On May 17, the residents of Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG, formerly SFGH), voted unanimously to ratify their new contract. Just days ago, on May 12, 2017, in the wee hours of the morning, the CIR bargaining committee, the city of San Francisco, and the hospital administration came to a tentative agreement on the residents’ union contract.

For the past year, residents have been fighting for adequate workspace and improvements to existing workspace within the new hospital building. The City of San Francisco and the ZSFG planning committee left residents out of the equation when allocating space, leaving residents to scramble to find places to rest, work, conduct research, and complete patient paperwork. Residents raised concerns that the lack of resident workspace negatively affected patient care — it was taking some surgery residents upwards of five minutes to get to reach their trauma patients.

ZSFG hospital leadership heard residents LOUD and CLEAR: residents and fellows deserve secured, adequate workspace, resident-designated parking, updated equipment, and attention to the well-being of both residents and patients.

Resident actions and participation in this bargaining process — showing up in droves to bargaining sessions, calling key decision-makers, signing petitions, publishing op-eds — showed a united front.

In order for residents to best care for the patients of San Francisco, the hospital needs to take better care of its residents. The city heard resident demands and agreed to patient-saving additions of workspace, along with improvements to resident working conditions. Here are the highlights of the new contract:

Contract Highlights:

• Workspace: secured 3 residents workrooms/consultation rooms (H6010, H5011, H4007) in the new hospital building, with agreement to reassess resident workspace and call-rooms, in addition to existing commitment to make H6008 an available resident workspace
• UCSF pay parity (wages+housing) & establishing QI incentive pay for residents who don’t qualify at UCSF
• Parking: on-call parking cards increased from 46 to 65 entries per day
• Resident lounge: 10 total computers and agreement to convert the weight room to a resident work/sleep space
• Educational Fund: Increase from $300 to $600 per person who spends three months at SFGH, on a first-come, first-served basis
• Patient Care Fund: expanded the scope to include resident wellness projects and activities
• Resident voice in the “building 5” retrofit project & EHR implementation
• Re-establishing the Interns, Residents Affairs Committee: allowing us to meet with key decision makers to resolve matters that affect residents

Congratulations to the residents and fellows of ZSFG! This was a hard-won contract that demonstrates your dedication to patients and the future of patient care.