By Lauren Ingeno
Photos by Margo Reed
When Barbara Agurkis started feeling unwell at her home in Haddon Township, New Jersey, she insisted that her son drive her across the bridge to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where she had undergone a liver transplant months earlier and was continuing to receive care. She had no idea that just two days later, she would be part of what she is calling the “great migration” from HUP into Penn Medicine’s brand new, 1.5 million-square-foot Pavilion, which opened its doors to Agurkis and more than 300 other patients on Saturday, October 30.
The large windows in patient rooms and family lounges in the Pavilion offer sweeping views of the city skyline, West Philadelphia, and Franklin Field.
Starting at 9 a.m., through a bridge lined with pink and white balloons, Penn Medicine staff members and volunteers safely wheeled patients to their destinations in the new building. Nurses applauded and cheered. Music from a Philadelphia Orchestra brass trio filled the hospital corridors.
The move marked the start of a new era for patient care at HUP. The 17-story Pavilion houses 504 private patient rooms, 47 operating rooms, and HUP’s new emergency department, as well as inpatient care for cardiology and cardiac surgery, medical and surgical oncology, neurology and neurosurgery, and transplant surgery.
Agurkis, a physical therapist assistant herself, was in good spirits by the time she had settled into her eleventh-floor room in the Pavilion that Saturday afternoon.
Balloons and flowers lined the path to the Pavilion for the 310 patients who made the move on October 30th.
“I didn’t expect all of this,” she said. “It’s been mind-blowing.”
The sweeping view from her window overlooked Franklin Field and the Philadelphia skyline, and she was flipping through channels on her new room’s big-screen TV. For Agurkis, as she awaited results from tests and imaging, the change of scenery and comfort of her new surroundings put her at ease.
“If you have to be in the hospital, this is the place to be.”
Read more stories from the Pavilion patient move day here and more stories about the Pavilion.