Tuesday was no ordinary day at Children's Hospital, one of the 13 Harvard teaching hospitals.

Beginning at 6 a.m., 70 volunteers and most of the hospital staff spent 12 hours moving 320 patients--ranging in age from newborn babies to young adults--to a larger building next door to the old one on Longwood Ave., in Boston.

During the exodus, which ended three hours ahead of schedule, groups of patients journeyed one at a time to their new homes. The new building, connected to the old one on the fifth and sixth floors, cost the hospital $86 million.

Staff members had developed detailed plans so the 320 sick children could be moved with the least possible disturbance, but some changes in the hospital's routine were inevitable.

Meals were served as usual, but they were boxed in the fashion of the popular McDonald's "Happy Meal." Staff members not directly assigned to patient care gathered in the halls connecting the two buildings to watch the children's faces as they caught the first glimpse of their new surroundings. They were not disappointed. The patients were visibly excited about the large, windowed patient rooms and playrooms, and the beds that raise and lower automatically.

The corridors in the new building sported balloons and streamers, and each unit welcomed patients with signs and special touches, including colorful murals in the playrooms. Hospital personnel wore brightly colored t-shirts with the message, "We moved the Children's Hospital...February, 1988."

The new building also features fold-out beds in patient rooms which allow parents to spend the night right next to their children. "One of [the hospital's] principle commitments is family treatment. It is part of the healing process to have Mom or Dad nearby," said David Peck, project manager for the new building.

The atmosphere may have seemed more like a carnival than a hospital, but health care was still the priority. Oxygen tanks and emergency equipment stood ready in the corners. Department heads and staff members carried walkie-talkies to ensure communication between the two buildings.

And although some children seemed to be just enjoying the ride, the oxygen masks and wheelchairs served as constant reminders that Children's is a hospital.

The Welcome Wagon

Each patient was attended by at least one nurse and usually several volunteers and relatives during the move. And three staff members waited in the connecting halls to welcome patients with a small stuffed animal. For some infants, the move meant leaving behind the only home they had ever known.

Purple monkey in hand and grinning broadly, Arthur Hacking, a member of the hospital's facility planning team, stood waiting for the next traveller. Hacking said the move gave him renewed faith in what he called "the mystique of Children's Hospital."

"This place is something special," he said. "No matter what you do at the hospital, everyone is contributing to getting children well."

Anne Lang, vice president of the human resources department and interim vice president of operations, took her job on the welcoming team very seriously. When a teenaged patient passed by her station, she asked with concern if he wanted a stuffed animal. "We don't want you to feel left out," she said.

While some children completed the move on foot, perhaps pushing a medicine bag hanging from a pole or nursing an arm in a cast, others moved in wheelchairs or special sterile tents.