Integration of Ambulatory Services in a Children's Hospital

Abstract

I AM GREATLY honored by the invitation to participate in this seminar on pediatric ambulatory care and to be present on this distinguished occasion associated with the opening of splendid, renovated pediatric ambulatory facilities at the Massachusetts General Hospital. I should like to discuss today a new model for the integration of ambulatory services in a children's hospital. Sir James Spence, in a lecture at the Royal College of Physicians in 1946, stated that "the care of patients in hospitals is a subject which demands scientific study, and experience based on such study... The need for this is greatest of all in children's hospitals."¹More recently, McKeown, again in England, wrote "... we have a great deal to learn about how a hospital should be built and how it should function."²These two quotations shall serve as the theme for my remarks this afternoon. Current Problems Hospitals are social