Kaiser Permanente Donates $15 Million to UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland for a 20-Bed Pediatric Behavioral Health Unit Serving About 700 Patients a Year
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) announced on October 28 that Kaiser Permanente is donating $15 million to UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland, in Oakland, Alameda County, California, to help create its first inpatient behavioral health unit, significantly expanding access to specialized psychiatric care for children and adolescents in the East Bay and across Northern California.
With 20 private patient rooms, the new 21,300-square-foot unit is expected to care for about 700 patients each year. Fifteen rooms are for children and adolescents requiring acute psychiatric care, and five are designed for patients who need both behavioral health and medical treatment. Each room will include space for a caregiver to stay overnight when appropriate, and the wing will also feature an outdoor therapy space and a therapeutic roof garden. The project is part of UCSF Health's $1.6 billion modernization of the Oakland campus and will be housed in a new seven-story hospital building.
UCSF said the hospital currently has no inpatient beds dedicated to acute psychiatric care: children who arrive in crisis may require continuous one-on-one supervision in a medical or intensive care bed while clinicians search for an appropriate inpatient placement elsewhere. Once the unit opens, those patients will be able to receive psychiatric treatment in a safe, therapeutic environment designed for their needs. Citing CDC data, UCSF noted that in 2023, 40 percent of U.S. high school students reported persistent sadness or hopelessness, and 20 percent seriously considered suicide.
"Kaiser Permanente's extraordinary $15 million commitment is a meaningful investment in the health and well-being of children and families across Northern California," said UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood. The new 104-bed hospital building, expected to open in 2031, will include an expanded emergency department, a new neonatal intensive care unit, seven new operating rooms and updated imaging services. UCSF Benioff Oakland is one of just two level one pediatric trauma centers in Northern California, and more than 70 percent of its patients are covered by Medi-Cal.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 位于奥克兰的加州大学旧金山分校贝尼奥夫儿童医院（资料图）。Mx. Granger 摄，CC0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland (file photo). Photo by Mx. Granger, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
