Children with neurologic and neurosurgical conditions requiring acute care now have a dedicated unit to meet their needs at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital San Francisco .
The eight-bed Children's Neuroscience Specialty Unit (CNSU) is the first inpatient expansion since the Mission Bay hospital opened in 2015. Hospital leaders, clinicians, and staff celebrated the milestone at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on July 16 ahead of the unit's opening.
"This is not just a construction milestone; by building this unit, we expand our ability to provide complex care to children in need across Northern California," said Nicholas Holmes , MD, MBA, president of UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals and senior vice president of children's services for UCSF Health. "Each bed allows us to help another child, and each room supports another family that has chosen to rely on UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals during some of their most challenging moments."
About one in five pediatric inpatients at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals receives care related to a neurologic condition, such as epilepsy, stroke, headache, or neuroinflammatory diseases.
"Children with neurologic conditions have unique care needs, just as children with cancer or heart disease do," said Kendall Nash , UCSF Benioff pediatric neurologist. "With this unit, we bring together specialized nurses, physicians, and support staff in a way that improves coordination, streamlines care, and creates a community for families facing similar challenges."
Care around the clock
A key function of the new unit is providing more predictable and consistent access to multidisciplinary care. The CNSU operates year-round and supports admissions seven days a week, which helps to accommodate both emergent and elective admissions and reduce delays for families.
"This unit gives us greater flexibility to place patients in the setting that best meets their needs," said Nash. "It complements the care we provide throughout the hospital while expanding our options for delivering the right care in the right location."
Located near the hospital's Emergency Department and advanced imaging services, the Children's Neuroscience Specialty Unit was designed to support both clinical excellence and family comfort.
Each patient room is private and equipped with integrated video EEG capabilities. Patients and families also have access to the Lana TV platform, providing entertainment, communication and hospital services at the bedside.
The unit's layout promotes close collaboration among care teams while creating a calm, welcoming environment for children and families. A centralized nursing station allows staff to maintain visibility across all patient rooms and respond quickly to patient needs, while continuous video electroencephalogram (vEEG) monitoring experts are steps away.
The Children's Neuroscience Specialty Unit represents the next chapter in UCSF's longstanding commitment to advancing pediatric neuroscience care. It builds on the foundation of the Pediatric Brain Center, established in 2011 to provide coordinated, multidisciplinary outpatient care for children with complex neurologic conditions and expanded into a dedicated clinic space at Mission Bay when the hospital opened in 2015.
Together, the Pediatric Brain Center and the new inpatient unit create a seamless continuum of care, extending the center's original vision of a medical home for children with complex brain disorders into the hospital. The Pediatric Brain Center was among the first in the country to integrate pediatric neurology, neurosurgery, physical and occupational therapy, speech therapy, social work, and neuropsychology in one coordinated program.
In the CNSU, care is delivered by a multidisciplinary team that includes Pediatric Hospital Medicine physicians, neurohospitalists, neurosurgeons, pediatric epilepsy specialists, pediatric headache specialists, nurses, and allied health professionals.
The CNSU was supported by funding from California Proposition 4, the 2018 statewide bond measure that provides grants to support construction, expansion, and renovation projects at California's qualifying children's hospitals.
