In July 1983, as the AIDS epidemic overtook the United States and beyond, a special ward opened on the fifth floor of San Francisco General Hospital by a group of health care practitioners. It was the first ward in the country dedicated to inpatient treatment, following the opening of the first outpatient ward in the same year.

The nurses were appalled by the treatment that HIV/AIDS patients were receiving before then, with patients being isolated and moved to the end of the hall. This area had previously been used as…