In 2015, Mark Zuckerberg’s wife Priscilla Chan’s $75 million gift transformed a San Francisco hospital and trauma center serving 100,000 patients

In 2015, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and paediatrician Priscilla Chan announced a $75 million gift to San Francisco General Hospital. The massive donation became a crucial part of the transformation of the city's only trauma center and largest safety-net hospital. The $75 million donation by Priscilla Chan helped pay for critical equipment and technology inside the new acute care and trauma center. The new hospital was designed with substantially expanded emergency and intensive-care capabilities. Plans called for two additional trauma rooms and three more operating rooms. The Emergency Department was expected to double in size compared with the existing facility.

The new emergency department would also be capable of significantly increasing its number of beds during a major disaster or emergency. The project included 28 additional intensive-care beds, along with two more palliative-care rooms. For younger patients, the new facility was planned to include four pediatric examination rooms and a dedicated pediatric waiting room in the Emergency Department.

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San Francisco's new hospital was planned with a base-isolated foundation, an advanced seismic-resistant design intended to help protect the facility during earthquakes. The building was also designed as a greener facility, with plans to reduce water and energy consumption and seek LEED Gold certification. For a trauma center that could be called upon during a citywide disaster, these features were intended to make the hospital more resilient while improving everyday patient care.

Priscilla Chan's personal connection to the San Francisco hospital

For Priscilla Chan, the contribution also had a personal connection and was deeply tied to her medical training. She had trained at San Francisco General and experienced firsthand the work carried out by its doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals.

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Chan said she knew firsthand how important the hospital's emergency and trauma services were to people living in, working in or simply visiting San Francisco. “Through my training at The General, I know firsthand the vital health care and trauma services this hospital provides to anyone who lives, works or travels through San Francisco,” Priscilla Chan said.

She also highlighted the dedication of the hospital's staff and said she and Zuckerberg were proud to support the institution. The gift helped fund advanced equipment and technology for a new acute care and trauma center while also supporting plans to turn the existing hospital building into an ambulatory care facility.

The hospital served more than 100,000 patients annually and functioned as both a community hospital and the city's public safety-net provider. It was also San Francisco's only trauma center, meaning critically injured patients from across the city could depend on it for emergency treatment.

The hospital had a long history of responding to major events, from the 1906 earthquake to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the 2013 Asiana Airlines crash at San Francisco International Airport.

The hospital was eventually named after the couple

The scale of the donation was reflected in another major development: San Francisco began the process of adding the couple's names to the hospital. The institution became known as the Priscilla and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. For Priscilla Chan, the connection between her medical background and the hospital made the gift especially notable. The couple said their goal was to invest in healthcare in the Bay Area, where they lived and worked.

The $75 million grant came from Priscilla Chan and Zuckerberg's donor-advised fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

The San Francisco General Hospital Foundation described the contribution as the largest single gift it had received since its establishment in 1994. It was also believed to be the largest single private gift from individuals to a public hospital in the United States at the time. The donation came as San Francisco was already undertaking a major effort to rebuild and modernize the hospital.

In 2008, city voters had overwhelmingly approved an $887.4 million bond to begin the process of building a new facility. The contribution from Priscilla Chan and Zuckerberg provided another major piece of funding needed to complete the new acute care and trauma center. The $75 million donation did not operate in isolation. It was part of a broader public and private effort to rebuild San Francisco General and expand its ability to provide emergency and community healthcare.