Annual report of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital : 1937.

  • Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.
Date:
1937
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital : 1937. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    65/256 (page 59)
    Under the present conditions, the Department of Pathology can accomplish little more than routine duties and the training of men in pathology for university and hospital positions. Owing to the small personnel, heavy routine, and limited space, important research can rarely be undertaken by members of the staff or invited guests. More and more the laboratory has become a training school, with a record not unworthy of the standing of the Hospital as most of the former resident pathologists hold important teaching positions in first-rate medical schools. The volume and interesting nature of the routine material, together with the stimulating and congenial spirit prevailing at the Hospital—and this applies to both administrative and clinical departments—make the position of Pathologist on the staff highly desirable and easily bearable under conditions far less favorable than at present, yet improvement is desirable and easily achievable. The general standards of a hospital may be most easily appraised by the standards and efficiency found in the Pathological Department, because in a general way the Pathological Department represents the response to the demands of physician and surgeon. In fact, the financial support of a pathological laboratory represents an opinion on the part of the Administration and Trustees which is virtually reflected from the clinical departments. At the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital all of the bookkeeping concerning the Pathological Depart¬ ment is on the debit side as no fees are charged to patients for pathological studies. I think it advisable to repeat from my report for the year 1928. “The direction of the hospital laboratory by the adminis¬ trative head of the Medical School Department of Pathol¬ ogy has disadvantages as well as advantages from its