WHEREAS, Laguna Honda Hospital has served the San Francisco community for 132 years; and,

WHEREAS, Laguna Honda Hospital currently provides high quality, long-term, and acute care services to 1,200 residents of San Francisco; and,

WHEREAS, Laguna Honda Hospital comprises one-third of all the licensed skilled nursing facility beds in San Francisco, and the demographic projections indicate a significant increase in the need for these services in the future; and,

WHEREAS, the existing resident care buildings at Laguna Honda Hospital are at the end of their useful service life, since Clarendon Hall was constructed in 1909, and the Main Building constructed from 1926-1942; and,

WHEREAS, the normal maintenance and repair expenses for these buildings continues to increase, along with the needs for a new roof for the Main Building and a new fire safety system for the entire Campus; and,

WHEREAS, the existing resident care buildings do not comply with contemporary hospital construction and seismic safety standards; and,

WHEREAS,  the open wards with 30 residents each and the small semi-private rooms in the Main Building do not meet the Healthcare Financing Administration (HCFA) space requirements for reimbursement, and that this condition has required the Hospital to request and receive a waiver from those regulations in order to continue receiving Medicaid funds to operate; and,

WHEREAS, the HCFA waivers which have been granted in the past years are for a one-year term only and are revocable at any time; and,

WHEREAS, during the Hospital's 1998 annual certification survey, the California Department of Health Services Licensing and Certification representatives announced their preliminary intention of recommending that the waivers not be granted in the future; and,

WHEREAS, unless the physical plant issues at Laguna Honda Hospital are satisfactorily addressed, its mission and continued reimbursement for resident care will be in jeopardy; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, that the San Francisco Health Commission directs the Department of Public Health to develop a plan to respond to the physical plant issues at Laguna Honda Hospital in  a timely manner.

I hereby certify that the foregoing resolution was adopted by the Health Commission at its meeting of Tuesday, April 7, 1998.

Sandy Ouye Mori, Executive Secretary to the Health Commission