Massachusetts General Hospital

Abstract

Hospitals exist primarily to benefit the communities in which they are located; their prime functions are patient care and community service. The medical school-affiliated hospital also has the responsibility of teaching and conducting research, of extending teaching programs to community hospitals and physicians not affiliated with a teaching hospital, of improving aftercare of the mentally or chronically ill and the aged, and of understanding and cooperating with other community health resources.

Massachusetts General Hospital is attempting to contribute to the solution of these problems and is directing increasing attention to the outpatient department and emergency ward, an area of hospital function which will assume a major role in solving current and economic problems of medicine.