Enjoy your Pokemon Go, but be aware of patient safety and privacy

It seems like much of the Bay Area and the world is enjoying Pokemon Go. Playing this game in a hospital environment can create challenging issues and safety concerns for hospital patients and staff. If you are playing the game near Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford or at one of our Stanford Medicine Children’s Health clinics or specialty services locations, we have some safety precautions we’d like to share.

In order to protect patient privacy and ensure our patients receive the highest quality care possible, we ask all Pokemon Go players to be considerate of the following guidelines:

Please do not enter Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital or Stanford Medicine Children’s Health facilities unless you are a patient or you are visiting a patient or loved one. For more information, please see our visitor polices.

Refrain from sharing patient information, intentionally or otherwise. For example, taking a screenshot of the game inside patient treatment areas could inadvertently capture protected health information and would be a violation of HIPAA regulations.

Mind all posted signage related to construction dangers, security warnings or other safety restrictions. Several areas on the Stanford Medical campus are active construction zones. Please be careful and navigate accordingly.

Please don’t drop Pokemon Go lures inside or directly outside Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.

For your personal safety, we also ask that you follow all traffic rules and regulations while on campus. Please be sure to obey traffic and pedestrian signals.

As you might expect, walking while staring at a phone screen is challenging and increases your risk of bumping into people and things. Please be extra careful if you are navigating through the hospital while playing.

Thank you for keeping these guidelines in mind as you enjoy the game in a fun and safe way.