Last updated March 27, 2020
Dear UCSF Health Patients, Families and Visitors:
Your safety is our highest priority.
UCSF Health teams are working around the clock to stay on top of the evolving COVID-19 situation to ensure both excellent patient care as well as family and visitor safety.
Under the authority of City and County of San Francisco Health Officer No. C19-06, UCSF Health is restricting visitors from all of our hospital and clinic facilities.
Additional Information for Families of Patients in our Hospitals
- Patients and their loved ones must designate a single individual who will be the point of contact for all information and conversations with the care team.
- The designated point of contact will be responsible for sharing information with other family members or loved ones that should have this information.
- The designated point of contact will hear from a member of the care team at least once a day for regular updates, or more frequently if there are significant changes in the condition of the patient or their care.
- Some exceptions may apply as determined by the caregiving team.
Additional Information for Patients of UCSF Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center
Our patients with cancer are at higher risk of more severe disease if they do get COVID-19. Thus, the UCSF cancer center services will be implementing several new practices in order to keep our patients, their family and loved ones as safe as possible.
We are:
- Converting any in-person visits that are safely able to be performed remotely to a video visit.
- Re-scheduling to a later date any non-urgent x-rays, scans, blood tests, procedures and clinic visits.
- Implementing COVID-19 symptom and exposure screening prior to all scheduled visits via a telephone screening system, a MyChart message, and/or a personal call by clinic staff. Screening for COVID-19 symptoms will allow us to get you the right care, like the COVID-19 testing as needed.
- If you need to be seen in person, you will be screened at the entrance of the building prior to being allowed inside.
- In order to allow families and caregivers to participate in the visit, we ask that you use your phone or an iPad to call in or FaceTime into the visit.
- For Infusion and Radiation Oncology patients who rely on a caregiver to drive them, we have a "visitor waiting" area in the Patient & Family Cancer Resource Center at Mount Zion and Mission Bay, or the City Lights Room on the 1st floor Millberry Union at Parnassus. The caregiver can also choose to drop off and return at the end of treatment for pick up. Staff will collect the caregiver's contact information so staff can communicate end of treatment time and coordinate pick up.
We understand this is not going to be an easy or welcome transition. Please know this is to ensure everyone's safety during this COVID-19 pandemic and to comply with city-wide directives. If you have transportation or lodging challenges, please do not hesitate to ask your nurse for assistance. They will be able to connect you with the appropriate Social Work resources.
You can also find more information about the Health Officer Order by going to the patient section of https://www.ucsf.edu/coronavirus.