Dr. McLeod's Vision
Uniting UCSF’s multiple locations of ophthalmology clinics, labs, and classrooms under one roof to deliver the highest quality of care is central to the
Center for Vision on Block 33, opening later this year in Mission Bay. Dr. McLeod describes one of many benefits of the unification, using an example of the current treatment trips for a 30-year old man with chronic eye conditions:
A: The patient's retinal inflammation requires constant local corticosteroid treatment, so he begins his treatment journey at the south edge of the UCSF Parnassus Heights campus at the Proctor Foundation, where we treat the inflammatory disease of the eye.
B: If the inflammation flares up in the back of the eye, the patient is referred to one of our retina specialists on the sixth floor of the Ambulatory Care Center (ACC) at Parnassus. Treatment includes slow release delivery steroid implants in the eye.
C: While these implants do a great job of reducing the inflammation, the steroid can cause increased eye pressure, in which case the patient is sent to the fifth floor of UC Hall (Beckman Vision Center) for eye pressure lowering medications.
D: If all of these treatments have limited effectiveness, the next step is to have drainage tubes in his eyes to reduce the pressure, a procedure done at Mt Zion.
Imagine navigating all these locations with impaired vision. In the future at Mission Bay, the patient would start on the second floor Proctor clinic in the new Center for Vision, then travel to the third floor for ambulatory care, and finish on the fourth floor to see a specialist. His various care providers could meet in person because they are all in the same physical space.
Dr. McLeod credits Real Estate––development, planning, design, construction, and management––and the other support services in FAS for working together to improve the lives of the community we serve.