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Hospital Merger
scattered throughout 13
buildings, the latest now under construction in the Mission Bay area.
Make no mistake. UCSF doesn't lack for beauty. The view of the Golden
Gate and the Marin Headlands from hospital room windows is breathtaking;
staff are afforded the unusual luxury of kayaking around the San
Francisco Bay. And medically speaking, UCSF takes a back seat to no one.
With its cutting-edge research and treatment in the fields of AIDS,
gastroenterology, gynecology and neurology, UCSF has long taken pride in
its technological innovations and its role as Stanford's leading
competitor.
Both medical schools and hospitals are considered among the top 10 in
the nation. For decades, the two have competed for grants, personnel and
honors. But sweeping changes in health care and concerns about funding
forced the traditional rivals to consider joining forces rather than
compete for the same patient base. Several years ago, officials from
both institutions began to view a merger of patient care services as a
way to avoid duplication of capital projects and to place the teaching
hospitals in a better position to negotiate contracts with health plan
providers and health maintenance organizations (HMOs) for complex care
such as cancer treatments and organ transplants.
"When we got beyond the obvious, we saw that we had much more in common
than anyone thought and much more to gain by joining some of our
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