Skip to main content
NIH Clinical Center
  Home | Contact Us | Site Map | Search
About the Clinical Center
For Researchers and Physicians
Participate in Clinical Studies

Back to: Clinical Center Home Page > About the Clinical Center
 
Visitor Information

We invite family members and other visitors to the Clinical Center to feel at home in our facility. A list of Clinical Center telephone numbers is available. And don't forget you can always Contact Us.


Englishpdf icon Spanish/en español pdf icon

The National Institutes of Health dedicated its new hospital, the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center, in September, 2004. If you are a new or returning patient, this fact sheet includes some information you need to know before your upcoming visit. When you arrive at the Clinical Center, Hospitality staff will be available to provide more information and directions.

About our name

The Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center is an extension of the Warren Grant Magnuson Center, which opened its doors to patients in 1953. Together, the Magnuson and Hatfield Centers are the NIH Clinical Center

Getting to NIH and the Clinical Center

See Directions to the Clinical Center for driving directions.

View Map pdf icon

A special entrance for patients and patient visitors is now open Monday-Friday, 7 a.m. -7 p.m. Patients and patient visitors may use this new entrance at the intersection of West Cedar Lane and West Drive, directly north of the main entrance of the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center. The facility is designed to ease and speed NIH access for patients by providing one-stop security screening. (Please bring a photo ID if you are 16 or older.)

This gate is for entry only (except in emergencies) and will be closed weekends and holidays. To leave NIH, follow signs to other gates.

For other visitors—and when the patient entrance is closed. Enter the NIH campus using the main public entrance at Route 355 (Rockville Pike) and South Drive. Once you go through the security checkpoint, stay on South Drive until you reach Center Drive. Turn right on Center Drive and follow signs to “Patient Parking” and “Clinical Center.” The main entrance to the hospital will be to your left on Center Drive.

Security note for visitors and patients

Please be aware that Federal law prohibits the following items on Federal property: firearms, explosives, archery equipment, dangerous weapons, knives with blades over 2 1/2 inches, alcoholic beverages and open containers of alcohol.

Getting around the new hospital

Floorplan

Hospitality desks are located throughout the hospital–including at the main entrance and in the lobby adjacent to the Patient Parking garage. Staff can answer your questions and provide directions. Maps of each floor will be available at the Hospitality desks.

Patient Services

Many of the resources patients need have relocated to the first floor of the new hospital. Near the Central Elevators you’ll find Admissions, the Cashier and Voucher offices, and Patient Travel. Luggage can be stored in lockers located in the Transportation/Waiting Area at the main entrance. Social Work is on the second floor. Outpatient clinics remain in their current locations.

The hospital’s two cafeterias (B1 and 2nd floor) remain in the Magnuson Center. A coffee bar in the new hospital’s first floor atrium is open weekdays, 7 am- 5 pm.

More information on Patient Services

Shuttle Service and Public Transportation

Shuttles leave from the main entrance of the Hatfield Center. Shuttle service is available for patients and families who wish to go to the Children’s Inn, airports, and nearby hotels. You may also use the campus shuttles to go to the Metro and other NIH buildings.

Shuttle schedules are online.

Parking for Patients and Patient Visitors

There are two options for parking and both are free.

  • If you choose to self-park, go to the Patient Parking garage (P1), which is on the west end of the building off Convent Drive. Parking attendants will be available to assist you. You’ll enter the new hospital through a new lobby on the lower (B1) level. Stop by the Hospitality desk to validate your parking ticket. The South Elevators serve the parking garages.

  • If you’d prefer to use the valet parking service for patients and visitors, drive to the Clinical Center’s new main entrance on Center Drive. Valet parking is available Monday through Friday, 7 am -10 pm (excluding federal holidays). When you arrive, have your valet claim ticket validated at the Hospitality desk.

More information about Parking

Smoking Policy

Clinical Center's policy about smoking

For More Information

If you have questions before your upcoming visit, please call Admissions, 301-496-3141.

For more information about getting to the NIH, hospital services and the NIH Clinical Center in general—including the new Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center—go online, http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov, or call Clinical Center Communications, 301-496-2563.

NOTE: PDF documents require the free Adobe Reader.


This page last updated on 08/12/08


National Institutes
of Health
  Department of Health
and Human Services
 
NIH Clinical Center National Institutes of Health