The end is near for Delaware County's largest health system. Thursday was the last full day that Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland was open.

Hallways, patient rooms and operating rooms, are now empty as the hospital prepares to shut down permanently at 8 a.m. on Friday. Patients are trying to figure out where to go now to get care.

"It's somber," Melanie McKendry, the lead medical assistant at the gynecologic-oncology unit at Crozer Chester Medical Center, said. "It feels like we're at our own funeral, basically."

Crozer's parent company, Prospect Medical Holdings, is bankrupt. Prospect also owns Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park, which closed on April 26.

"I'm devastated," Nicole Thomas, a surgical scheduler at Crozer Chester Medical Center, said. "I'm very, very upset. I kind of haven't really accepted what's going on because I kind of don't want to right now."

Some patients were in tears as they came to pick up their medical records on Thursday and say goodbye.

"I know this is just heartbreaking," Sharon Didimazio, a cancer patient at Crozer Chester Medical Center, said. "I don't want to get too emotional, but what is going on in this country? I don't understand."

Thomas and McKendry said they're walking out the doors with no severance pay and no other job lined up, but their main concern is their patients.

"People are frantic trying to get medical records," Thomas said. "People are frantic trying to get refills on medications that they can only get through certain doctors. Prospect is putting these patients in a very deadly situation and they do not care."

There's sadness and anger about the loss of a critical community resource.

"One patient said that she tried to call to get an appointment for another GYN/oncologist and they don't have anything until September," McKendry said. "So this is not a smooth transition. This is not at all what Prospect said it was. This is an absolute mess."

The shutdown of the Crozer Health system means that many patients will have to travel farther to get care. Doctors at Temple Health are now expecting an increase in demand for medical helicopter flights.

With traffic, it could take an hour for an ambulance to transport a patient from Upland to Temple University Hospital's main campus in North Philadelphia. But by helicopter, officials said it would only take 15 to 20 minutes.

Temple Hospital has a level one trauma center, which means that it cares for the most seriously injured patients. The hospital also has a 10-bed burn center.

"The closest burn centers verified by American Burn Association are going to be at Temple and Lehigh Valley, and Temple is certainly much closer," Dr. Daniel del Portal, a senior vice president for medical operations at Temple Health, said.

The chopper is staffed with a pilot, nurse and medic trained to provide critical care.