UCSF, Children’s Oakland sign affiliation agreement set to close by early 2014

UCSF Medical Center and Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland have signed an affiliation agreement that links the two institutions but allows them to remain largely as separate entities.

The agreement, set to close in early 2014, marks “the next milestone in establishing a formal relationship” between the two hospitals, according to an announcement sent to employees, faculty and physicians on Aug. 8 from UCSF Medical Center CEO Mark Laret; Children’s Oakland CEO Bert Lubin, M.D., and Sam Hawgood, dean of the UCSF School of Medicine.

The new relationship would result in the hospitals' joint operation of the 85-doctor BayChildren’s Physicians, Children’s Oakland’s existing physician foundation. UCSF Medical Center and Children’s Oakland would retain separate licenses and boards under the agreement and most Children’s Oakland employees would not become UCSF employees.

But Children’s Oakland’s four top officers, including Lubin and the East Bay hospital’s CFO, chief operating officer and chief of pediatrics, would become UC employees, according to UCSF spokeswoman Karin Rush-Monroe. The four executives would continue to work full-time at Children’s Oakland, she said.

The deal is subject to due diligence, regulatory approvals and approval by the chairman of the University of California Regents’ Committee on Health Services, according to the letter from Laret.