Stanford University Medical Center

Stanford Cancer Center in San Jose.

The hospital's history began with the foundation of the Stanford Home for Convalescent Children (the "Con Home") in 1911. When the Stanford Medical School moved south from San Francisco in 1959, the Stanford Hospital was established and was co-owned with the city of Palo Alto; it was then known as Palo Alto-Stanford Hospital Center. It was purchased by the university in 1968 and renamed.

The Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine opened in 1989; the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford opened in 1991; the Richard M. Lucas Center for Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Imaging opened in 1992. In 1999, Stanford University approved a $185 million, five-year plan to improve the 40-year-old School of Medicine facility. The Center for Clinical Sciences Research (CCSR) opened in 2000. The Clark Center for interdisciplinary research and bioengineering opened in 2004.

In 2009, the Stanford outpatient clinics, which were running out of expansion room, were relocated to the Stanford Medicine Outpatient Center, a large new site in Redwood City, California formerly occupied by the corporate headquarters of Excite@Home. The buildings were extensively remodeled for medical use to provide facilities the clinics' old homes lacked. For example, the Sleep Medicine Center's new sleep lab has thorough soundproofing and can accommodate a few morbidly obese patients. In 2018, these outpatient facilities were expanded to receive the main campuses outgoing Digestive Health Center and endoscopy suite, to make room for the new expansions/renovations at the main Stanford Hospital, in addition to nearly doubling the existing imaging facilities and adding an external parking structure at the Stanford Outpatient Center.

The inpatient facilities remain on the main campus, which as of 2019, has undergone another round of major expansions, renovations, and revitalization, including a new inpatient structure, renovation of the old inpatient building, renovations of the Cancer Center and Blake Wilbur Building, and new emergency facilities, all located on a plot adjacent to the existing hospital. These major renovations are part of Stanford University's long-term master planning for renovation and medical advancement, which have included past projects such as the Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford and the Stanford Neurosciences Health Center.[5]

The Stanford Life Flight program began May 1, 1984. Its aircraft is an EC 145 helicopter that can fly under both visual and instrument flight rules, allowing for response to calls in nearly any weather. The aircraft accommodates two patients with two flight nurses, or one patient with up to four caregivers, plus the pilot guru.[6]

The hospital's medical staff numbers 1,910 with an additional 850 interns and residents, as well as nearly 1,500 registered nurses and approximately 610 licensed beds. Stanford Clinics, the group practice of most faculty physicians of Stanford University School of Medicine, includes 493 full-time faculty physicians. Their areas of expertise range from primary care to the most advanced medical and surgical specialties. Stanford Clinics offer more than 100 specialty and subspecialty service areas. Under the supervision of faculty physicians, Stanford medical students and residents participate in patient care in most specialties. The clinics participate in preferred provider health care programs as well as Medicare and MediCal.

Stanford University Medical Center is world-renowned for its work in cardiovascular medicine and cardiothoracic surgery, organ transplantation, neurology, neurosurgery, and cancer medicine.[7] It has nearly 40,000 emergency department visits per year and hosts 20,000 inpatients yearly.[7] In 2017, Stanford Hospital was ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the 9th-best hospital out of 5,462 medical centers in the United States, and third in the West Coast after the UCSF Medical Center and the UCLA Medical Center.[8] As of 2018, Stanford received high rankings in the following specialties:[9]