The Philip and Susan Ragon building, now rising over Cambridge Street, is still years from completion, but staff are already getting excited. We asked a group of Massachusetts General Hospital leaders what they were most looking forward to in their new state-of-the-art clinical space.
Casandra McIntyre, RN
“I’m excited about the views that patients will have out of their windows when they’re receiving their cancer treatments and infusions. If they’re sitting in the front of the building facing Cambridge Street, they will see beautiful healing gardens. If they’re sitting in the back, they will face the Bullfinch Building, which is a nod to the history of Mass General. In the middle of these two views stands a state-of-the-art cancer center that is treating patients with the most up-to-date, cutting-edge research. I love that the Ragon Building is a nod to our past, a place of healing with beautiful views and grounded in the best research in the country for new cancer therapies.”
Merit Cudkowicz, MD, MSC
“The Ragon Building will offer even more opportunities for clinicians to share ideas and encourage collaboration across disciplines. The MGB Neuroscience Institute is already working closely with our colleagues in the Heart & Vascular Institute and MGB cancer, making connections to support overall health.”
Debbie Burke, RN, DNP, MBA, NEA-BC
“The Ragon Building will be a hub of healing and innovation. As part of the interprofessional care team, Mass General nurses will have the opportunity to collaborate and engage in patient care in new and innovative ways. As someone who started my career as a staff nurse here, I so look forward to this new chapter of cutting-edge, compassionate patient care.”
David Dudzinski, MD, JD
“Our critically ill patients frequently need urgent CT scans. When we transport a patient from the Cardiac ICU to radiology for a CT scan, they must be accompanied by a nurse and responding clinician, and generally, a respiratory therapist for the ventilator and the mechanical circulatory support therapist. That’s four specialist clinicians — who have other ICU patients — who now need to leave the floor. Our new Ragon Cardiac ICU space will have a state-of-the-art CT scanner directly embedded, which will save valuable clinician time, eliminate harms of travel in elevators, and keep our patients where we are best equipped to care for them.”
James Gordon, MD, MPA
“In the first century of Mass General, the Ether Dome was the heart of the hospital. It was the place where we advanced care and learned together as a community, and it was transformative. In a similar way, the new education and conferencing center, which is under construction within the Ragon Building, will become an Ether Dome for the next century. Now, instead of having to leave campus to host large teaching conferences and events, we can bring people together in our own historic-yet-modern campus — whether they are our neighbors in the community, our scientific and academic counterparts at other institutions or stakeholders from the wider world of healthcare.”
To learn more about how you can help support the Philip and Susan Ragon Building, contact us.
