Expanding on unparalleled patient care

Letter from the Dean

Though the new Stanford Hospital was built with steel and concrete, its foundation is precision health. This 824,000-square-foot facility, which opened Nov. 17, is advancing research, education and patient care, and helping us to usher in our vision of predictive, holistic health care.

For decades, Stanford Medicine has been synonymous with innovation, and the new Stanford Hospital continues this pioneering legacy. Though many contributed to this extraordinary achievement, I am especially grateful to Stanford Health Care President and CEO David Entwistle. His vision and leadership have been critical to overcoming the many challenges that accompany a project of this magnitude.

In conjunction with our state-of-the-art multidisciplinary research buildings and the recently renovated Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, we have some of the most advanced infrastructure and technology anywhere. Through an increased capacity for translational medicine, we are expanding our ability to rapidly move breakthroughs from researcher bench to patient bedside.

Students, trainees and experienced clinicians alike are practicing their skills in an immersive, digitally rich environment. Consider the hospital’s 28 new operating rooms.

They bring together imaging and other technologies that give surgeons critical real-time access to the information they need, whether it’s through video conferencing with specialists on the other side of the world or using an interventional MRI to scan patients while in surgery.

The new hospital offers the same unparalleled patient care for which Stanford is known, but on a greater scale. It features 368 patient beds, bringing our total to 600. The Marc Andreessen & Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen Emergency Department enables us to treat 30,000 more patients each year. By expanding access, we will better serve our community today and for years to come.

Though it is one of the most technologically sophisticated in the world, our hospital prioritizes the real and powerful impact of high-touch care and emotional and spiritual wellness. Our patients can walk acres of beautiful gardens, take in the original paintings and sculptures that fill the halls and grounds, and be revitalized in rooms filled with natural light. All of these contribute to their healing and demonstrate our deep commitment to providing compassionate care.

Beyond its physical characteristics and capabilities, the hospital is second to none because of our dedicated and talented physicians, nurses, researchers, students and staff. It is only through the coordinated efforts of our entire Stanford Medicine team that we will realize the full potential of this beautiful space.

After a decade of designing, planning and building, we have created a hospital that will profoundly change health care. The new Stanford Hospital combines the best possible resources with the best possible environment to bring about a precision health future where we no longer just treat disease but predict, prevent and cure it — precisely.

I look forward to continuing to work closely with David and Stanford Children’s Health President and CEO Paul King as we welcome this bright future of health care.

Sincerely,

Lloyd Minor, MD

Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Dean of the School of Medicine

Professor of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery