Autopsy Service at the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital

IN 1932 the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital staff established standard autopsy procedures that have led to a consistently high percentage of permissions for post-mortem examination. The essential features of the program are as follows: A hospital staff that agrees that all deaths be followed by a request for post-mortem examination. Precedence is given to the obtaining of permission for autopsy because of the fleeting nature of the opportunity to give a valuable service to the family of the deceased — I have never known a family to be antagonized by a request for autopsy. A department of pathology ready to . . .