Welcome!

At Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, doctors, nurses, and other staff will care for your child. Our team works hard to give your child the best care and to include your family in decisions about your child’s treatment. The care team welcomes your questions, concerns, and thoughts about your child’s care.

This guide provides information on the services and resources available at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford to help you and your child during a hospital stay.

Our Welcome Desk

When you walk through our doors, you will first meet the Welcome Desk team. They greet visitors, patients, and family members and can help your family and you get around the hospital. There are Welcome Desks in both the West and Main Buildings.

Stanford Children’s creates a safe and healthy space for you and your child. For that reason, all hospital visitors, family members, and patients must check in at the Welcome Desk to receive an ID badge before entering the hospital.

The Welcome Desk team also has information on the many resources and programs at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. If you have a question, just ask! Nothing is too large or too small for our staff.

If you are unable to visit the desk, you can use the phone in the hospital room or your own cell phone to call us. 

Phone Number/ Information Desk: (650) 497-8005

We are a place of healing

As a community, we treat each other and you with care and respect. Please talk with your bedside nurse, unit manager, patient navigator, social worker, or chaplain if you need support during your child’s hospital stay.

Finding Your Way
People You May Meet
Family Resource Center
Food & Gifts
Financial & Insurance Information
Play & Recreation
In the Room
Staying Overnight
Resources for Nursing Mothers
Patient Rights & Responsibilites
Car Seat Safety
Sharing Your Experience

Hospital phone numbers

The Hospital Operator can connect you to any department or phone number not listed in this guide.

Making calls from the hospital

If you do not have a cell phone, you can make calls from the hospital phone in your child’s room. From a hospital phone:

  • Calling a number outside the hospital, dial 9 + 1 + area code + entire phone number.
  • Calling a hospital number, dial only the last five numbers of the phone number. For example, if you call the Food Services phone number at (650) 497-8871, dial 7-8871.

Wifi network name and password

Network: StanfordChildrens

Password: No password needed

Our app

The free Stanford Medicine Children’s App can help you walk around the hospital, open MyChart and find hospital services and other tools to improve your stay.

Download it from the iOS or Android App Store.

Social workers give your child and family support and counseling. They are connected with many resources and services in the community.

Some of the primary ways they can assist you include:

  • Helping patients and caregivers manage life changes due to hospital stays.
  • Providing crisis intervention and support.
  • Educating patients and caregivers about illness and treatment plans.
  • Helping siblings and family members adjust to the illness or hospital stay.
  • Working with Interpreter Services to help with language and cultural needs.
  • Planning and hosting care meetings between your family and the care team.
  • Helping you make care decisions.
  • Educating your family about access to health care, hospital, and resources.
  • Putting you in touch with community services.

Some of these services can help with finances, legal issues, and mental health needs.

Learn more about Social Services >

We strive to provide complete support to all our patients and their families. This includes respecting their language or cultural needs. Our first priority is effective communication between you and our medical team.

If you prefer to receive medical information in a language other than English, our free Interpreter Services team is available to assist patients and their families effectively communicate about and understand their medical journey.

You can use interpreter services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year—either in person or by video or phone.

How we can help

Interpreters in person

  • Spanish interpreters are here at the hospital 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
  • American Sign Language (ASL), Cantonese, Mandarin, and Vietnamese interpreters are here during business hours.
  • Business hours are Monday to Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Indigenous language interpreters are available by appointment and by phone.
  • Other languages: pre-scheduling is required for in-person interpretation.

Interpreters on iPads, video, and telephone

  • Spanish interpreters can speak to you through phone or video 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
  • You can contact an interpreter using the iPad as a phone, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There are iPads available in most rooms. There are 200 language options for this method.
  • You can contact an interpreter via video on the iPad during business hours. There are 25 language options for this method.
  • Business hours are Monday to Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Indigenous language interpreters are available by phone.
  • For our Deaf or Hard of Hearing families, we provide American Sign Language interpretation through video in our lobby, our units, and clinics.

We partner with specialized agencies to meet our families’ needs.

Learn more about Interpretive Services >

Where are you finding your strength? Your hope? Your peace?

When you or your child are in the hospital, it can be difficult. Our professional health care chaplains are focused on the healing journey of each person. They honor all cultural, spiritual, and faith backgrounds.

You or your child may benefit from supportive services from our chaplains, like prayer, meditation, deep listening, or open presence. Chaplains can help with special religious requests and often work with local religious groups.

We are here to:

  • Provide compassion and emotional support.
  • Talk and pray with you before a surgery.
  • Visit you in your hospital room.
  • Host worships services for all faiths in the Sanctuary.
  • Discuss your religious or moral and ethical questions.
  • Join you for care conferences.
  • Offer rituals, such as urgent baptism and sacraments.
  • Help you practice your faith.
  • Pray for hope, healing, and peace.

Where to find us

The hospital Sanctuary is a beautiful retreat offering patients, families, and visitors of all faiths traditions a quiet space for individual prayer, meditation, or worship.

The Sanctuary is located on the first floor of the Main Building. The Sanctuary, Healing Garden, and Labyrinth are open to patients, families, and staff of all backgrounds and faith traditions. Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

How to reach us

  • A chaplain is here to help you and your family 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
  • You can ask your nurse or call (650) 497-8000 and ask the operator to page 27729. This pager number is available to members of all faiths.

Learn more about our Spiritual Care Services >

When a child is hospitalized, one concern is the fear of falling behind in school. Carrying on the everyday activity of going to school can have a positive effect on the hospitalized child’s attitude toward and acceptance of treatment. The expectation that school age children will participate in this program gives them a familiar and reassuring routine in an unfamiliar setting.

A unique collaboration

The Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital School Program, a unique collaboration between the Palo Alto Unified School District and the hospital, has been in existence since 1924. Since that time, there have been many advancements in medicine as well as innovations in the field of education, but providing a quality education to critically and chronically ill children continues to be a priority in this partnership.

Staffed by credentialed Palo Alto Unified School District teachers, the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital School offers a fully accredited academic curriculum for school age students. The school also offers enrichment programs such as art and drama.

Hospital School teachers may contact students’ home schools to ensure continuity of curriculum and to facilitate school re-entry. Students are encouraged to continue the academic programs of their home schools, or if needed, can be placed in appropriate grade level curriculum through the Palo Alto Unified School District. Transcripts and/or progress reports are provided to home schools upon request.

Learn more about the Hospital School >

Ronald McDonald House Charities Bay Area (RMHC Bay Area) helps sick kids and their families by giving them comfort and support when they need it most.

The team has many services for families, including:

  • Overnight accommodations (Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford specific).
  • Communal kitchens to cook their own meals.
  • Age-appropriate play areas.
  • Seasonal day camps for patients and siblings (children must be 4 years of age or older and potty trained).
  • Fitness facilities.
  • Laundry facilities.
  • Private showers and restrooms.
  • Free meals are served most evenings (5 to 6 p.m.).

Learn more about the Ronald McDonald House >

The Pharmacy Department at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford includes the following services:

Pharmacies

  • Inpatient Pharmacy
    Provides distribution, clinical pharmacy, investigation drug study and drug information services to inpatient units on a 24-hour basis.
  • Outpatient Pharmacy
    Provides outpatient medication services for the pediatric primary care clinic, pediatric specialty clinics, obstetrics clinic, patients discharged from inpatient units and staff.
  • Specialty Pharmacy
    Provides pharmacy services for patients requiring specialized and complex medications with personalized care, regular follow-ups, in-depth consultation services and support with insurance carriers.
  • Children's Home Pharmacy
    Provides home infusion pharmacy services, enteral therapy and other specialized injectable therapies for pediatric patients and adults with childhood diseases such as cystic fibrosis and hemophilia.
  • Bass Center Pharmacy
    Services hematology, oncology, stem cell transplant patients in the inpatient, outpatient or day hospital settings.
  • Short Stay Unit Pharmacy
    Services the Short Stay Unit and Ambulatory Care.
  • Operating Room (OR) Pharmacy
    Services the perioperative areas.

Learn more about our Pharmacy Services >