State clears S.F. hospital after social worker killed on campus

A California Department of Public Health inspection found “no deficiencies” at San Francisco General Hospital following the lethal Dec. 4 stabbing of a social worker at Ward 86, an HIV clinic on campus.

On Dec. 9, four days after the social worker, 51-year-old Alberto Rangel, was killed, the state completed an “investigation of one Facility Reported Incident,” records show. 

The investigation documented “no deficiencies” with state and federal requirements, according to a Feb. 9 letter from the California Department of Public Health’s Center for Health Care Quality obtained by Mission Local in a public records request. No plans for correction were suggested. 

It is unclear what the state’s investigation entailed, though the Feb. 9 letter states it did not include a “full inspection of the facility.” Spokespeople for the California Department of Public Health and San Francisco Department of Public Health declined to provide further comment. Generally, when investigating a complaint, California Department of Public Health surveyors review records, visit the facility, and conduct interviews. 

Jessica Hoopengardner, a Ward 86 nurse who saw Rangel after he was stabbed, said she was never interviewed by the state. She felt that there had, in fact, been several “deficiencies” in the city’s response. 

“We had no idea that there were panic buttons, that’s a huge deficiency,” she said. “There was no clarification around why a cop was only outside [one] doctor’s door, not protecting the entire building, that’s a huge deficiency.”

She wasn’t the only one with criticisms. In the days and months after Rangel was killed, healthcare workers told Mission Local that hospital management had repeatedly ignored their safety concerns prior to his death. They described a lack of metal detectors, security cameras, and emergency protocols as incidents of workplace violence rose. 

In 2025, the number of complaints and reported incidents at San Francisco general hospital, which can be filed by patients, staff, or members of the public, was double the statewide average. The state recorded far fewer deficiencies.

Rangel’s friends and colleagues maintain that the city failed him by not having a plan in place to stop his attacker, who was a known threat. As one veteran practitioner put it, he “died from neglect.”