Panel wants San Francisco hospital to be rebuilt, changed

A special panel concluded four months of investigation by unanimously recommending that San Francisco-based St. Luke's Hospital be rebuilt as an acute-care community hospital. The panel is suggesting that the new facility, housing 60 to 80 beds, be constructed next to the existing site. The old facility would remain open during the building process, and will come down only after the new hospital is built. The new hospital would cost an estimated $120 million to be paid by California Pacific Medical Center, which runs St. Luke's.