Many new technologies have been built into the replacement Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., according to an article on the Palo Alto Express website.
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.