The Center for Surgical Health

Supporting, educating, and advocating for vulnerable individuals with surgical diseases

Our Vision

To create sustainable infrastructure through which all members of our community can access high-quality, cost-conscious surgical care, despite socioeconomic, political, racial, cultural or gender-based disparities.

Clinic Schedule

Come see us at these locations!

Puentes De Salud

1700 South Street

Philadelphia, PA 19146

University City Hospitality Coalition (UCHC) @ the Philadelphia Episcopal Church

23 S. 38th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19104

Every 2nd Monday of the month, 6-8 pm

Every 3rd Wednesday of the month, 6-8 pm

*Not currently open due to COVID-19

Can't make it at these times?

No problem! Call us at 267-702-5530 or email us at to set a time to visit.

Conditions Treated

We provide free consultation for adult surgical conditions including but not limited to those in the diagram.

About The Center for Surgical Health

The Center for Surgical Health was founded as the Agnew Surgery Clinic in 2016 under Dr. Jon Morris at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The Center was started with the goal of improving access to surgical care in Philadelphia, a goal that we continue to carry out every day. The clinic is student-run with surgery resident and faculty oversight. We partner with numerous community organizations to address all aspects of patient care, from the medical details to the socioeconomic components of health. 

Divisions

The Clinics

The Clinics rely on intimate partnerships with community organizations to co-locate surgical services alongside primary care. We pair patients with medical student personal patient navigators (PPNs), providing support throughout the perioperative continuum. In addition to navigating the Pennsylvania Emergency Medical Assistance application process, PPNs attend all pre- and postoperative appointments with their patients and scrub into the definitive operation. They coordinate language services and are in constant contact with administrative staff to ensure continuous bidirectional communication at each phase of care. Moreover, they connect patients with social and legal that would otherwise be unavailable. The PPNs are the life-blood of the clinical operation and given the richness of this experience, we are now engaging students from the Schools of Law, Social Policy and Practice, Nursing, and Education to support our clinical care efforts.

The Classroom

The Classroom is the curricular arm of the CSH and is the home of “Operation Equity: An Introduction to the Social Determinants of Surgical Health,” a campus-wide elective that equips students with a broad overview of factors that influence disparities in surgery. The goal of this curriculum is to challenge students to consider systemic barriers that compromise access to high-quality health care and to inspire students to become advocates for vulnerable patient populations through scholarship and practice. With the help of the Graduate School of Education, The Classroom plans to develop innovative high-school curricula to expose teenagers to the social determinants of surgical health, as well as patient-facing programs to improve understanding of surgical disease among vulnerable members of our community.

The Research Lab

The Research Lab provides an infrastructure and mentorship model to train an interdisciplinary cadre of scientists to study the social determinants of surgical health. The goal of The Research Lab is to provide a space for young investigators to develop cross-disciplinary academic partnerships that would otherwise be challenging to establish. The Research Lab liberates investigators from disciplinary norms and encourages creative problem-solving.

The Policy Lab

The Policy Lab is the advocacy and policy division of CSH. The Agnew Policy lab runs the Summer Advocacy Institute, an 8- week problem-based interdisciplinary program where one student from each college of the University of Pennsylvania is chosen to develop a solution to a surgical health care problem impacting marginalized communities. The summer program is interdisciplinary at its core and will include thrice-weekly didactic instruction from leaders within and outside of the University, as well as weekly simulation activities to broaden scholars’ fund of knowledge of outside disciplines. The experience will culminate with a presentation to a local-, state- or national stakeholder with the goal of implementing real policy or practice changes that directly impact communities. In addition, the Policy Lab coordinates the advocacy objectives for CSH and works with political leaders to implement population-based policy changes based on the CSH care model.

Our Partners