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VOLUME 21, NUMBER 15
APRIL 12, 1974
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
New Ward Will Facilitate Admissions, Discharges
Discharge Unit Scheduled To Open Tuesday
Construction of the Discharge Unit,
the hospital's new ward for patients
awaiting final discharge and departure,
has been completed and the new facility
is scheduled to open on Tuesday
morning.
Occupying the space between the main
lobby and the Auxiliary Snack Bar, the
Discharge Unit has been designed to make
patients as comfortable as possible after
they have given up their beds on their last
morning at Duke and before they have .
been picked up by family members or
friends.
A primary objective in the
construction of the unit which began in
early December is to insure that every
incoming patient with a reservation is in
bed with preliminary doctor's orders by 1
p.m. of the afternoon of admission.
"The results of routine X-ray, EKG
and laboratory studies should be made
available to the physician on afternoon
rounds," said Dr. Richard Kramer, a
neurosurgeon who is chairman of the
medical center's Committee on Patient
Services and Personnel Relations.
"By making the day of admission a
medically useful one, we hope to enhance
the patient's comfort while decreasing his
total hospital costs," he added.
Furthermore, the medical center
clinics, now congested for hours each day
by patients awaiting admission, should be
able to concentrate more effectively on
out-patient needs.
The Discharge Unit is an enclosed
ward of the hospital. Primary entrance
into it will be through a door from the
lobby, and it is convenient to the gift
shop, the lobby newsstands, the main
Fund, Service
Honors Cleland
In the spring of 1973, after 28 years of
dedicated and distinguished service to the
university. Dr. James T. Cleland retired.
As James B. Duke Professor of
Preaching and as Dean of the Chapel, he
served as teacher, preacher, counselor,
guide, friend and inspiration to the
thousands of students, faculty and
employees who were fortunate enough to
come in contact with his keen mind,
piercing wit and unfailing kindness.
Friends eager to honor Cleland in a
way that will not only be permanent, but
also as lively and vital as the man himself,
have established the James T. Cleland
Chapel Endowment Fund as a continuing
monument to him.
In addition, a public service of
thanksgiving in celebration of his ministry
will be held at 4 p.m. on Sunday, April
21, in Duke Chapel to be followed by a
reception on the Chapel grounds.
Cleland came to Duke in 1945. He
holds the M.A. and B.D. degrees from
Glasgow University and the S.T.M. and
Th.D. degrees from Union Theological
Seminary.
(Continued on page 2)
entrance. Auxiliary Snack Bar and the
Business Office.
A registered nurse and a DTO (Data
Terminal Operator) who will also serve as
receptionist will staff.the facility which
includes a reception area, a
fully-equipped nursing station and a
patient lounge with a seating capacity of
20.
The Discharge Unit also contains three
smaller rooms—two with hospital beds for
patients who are not^ambulatory or who
fatigue while waiting to be picked up and
a third which will serve as a patient area
where a physician can confer with the
patient or his family immediately before
discharge.
The carpeted lounge will have reading
material, color television and piped-in
music.
Open seven days a week, from 8 a.m.
until 4:30 p.m., the facility is to be used
by patients transferred from 17 of the
hospital's 32 wards. These wards are
Hanes, Minot, Cardiology, Cabell A,
Cabell 6, Cushing, Reed, Holmes, Welch,
Sims, Prevost, N.S.U., Strudwick (Med.
and Surg.) Osier, Long, Halsted and
McDowell.
In accordance with the revised
admission and discharge procedures,
partially implemented last July and
effective as of Monday, the discharge
hour for the first 12 wards on the list will
be changed to 10 a.m. The remaining five
wards will retain the 11 a.m. discharge
hour, as will all other wards of the
hospital.
Use of the area by patients from other
(Continued on page 2)
DO IT YOUR
SELF—Dr. Thomas
D. Kinney, and J.
PhiKip Pickett
realized that existing
procedures for
preparing diseased
tissue for micro
scopic examination
left a lot to be
desired, and so they
put their heads
together and came
up with machines
which do it
automatically for
both conventional
and electron
microscopes.
. Pictured above is
Pickett with the
electron microscope
tissue processor.
(Photo by David
Williamson)
IN THE DISCHARGE UNIT—Dr. John Harrelson, assistant professor of orthopaedics,
talks with the family of a patient in the lounge area of the hospital's newest ward
which has been designed to facilitate new admissions and to provide a comfortable
waiting area for departing patients. (Photo by David Williamson)
'Dessert* after Regular Duties
Three in Pathology Create
More Efficient Machines
They say that necessity is the mother
of invention.
Just as in industry, where new
equipment and techniques are constantly
being sought to improve production and
to cut costs, so too are inventions
K
important to medical science where a new
piece of machinery may save time, money
or even lives.
Two members of the Department of
Pathology at Duke University Medical
Center who aren't content solely to make
do with what devices the medical
equipment industry offers have been
developing instruments for years which
make the fight against disease more
efficient.
Dr. Thomas D. Kinney, chairman of
pathology and director of medical and
allied health education at Duke, and J.
Phillip Pickett, an associat^n pathology
and instructor in medical technology,
have collaborated in the design of a
diseased tissue examination system which
is used in both clinical and research
pathology in many hospitals in the
United States, Canada and England.
A third member of the department,
administrative assistant Gene Winders,
compliments their efforts by handling
correspondence, patent applications and
by studying existing patents so that there
are no infringements upon the rights of
other inventors.
Elements of the system include;
—An automatic tissue processor for
light microscopy. This device is used to
help pathologists prepare diseased tissue'
brought from the operating room for
diagnostic purposes. As an example, it
can help physicians determine whether or
not a tumor is malignant. Sp>ecimens are
"fixed" in formaldehyde, placed in the
processor in separate containers called
"Tims," and a timer regulates the
introduction of varying concentrations of
(Continued on page 3)