For many outpatient services, the doctor will now see you in Redwood City

Credit: Norbert von der Groeben

Opening Feb. 17, Stanford Hospital & Clinics' new outpatient center in Redwood City unites several specialty clinics on one campus with the aim of providing more efficient and convenient service to patients.

Patients can now visit a wide array of Stanford outpatient clinics, from orthopaedic surgery and sports medicine to pain management and sleep medicine, through one main door. The Stanford Medicine Outpatient Center, which is to open Feb. 17 in Redwood City, is the new home of specialized services that were previously located on the main campus at Stanford University Medical Center.

'The idea was to create a center where we can have all of our outpatient clinics, complete imaging and diagnostic capabilities, an outpatient surgicenter and physical therapy services,' said William Maloney, MD, chair of orthopaedic surgery. 'It's not crowded, it's easy to find, it's right off Highway 101, and it has free parking.'

The outpatient center, located at 450 Broadway St., offers all the conveniences of one-stop shopping with the continued excellence of care that is the hallmark of Stanford Hospital & Clinics. In addition to orthopaedic surgery and pain management clinics, the site includes outpatient services for hand and upper extremities, joint replacement, spine disorders and sports medicine.

'The creation of the campus for our patients was truly a multidisciplinary effort,' said Helen Wilmot, the hospital's vice president for ambulatory services. 'The four-year planning and construction project involved feedback from patients about what they expect from an outpatient experience, direction from doctors about the latest clinical technology and input from staff about creating an environment that enables them to do their best for our patients. The building and the environment capture the best of all three perspectives.

Patients enter the center through one central lobby that links to two clinical pavilions. They can register with receptionists or find their way to a specific clinic by tapping into electronic kiosks near the main doors. Waiting rooms are welcoming, with comfortable wing chairs and beige couches dusted with yellow and chartreuse accents. There is also a café with outdoor seating that overlooks landscaped greenery.

On the third floor of Pavilion A, six operating rooms surround a central 'clean core' where sterile supplies are stored. Encompassing about 630 square feet - the new industry standard for accommodating new technologies - each of the ORs at the outpatient center is organized for efficiency and the latest innovations in care. Anesthesia booms can be adjusted for operating teams, and high-intensity surgical lights spotlight procedures that are visible from multiple angles on four display screens in each operating suite.

Martha Marsh

The opening of the new center comes 50 years after the move of Stanford Hospital and the School of Medicine from San Francisco to Palo Alto. That move enabled the medical center to position itself at the forefront of medical excellence in the 20th century. The new outpatient center 'assures that Stanford Hospital & Clinics will continue to lead in the 21st century,' said Stanford Hospital President and CEO Martha Marsh, 'and that our patients will have not only the finest care but the best facilities and service designed for every aspect of their comfort and convenience.'

Here's an overview of what the center offers:

Orthopaedic surgery and sports medicine

With the move of 25 physicians and surgeons to the Redwood City facility, the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine is the largest program at the new complex.

William Maloney

It includes the Boswell Joint Replacement Center and the Charlotte and George P. Shultz Center for Orthopaedic Tumor Surgery, as well as specialty services in sports medicine; trauma, spine, hand and upper extremity surgery; and foot and ankle surgery. Maloney said his clinicians now will be able to offer a 'multiplicity of services for musculoskeletal care,' with the department's many clinics gathered under one roof.

Because he and his colleagues depend heavily on imaging for making accurate diagnoses, Maloney is especially pleased with the ground-floor imaging center, with its state-of-the-art MRI and CT scanners.

'Much of what we deal with as orthopaedic surgeons is pain-related,' Maloney said, and patients with chronic pain problems now can be seen just down the hall from their surgeons' offices. 'Orthopaedic patients also can get physical therapy for nonoperative conditions, and there's physical therapy available for post-op rehabilitation,' he said.

Dermatology

When it was housed in the Blake Wilbur Outpatient Clinic, the dermatology clinic was designed to handle 12,000 patients annually, but physicians now see more than 20,000 people every year. 'We're offering more complex services, and our patient volume has been growing rapidly every year,' said Al Lane, MD, chair of dermatology.

The majority of the dermatology department's clinical practice has moved to the new facility. Lane predicted that physicians in the clinics will be able to provide timelier services and outstanding care for complicated dermatological conditions.

Al Lane

'If you have something on your skin that's uncomfortable, you don't want to wait to be seen,' he said. 'At the outpatient center we have more space, and we hope to expand the number of same-day appointments.'

Clinicians will continue to offer special services for patients with common and complicated skin cancers. In the new facilities, for example, they will excise skin cancers with a procedure known as Mohs surgery to minimize scars and improve the opportunity to remove an entire cancer in one day. Under local anesthesia, the skin cancer is peeled away, layer by layer, and the removed skin is examined to ensure that the cancer is removed. Then the skin can be repaired by the most cosmetically effective method.

The cutaneous lymphoma and melanoma clinics will remain on the Stanford main campus in the Stanford Cancer Center. Pediatric dermatology patients will continue to be seen in the clinics at Stanford, Mountain View and Los Gatos.

Sleep

For the first time, the Stanford Sleep Medicine Clinic - the world's first sleep clinic - and the Stanford Center for Human Sleep Research will be housed under one roof. At a time when more than 70 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders, clinic and center staff will provide enhanced patient care in state-of-the-art facilities and laboratories.

Clete Kushida

'The facility enables us to use the latest techniques and equipment to diagnose and treat sleep disorders in a comfortable environment for our patients,' said Clete Kushida, MD, PhD, acting medical director of the clinic and director of the sleep research center. 'With new procedure rooms, we have new ways to capture information, such as using fiber optic scopes to view the upper airway.'

Take-home devices also will allow the staff to diagnose sleep apnea in patients' homes, and an expanded faculty will be available to treat patients with insomnia.

The new sleep medicine center now features bedrooms for 14 overnight patients and an additional four rooms for research studies. Each bedroom has the latest in sleep monitoring equipment, and the rooms have been specially designed to minimize sound to make overnight stays more comfortable.

Digestive health

As the initial occupants settle in, the director of at least one program is looking to the future of the outpatient center. 'At first, we'll have a relatively small clinic, where gastroenterologists will see patients, and we'll have an endoscopy suite for routine outpatient procedures, such as colonoscopies,' said Pankaj Jay Pasricha, MD, professor of gastroenterology and hepatology, and director of the new Stanford Digestive Health Center.

Pasricha and a handful of physicians already have moved to the new center, but the majority of its staff won't arrive at the new site until the spring or summer of 2010.

At that point, Pasricha plans to unveil a 'truly multidisciplinary clinic where we hope to have our gastroenterologists, hepatologists, surgeons and radiologists seeing complex patients together.' These include patients with inflammatory bowel disease, abdominal pain and motility problems, gastrointestinal cancers and pancreatic, biliary and liver problems, as well as those requiring difficult endoscopic procedures.

Among the innovations being considered is a one-stop shop for virtual colonoscopy and real colonoscopy, which will offer convenience and value to patients. The new digestive health center also will be positioned at the forefront of minimally invasive and endoscopic therapies.

At a glance: Stanford Medicine Outpatient Center

	Visual Strategies
	The new Stanford Medicine Outpatient Center is just off the Woodside Road exit from Highway 101 in Redwood City and has ample free parking..

Facilities

• Approximately 360,000 square feet
• Ninety-six exam rooms
• Eight (six at opening) operating rooms designed for surgical procedures that do not require hospitalization
• Three MRIs, three CTs, Dexascan for bone density tests (two MRIs and one CT at opening)
• 18 state-of-the-art sleeping suites
• No emergency or urgent care services

Clinics

• Dermatology
• Digestive Health Center
• Imaging
• Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine
• Pain Management
• Sleep Medicine

By the numbers

• 120,000 clinic visits projected per year
• 9,000 surgeries projected per year
• 100+ faculty
• 400 employees (250 at opening)

Amenities

• Nearly 1,175 free parking spaces
• Valet parking service
• On-site café
• Guest services
• Garden area
• Wireless computer access