As the deadline approached, however, officials decided they needed more time to fine-tune bureaucratic details such as reapplying for separate licenses and billing numbers. The two prestigious medical centers merged in 1997 in an attempt to streamline operations and cut costs. Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco was another casualty of the dissolution. Officials closed the hospital, which cared for a large number of the city's poor and uninsured, in August. It was widely hoped that Children's Health Services, which combined children's services at UCSF and Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, would survive the breakup as it was the lone success of the merger.
Some officials contend the breakup is unlikely to affect nursing jobs.
We envision services to remain the same at both hospitals. Others are not so confident. David Johnson, director of the UC division of the California Nurses Association, is still concerned about job security.