Stanford Medical Campus Plans Major Expansion
Stanford Hospital officials on Monday outlined an expansion plan to the Palo Alto City Council, which must approve the plan before development can begin, the San Jose Mercury News reports (Witt, San Jose Mercury News, 11/21).
In its proposal, the university cited a new state law requiring all hospitals to meet state seismic safety standards. The expansion plan also highlights an emerging trend toward providing larger, private rooms for patients (Wykes, San Jose Mercury News, 11/20).
The expansion plan includes calls for:
- Doubling the city's building height limit so that the school can build a 100-foot tall main hospital facility;
- Demolishing about 1.2 million square feet of existing buildings to be replaced by 2.5 million square feet of new construction; and
- Adding 144 beds to Stanford Hospital and 104 beds to Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital (San Jose Mercury News, 11/21).
Some council members said that the expansion project would add more traffic congestion to a dense city and also harm the environment.
The hospital will officially apply to the city early next year and will open a community process to review the building height and traffic issues.
Hospital officials said that construction would begin by 2009, with the goal for the hospital portion to be completed by 2013. The entire complex would be completed by 2025 (San Jose Mercury News, 11/21). This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.