The Family Health Center is the largest primary care clinic in SF's Community Health Network, with almost 40,000 patient visits per year. The 12,000 patients we serve are children, adolescents, and adults from families living in the Mission, Potrero Hill, and other neighborhoods in the vicinity of San Francisco General Hospital. Staffed by UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine faculty and residents and Family Nurse Practitioners, the FHC provides family-centered primary care—including obstetric care—to women, men, and children.

Every patient in the FHC is affiliated with a primary care practitioner who provides continuity care and coordinates all care. The FHC has a long tradition of strong nursing involvement, with registered nurses performing triage functions, one-on-one patient visits, individual case management, and group visits aimed at health education, smoking cessation and behavioral health improvements. In addition, there is a pharmacist refill clinic and pharmacist consultation clinic, focusing on patients with chronic disease.

Patients receiving care at the FHC reflect the rich ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of San Francisco. Almost 100,000 of San Francisco's 776,733 residents are immigrants. The Refugee Medical Clinic (RMC)—housed within the FHC—was created to meet the unique needs of this population. Twenty-nine different languages are spoken by our patients. Of the patients currently receiving care at the CHN's network of primary care clinics, 70% are ethnic minorities, 60% are uninsured, 25% receive Medi-Cal, and 10% are homeless.

FHC and RMC services include primary health care, nutrition, smoking cessation, and stress reduction programs, HIV testing, counseling, and primary care, and direct referral to specialists. Our acute care clinic sees patients on a walk-in basis during clinic hours. We participate in the State Family Planning Program, which covers a broad range of contraceptive services, diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, and other gynecologic problems at no cost to eligible patients. Special services are available for people dealing with issues of substance abuse and homelessness, HIV disease, and other chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.