting to make sure there will be full access for disadvantaged san francisco residents, and other serious concerns about the affordable housing and cpmc's commitment to the bill in its obligation to the affordable housing policies. also, the need for significant community benefits to the tenderloin and central city residents that will be impacted by the naval hospital on cathedral hill. we have major concerns about the project. we have been meeting since

january. we had come to the conclusion that those meetings have not been productive, because we've not really seen any indication from the cpmc reps that they are willing to take our concerns around these broad range of issues seriously and compromise. that is why so many of us are here today, opposing the plan. president olague: please clear the doorways. it is creating a fire hazard. thank you. there are lots of shares. if you can move to the other side if you choose to stand up. >> my name is michael smithwick. i am the executive director of my tree compassionate care, an aids hospice located in the

castro area, just a few blocks down the hill from the cpmc davies campus. i am here to support poured the rebuild plan. they have been providing care to san francisco as with late- stage age. we serve low-income women and men from all over the city, most of whom have exhausted their financial resources and have nowhere else to go. today, we have 15 residents, and over the course of the year we serve 57 franciscans. since our inception, we have served almost 1000 san franciscans that have been facing advanced aids. cpmc and my treat have a vision for compassionate care. we believe no one should die alone. we meet the needs of many residents who cannot afford to pay for such care during their

transition into death. cpmc has provided us with financial and programmatic support. we know the future, especially facing federal cuts. this is a cutback to services such as ours. that is why cpmc is so important to the stability of our organization. aside from being a community partner, i also live a few blocks from the davies campus and was involved for several years in the cpmc outreach to the community to develop the campus in a way that is positive for the community, and from my perspective very positive for pedestrians. pedestrians. i have served in the past on the