Many new technologies have been built into the new Stanford Hospital at 500 Pasteur Drive to make care more efficient than at the old hospital.

If a big earthquake or a pandemic strikes, staff can add a second bed in each of the emergency department's 66-single-patient rooms, and the ambulance bay can be converted into a triage center. The new 900-space employee garage can also be converted for triage, emergency department staff said during a recent tour.

Intensive-care unit rooms, equipped with medical gases, can be used as operating rooms so that patients in critical condition don't have to be moved, Jennifer Winder, public relations manager for planning design and construction, said during a recent tour.

At 700 to 800 square feet each, the 20 operating rooms are nearly twice the size of the old ones. Video screens are a common fixture, useful for surgeons who need to view their operations close up or communicate with specialists and staff. The operating suites are set as pods around a central sterile core where staff prepare for surgeries. Green lighting enhances image-guided surgery to reduce the glare from video screens, said Chad Reeder, controls manager at the new hospital.

A hybrid operating suite, with an adjacent MRI room, allows doctors to wheel the patient directly from the surgery to MRI machine to scan the patient and see the results of the operation thus far.

In keeping with Stanford's role as a teaching hospital, surgeries can be streamed using cameras in each operating room to anywhere in the world for consulting and teaching purposes. Surgery at Stanford on conjoined twins could be viewed simultaneously in China, Reeder said by way of example.

In the basement, robots control the flow and delivery of materials, equipment and medicines. The robotic carts — "tugs" — are programmed to transport hospital equipment and supplies from the pharmacy to elevators and even to locations around the hospital.

The building is also wired with a 3,000-beacon real-time locating system, which electronically tracks equipment. Staff can quickly locate machines, IV stands and other devices from an iPad or mobile computer screen.

As in the old hospital, pneumatic tubes snake through the ceilings, transporting medications mixed in the basement pharmacy. Blood samples, medications, lab specimens or anything small and packaged travel quickly to their locations through the tubes, Reeder said.

Deep beneath the basement, a sophisticated roller system of 2.5- to 4-ton steel plates on metal bearings allow the rigid building to sway three feet in any direction without concern of a collapse during an earthquake up to magnitude 8.

The California legislature passed the law mandating that hospitals meet seismic standards after the 6.7- magnitude Northridge earthquake in 1994 did more than $3 billion in damage to southern California hospitals.

Crews will begin seismic retrofitting and renovations at the old hospital, located at 300 Pasteur Drive, after the new hospital opens. The two hospitals are connected by an enclosed bridge.

The old hospital's renovations are scheduled for completion by 2025. Staff will use the old hospital largely for cancer patients. The old emergency room, which is currently used by adults and children, will be used as a dedicated pediatric emergency room.

"It's been long in coming," said Patrice Callagy, executive director of emergency services.

This is part of a larger story on the new Stanford Hospital that can be found here.

A Q&A video with CEO David Entwistle is available here.

Dr. George Tingwald of Stanford Health Care, joins Weekly staff to discuss the planning that went into building the new Stanford Hospital on an episode of "Behind the Headlines," now available on our YouTube channel and podcast page.