New Stanford children’s hospital set to open in December

New renderings have been released of the new pediatric and obstetric hospital campus at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, which is now slated to open in December, five years after the groundbreaking for the facility.

The project will add 521,000 square feet and 149 patient beds, bringing the Palo Alto, California facility’s total hospital space to 844,000 square feet and 361 beds.

“This will be the nation's most technologically advanced, environmentally sustainable and family-friendly hospital for children and expectant mothers,” hospital CEO Christopher Dawes said in a statement.

Among the planned features of the new hospital:

• Six new surgical suites, including a “neuro-hybrid surgery suite with diagnostic MRI, “direct access to angiography imaging equipment” and a full operating room.
• Dedicated isotope radiation therapy room
• Stand-alone combined PET/MRI scanners for pediatric patients
• 3.5 acres of gardens and green space
• “Sustainable” design features which the hospital said will save 800,000 gallons of water per year, putting Packard’s use 38 percent below that of comparable hospitals

The project will also mean upgrades for the original building. For example, the Johnson Center for Pregnancy and Newborn Services will offer mostly private obstetrics rooms.

Other Packard programs, like the Bass Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases, Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center and the pediatric transplant centers will be transitioned into the new building. Some services which had been shared with Stanford Hospital, like nuclear medicine, catheterization labs, interventional radiology and food services, will now have “a dedicated presence inside” Packard.

“When planning and design began many years ago, we knew we had to leave room for ever-evolving technology,” said chief medical officer Dennis Lund, MD. “So, we’ll have the most advanced capabilities available when we open later this year, with the ability to implement emerging technologies in the future.”

Since opening in 1981, Packard has become one of the most highly-ranked pediatric hospitals in the U.S., making the top 10 in the 2016-17 rankings from U.S. News and World Report.