430 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



the hospitals and on the basis of the information thus 

 obtained, the minimnm standard was determined. Ob- 

 viously, hospitals exist primarily for rendering the high- 

 est service to the patient, and this idea has been upper- 

 most in formulating the minimum standard as will be 

 seen by the following requirements: 



THE MINIMUM STANDARD 



1. That physicians and surgeons privileged to prac- 

 tice in the hospital be organized as a definite group or 

 staff. Such organization has nothing to do with the 

 question as to whether the hospital is '^open" or 

 ^'closed", nor need it affect the various existing types 

 of staff organization. The word staff is here defined as 

 the group of doctors who practice in the hospital in- 

 clusive of all groups such as the *' regular staff", the 

 "visiting staff", and the ''associate staff", 



2. That membership upon the staff be restricted to 

 physicians and surgeons who are (a) competent in their 

 respective fields and (b) worthy in character and in 

 matters of professional ethics: that in this latter con- 

 nection the practice of the division of fees, under any 

 guise whatever, be prohibited. 



3. That the staff initiate and with the approval of 

 the governing board of the hospital, adopt rules, regu- 

 lations and policies governing the professional work of 

 the hospital: that these rules, regulations and policies 

 specifically provide : 



(a) That staff meetings be held at least once each 

 month. (In large hospitals the departments may choose 

 to meet separately). 



(b) That the staff review and analyze at regular in- 

 tervals the clinical experience of the staff in the various 

 departments of the hospital, such as medicine, surgery, 

 and obstetrics; the clinical records of patients, free and 

 pay, to be the basis for such review and analyses. 



4. That accurate and complete case records be writ- 

 ten for all patients and filed in an accessible manner in 

 the hospital, a complete case record being one, except 

 in an emergency, which includes the personal history; 



