Blue Ribbon Panel on St. Luke's Future

From the February 2008 edition of the St. Luke’s Medical Staff Newsletter, Heartbeat

A Blue Ribbon Panel is being formed to develop a plan under which St. Luke's could remain open as a viable in-patient facility. This is coming about as a result of the shared leadership and vision of City Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier, Public Health Director Dr. Mitch Katz, and our CEO, Dr. Martin Brotman. The Panel's charter states clearly the common goal as follows, "… an inclusive public-private planning process that will ensure that CPMC bears its appropriate share of responsibility for the health care needs of all San Franciscans. To that end, CPMC is convening a "Blue Ribbon" panel of leaders in health, business, community, and labor to develop a plan for acute care hospital and outpatient services at CPMC's St. Luke's campus which complements and is supported by CPMC's current institutional plan for its other campuses." (italics added)

Dr. Brotman met with the St. Luke's MEC on February 7th to go over details of the process and share the list of invitees who have already accepted. The panel will be chaired by Steve Shortell, PhD, who is the Dean of the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley. The Rt. Reverend Marc Andrus of the California Episcopal Diocese will serve as Vice-Chair. The panel has been intentionally selected to represent a broad cross section of the community and health care leadership. Anthony Miles has been chosen to represent the CPMC Board of Directors because of his background experience in health care planning. He is one of the St. Luke's Board members who joined the CPMC Board as a part of the merger.

A process to gather input from the communities that we serve will be facilitated by Rev. John Golenski, EdD, of the Episcopal Diocese. Stephen Lockhart, MD, PhD will serve as community liaison to the Blue Ribbon panel. This process will provide access for input from the broader community to be considered by the panel. The process will incorporate significant input our physicians. All comments made at these sessions will be recorded and included in a report to the Panel. Additionally, an outside consulting firm will be engaged to provide all necessary demographic and financial information that the Panel will require in a neutral format. All meetings of the Panel will be open to the public.

In response to this process that Dr. Brotman has initiated in collaboration with City leaders, the MEC has given it's endorsement and pledged its active participation in the process with the resolution below. The MEC has chosen Dr. Edward Kersh, Vice-Chief of Staff, to be its representative on the Panel. Additionally, SaveStLuke's.Org has been invited by CPMC to participate and Dr. Ken Barnes, Co-Chair of that organization, will serve on the Panel as well.

In closing, I feel that this is without doubt the most optimistic opportunity for the future of St. Luke's as a community hospital in over a decade. I ask that each member of the medical staff and allied health staff actively support and participate in this process. By working together with CPMC leadership through this process we can achieve a successful outcome that we can all take great pride in.

Sincerely yours,
William A. Miller, MD, FACP
Chief Medical Executive
CPMC’s St. Luke’s Campus