UCSF Health / Tia Collaboration Plans 'Women-Centered Healthcare System'

The collaboration links Tia's expertise in retail-based primary care with UCSF's specialty and inpatient facilities.

Women's primary care provider Tia is collaborating with UCSF Health to open 10 clinically integrated clinics in the Bay Area, with the flagship venue now opening at Mission & Van Ness in San Francisco.

The collaboration links Tia's expertise in retail-based primary care with UCSF's specialty and inpatient facilities, covering services that integrate physical, mental and reproductive health for women and their families via in-person and virtual care, said Carolyn Witte, co-founder and CEO of Tia. 

"Women deserve comprehensive primary care that centers on our experiences — clinically, psychosocially and experientially," Witte said. "Sadly, a 'one-size-fits-most' healthcare system leaves 50% of women without a primary care provider — depriving women of essential, preventive care and forcing them instead to bounce from specialist to specialist searching for answers, which drives up costs and worsens outcomes."

"Tia wants to change that by working with UCSF to create a women-centered healthcare system that spans outpatient to inpatient with an anchoring on prevention," she said.

A Tia-commissioned survey of 500 Bay Area women found that more than 40% of them have delayed preventive health services during the pandemic, and that 80% of women in the Bay Area say that worry or stress about the pandemic has impacted their mental health.

Amy Murtha, MD, professor and chair of the UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, said the collaboration will means that more women will have access to the care they need.

"UCSF Health is a leader in women's health and renowned for its integrated specialty care, but we can’t reach every woman in the Bay Area," Murtha said. "This collaboration aims to help address that fragmentation by increasing women's access to primary care services, with seamless access to UCSF's specialty care when they need it."

Tia, with a focus on early prevention, will provide UCSF Health with new outpatient access points that reach more women for its specialty care network and inpatient services, including its pregnancy, labor and delivery program.

The providers will share clinical protocols, coordinate to improve quality metrics, and link electronic health records to enable shared clinical notes, medical records, care coordination and quality data reporting. Tia's care coordination team will oversee care transfers between the two providers.

UCSF Health is the second major health system collaboration for Tia and the collaboration follows expansions in New York, Los Angeles, and Phoenix.