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Victor Tchertkoff, MD
New York Medical College Valhalla

JAMA. 1989;261(15):2197-2198.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor. —

The criteria for autopsy adopted by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations listed in the editorial by Dr Lundberg¹ state: "MS.8.1.7.3 The Medical staff, with other appropriate hospital staff, develops and uses criteria that identify deaths in which an autopsy should be performed." This leaves the fox in charge of the hen house.

The purpose of an autopsy is to correlate clinical and anatomic findings and to unearth findings not suspected by the attending physician that may or may not have had an impact on the care of the patient at hand or of future patients. If "obvious" cases are excluded, if uninteresting "stroke" cases are excluded, and if the criteria are laid down by "appropriate hospital staff," the current sad state of the autopsy service will prevail. The old adage still holds true: "There are no uninteresting cases, only uninterested physicians." Autopsies . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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