[What laboratories in hospitals should be?--report from a teaching hospital]

The author gave personal opinions regarding what the clinical laboratory in a teaching hospital should be. It is very important to raise the level of medical care and maintain it in city hospitals. The success of teaching programs depends on a high level of medical care. The author would like to emphasize several policies for the management of the clinical laboratory: 1) establishment of routine works, considering that the field of the clinical laboratory is "from patient to patient", not "from receipt to report", 2) change of the position on medical care from one of support to one of connection, 3) use of intelligence and arts (technologies) that medical technologists and laboratory physicians have acquired through the practices of the clinical laboratory, for example, quality control, system making, objective analysis of data, high mobility, etc., and 4) teaching the methods of the clinical laboratory to young trainees and professionals. The clinical laboratory in a hospital should contribute to raising the level of medical care, and medical technologists and laboratory physicians should perform tasks with spirit, humility and responsibility as professionals.