UCSF OB care - monitoring in Berkeley/Alta Bates?
Hi All -
I'm a Berkeley-based, high risk pregnancy due to type 1 diabetes, and am leaning toward UCSF for prenatal care (and delivery). I will need to do twice weekly monitoring the last two months of the pregnancy because of my diabetes. I read in an older (2021) post here that the UCSF OBs share information with Sutter/Alta Bates such that patients could do that monitoring at Alta Bates, and still deliver at UCSF Mission Bay. Does anyone know if that is still true? Or who to ask about it if so? Struggling to navigate the myriad of options. Thanks in advance!
Jan 17, 2025
Parent Replies
Hi! I had a similar situation to you - lived in Berkeley but had my prenatal care and delivery at UCSF Mission Bay. Toward the end of my pregnancy, I needed some extra monitoring and went to Alta Bates. This was in 2021, and as I recall, my midwife at UCSF had to make a call to Alta Bates to get the ball rolling. And then Alta Bates called me to make an appointment, or maybe I called them. Either way, it was pretty easy for me, maybe just an extra phone call or two. Definitely worth it to save many drives across the bridge! Good luck!!
UCSF used to have a small OB clinic inside the Sutter Health building on San Pablo, but I don’t believe they do anymore - I had my first appointment there when I was pregnant back in 2023, but then the physician left and I had to switch to the Mission Bay campus for the rest of my pregnancy.
For what it’s worth, I received excellent care and was so grateful for my decision to deliver at UCSF when I ended up having late term complications and my son was in the NICU. All the driving was completely worth the inconvenience.
I can't speak to this specifically but I can share that I delivered at Alta Bates and our children are seen via the UCSF network, and there have been no issues sharing data between the two networks, plus the alta bates monitoring ladies are amazing. Highly recommend!
I would just call UCSF and ask - Looks like the UCSF Center for Complex Obstetric Medicine might be the right place to start: https://www.ucsfhealth.org/clinics/center-for-complex-obstetric-medicine 415-353-3400
My high risk OB was at UCSF and I had my non-stress tests at Alta Bates -- I would message your OB and their office should be able to answer it -- and then double check with your insurance (can likely do via message as well -- that's always my preference so I have a paper trail). Both Sutter and UCSF use MyChart, so it was relatively painless to share things for me.
The nurses doing the NSTs at Alta Bates were SO lovely.
I had a high risk pregnancy and needed twice weekly non-stress tests during my third trimester. The monitoring happened within my OBGYN office (Sutter Milvia Clinic). There was never an option presented to me to go elsewhere. I would call your OB's office directly to ask.
I can’t speak to how the joint care would work, but can confirm that OBs at UCSF Mission Bay and Sutter/Alta Bates can see your information if you connect your two My Chart/Epic portals. I had OB care at UCSF MB until June this year when I switched to Sutter/AB and the data share/transition was pretty smooth.
UCSF's Berkeley Outpatient Center has OB care. Not sure exactly what services they offer, but that could be an option. https://www.ucsfhealth.org/clinics/berkeley-outpatient-center