A Ripple Effect

The hospital expansion and the entire Stanford University Medical Center Project Renewal have been carefully designed to benefit every member of the community, even non-patients.

Packard Children’s and Stanford Hospital & Clinics will pay close to $175 million in community benefits to the City of Palo Alto. This includes transportation improvements, such as $1.8 million a year for 51 years to provide Caltrain GO Passes to all medical center employees. The hospitals enacted the program and its benefits two years earlier than expected, along with rolling out four new Marguerite shuttle buses to address community traffic impacts and to encourage the use of mass transportation. Other transportation-related funds have also been allocated for new pedestrian and bike connections between the Medical Center, Stanford Shopping Center, and the Palo Alto Caltrain station.

The Medical Center financial commitment also includes $23.2 million to support affordable housing and sustainable neighborhood and community development, and community health programs. An additional $6.2 million will go to Palo Alto parks, libraries, and community facilities. The City of Menlo Park will receive $3.7 million for traffic improvements and discretionary needs.

Of course, the most significant benefit will be expanded access to Packard Children’s Hospital, ranked as the best children’s hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area and one of the top pediatric facilities in America.