End the staffing and boarding crisis at UCSF Health
UPTE workers’ rally

RSVP!
Thursday, April 16, 2026
12:30 pm

UCSF Medical Center at Parnassus
505 Parnassus Ave
San Francisco, CA 94143

UCSF Health has the money. UCSF Health lacks the will to staff its hospitals safely.

UCSF Health is sitting on $2.96 billion in cash as of June 2025.¹ UCSF Health’s endowment grew by nearly $5 billion in five years.² UCSF Health expects to more than double its net operating income by 2033.³

Meanwhile, inside the Parnassus Emergency Department:

  • Patients wait an average of 4 hours and 42 minutes to see a provider and be discharged — nearly 40% longer than the national average.⁴

  • The percentage of patients who leave the ED without ever seeing a provider is double the state and national averages.⁵

  • In 2023, UCSF Parnassus spent more than four times the state average share of time on ambulance diversion.⁶

  • Average length of stay in short-term acute care at Parnassus Heights has climbed from 6.2 days in 2017 to 7.9 days in 2023⁷—well above the state average of 5.1 days. Research shows longer stays correlate with higher patient mortality.⁸

This is what the boarding crisis looks like. It endangers patients. It burns out workers. And UCSF Health is choosing it.

We delivered our demands. Now we’re following through.

On March 31, a coalition of UCSF healthcare workers, including the Committee of Interns and Residents/Service Employees International Union (CIR/SEIU), the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU), and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME Local 3299), delivered a petition signed by over 1,000 frontline workers demanding UCSF end the boarding crisis at Parnassus. UCSF Health management took the petition. They refuse to answer it.

On Thursday, April 16, we’re going back with our coworkers, and with a clear message: UCSF Health cannot keep stalling while patients and workers pay the price.

Notes

  1. University of California, "Third-Quarter Financial Report, Period Ending March 31, 2025," submitted to the UC Board of Regents, June 16, 2025.

  2. UC Investments, Annual Endowment Reports, fiscal years ending June 30, 2019 and June 30, 2024.

  3. University of California Board of Regents, Finance and Capital Strategies Committee, "Action Item F6," meeting of July 17, 2024.

  4. California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI), hospital utilization datasets for UCSF.

  5. California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI), hospital utilization datasets for UCSF.

  6. California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI), hospital utilization datasets for UCSF, 2018 and 2023.

  7. California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI), hospital utilization datasets for UCSF, 2017 and 2023.

  8. Hester F. Lingsma et al., "Evaluation of Hospital Outcomes: The Relation between Length-of-Stay, Readmission, and Mortality in a Large International Administrative Database," BMC Health Services Research 18, no. 1 (February 14, 2018): 116, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-2916-1.