When the pandemic hit, so many ZSFG patients lost jobs, housing, and access to social safety-net programs that kept them safe and healthy. In response to this crisis, Dr. Misa Perron-Burdick, Medical Director of the Women’s Health Center at ZSFG, launched the Patient Pantry to give families another place to find support. This initiative was designed to provide pregnant patients and parents with basic necessities, either after a clinic visit or delivered to their homes. The pantry currently provides families with items such as food, diapers, feminine products, formula, and baby wipes. Patients also receive COVID-19 safety kits that include hand sanitizer, soap, masks, and thermometers.

This program continues to grow thanks to a new partnership with Solid Start—a multi-disciplinary effort at ZSFG focused on pregnant individuals and families with young children in San Francisco. One of our community partners, the Homeless Prenatal Program, is now housing the central pantry in their nearby facility. And thanks to two recent Hearts Grants awarded by the Foundation, even more patients will have access to these health essentials during future visits.

To date, this program has helped over 500 families and more than 50 home deliveries are made each week. As the economic fallout from COVID-19 continues to hit our most marginalized communities the hardest, we are pleased to be able to provide funding for this vital program. 

On September 1, Dr. Susan Ehrlich, CEO of Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, gave the most recent in a series of updates to the public about the current state of COVID-19 in San Francisco, this time with a special emphasis on the Delta variant. She shared a promising update on our community vaccination rate, which currently stands at 80% of the eligible population fully vaccinated. She also addressed the most recent wave of infections, vaccine hesitancy, and what makes Delta different.

Dr. Ehrlich also answered audience questions regarding breakthrough infections and booster shots, travel considerations, her predictions for the future of COVID-19 in the Bay Area, and much more.

We are grateful to the donors whose support has enabled us to treat more than a third of San Francisco’s COVID-19 patients, offer community vaccinations, and keep the public informed as this public health situation continues to evolve. If you weren’t able to watch the program live, we invite you to watch it in its entirety on the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation YouTube channel.

Our partners at the Institute for Global Orthopaedics and Traumatology (IGOT) are celebrating fifteen years of healing and innovation.  Founded in 2006 by the faculty and residents of our partner institution UCSF, and with a focus on equity, collaboration, and scholarship, IGOT’s mission is to build capacity in musculoskeletal care through global partnerships and their vision is to be the global leader in academic partnership in orthopaedic surgery.

Through its four core pillars of surgical education, global research, advocacy and leadership, and knowledge exchange, IGOT takes the tradition of excellence in trauma care found in San Francisco and provides advanced surgical training to surgeons in developing countries. IGOT’s course participants have a 93% surgical success rate.

To learn more about the collaboration between IGOT, UCSF, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, and San Francisco General Hospital Foundation, we invite you to watch this inspiring and captivating video which illustrates IGOT’s efforts around the globe.

Shelter-in-place orders meant a big shift in the way we’ve provided care over the past year and a half, and these changes especially impacted our pediatric patients. With 32,000 patient visits each year, the Children’s Health Center’s (CHC) ability to effectively care for our young patients and their families is a top priority. When schools closed, many families were left without the appropriate supplies to support their child’s education from home, and the staff of the CHC realized that many of these families would struggle to adapt.

Thankfully, the hospital was able to utilize charitable donations made to the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation to equip backpacks with school supplies to help kids keep up with their skills during remote schooling. Filling an urgent need, these backpacks flew off the shelves, enabling SFGHF donors and our hospital staff to make an immediate impact on these families’ needs.

We are grateful for the donor support that has allowed us to create healthy connections between a visit to the doctor’s office and academic learning.