New Children’s Hospital Transforms California Healthcare

The new Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (Palo Alto, CA, USA) expansion is set to transform the patient experience through a family-centered design and technological innovation, while setting new standards for sustainability in hospital design.

Nearly a decade in the making, the new pediatric and obstetric hospital campus will more than double the size of the existing campus by linking the original hospital (now called the West building) with the new Main building, bringing the total hospital space to measure 78,410 m2. The new Main building adds 149 patient beds, for a total of 361 beds in the Palo Alto campus, thus enabling the hospital to serve more patients than ever before, and permitting management to deploy awaited renovation plans for the existing hospital building.


With 13 surgical suites, the new hospital will have more operating rooms than any other children’s hospital in Northern California, reducing scheduling delays and long waits when surgeries take longer than planned. A neuro-hybrid surgery suite will feature a state-of-the-art diagnostic MRI, direct access to angiography imaging equipment, and a full operating room that will enable surgeons to view updated images during surgery and reimage patients before closure of the surgical incision, reducing the amount of time a young patient will spend under anesthesia.

A new imaging center features the only PET/MRI exclusively dedicated to pediatric patients in Northern California, which will shorten the time of imaging studies and significantly decreases the radiation dose delivered to the patient by close to 80%. The imaging center is part of a larger treatment center that encompasses surgery, radiology, imaging, interventional suites and catheterization labs, and a dedicated isotope radiation therapy room for nuclear medicine. Both the surgical suites and neuro-interventional and catheterization labs are still under construction, and are slated to open mid-year 2018.

“This will be the nation’s most technologically advanced, environmentally sustainable, and family-friendly hospital for children and expectant mothers,” said Christopher Dawes, CEO of Stanford Children’s Heath. “In our 25 years, we’ve become leaders in providing the best care for children and expectant mothers. Keeping pace with the growing needs of our patients was the catalyst for this transformation. We’ll continue to build world-renowned programs as part of Stanford Medicine and advance research in every pediatric and obstetric specialty.”

“When my mother founded this hospital, she envisioned a place where children and families could receive truly healing care,” said Susan Packard Orr. “She saw the power that nature had to heal and uplift. I’m proud that we have carried her vision forward, with world-class sustainability and holistic elements throughout the new hospital. Everything we do at this hospital will have an eye to ensuring that generations to come will be healthier.”

The new building will also allow for a transformative renovation of much of the existing hospital’s space, including the Johnson Center for Pregnancy and Newborn Services into mostly private obstetrics rooms. Some major programs will grow and transition into the new Main building, including the Bass Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases, the Pediatric Transplant Center, and the Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center.

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Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital