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Department of Pathology

Patient Care

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Our Patient Care services

The department provides diagnostic laboratory services for the Los Angeles General Medical Center, Keck Hospital of USC and USC Norris Cancer Hospital and its clinical laboratories.

Approximately 35 of the department’s full-time faculty members work in service laboratories throughout the Los Angeles General Medical Center, where they are supported by 40 residents and fellows and a technical and clerical staff numbering 334. Keck Hospital of USC and USC Norris Cancer Hospital house 10 full-time pathologists, two fellows and approximately 124 clerical and technical staff.

Pathology faculty also provide services at our affiliate institutions: Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, one of the leading children’s hospitals in the country, and Rancho Los Amigos Hospital National Rehabilitation Center, a nationally-recognized rehabilitation hospital that was chosen by the federal government as a Regional Spinal Cord Injury Care System.

If you are a patient seeking information about our clinical services, please visit: https://www.keckmedicine.org/services/pathology/.

Specialty Areas

  • The Department of Pathology’s faculty provides pathology services for the LAC+USC Healthcare Network that include the Los Angeles General Medical Center, three comprehensive health care centers (CHCs) [Hudson, Roybal, and El Monte CHCs] and several community health centers (HCs). Nearly 8 million tests are performed by the clinical laboratories that are overseen by 22 full time Department of Pathology faculty who are assigned to the LAC+USC Healthcare Network. The faculty perform Anatomic Pathology (AP) and Clinical Pathology (CP) service work, residency training in AP/CP, fellowship training in Surgical Pathology, Hematopathology, Cytopathology, and Neuropathology, and clinical research within our department as Principal Investigators or as collaborators for research projects that are sponsored by faculty of other clinical departments. Ninety percent (90%) of the Healthcare network laboratory work is done centrally at the Los Angeles General Medical Center clinical laboratories; however, 10% of the work is done at three CHC laboratories, so that the faculty oversee four separately licensed and accredited laboratories. A laboratory computer system provides an integrated test result database, which is accessible to clinicians at Los Angeles General Medical Center and at the three CHCs.

    Scope of Service and Complexity of Care The medical and technical issues of the LAC+USC Healthcare Network laboratories is overseen by Ira A. Shulman, M.D., Director of Laboratories, who is a nationally recognized expert in Transfusion Medicine. The scope of Anatomic Pathology services includes Autopsy, Cytopathology and Fine Needle Aspiration, Histology, Hematopathology, Immunohistochemistry, Molecular Diagnostics, Neuropathology, and Surgical Pathology. The scope of Clinical Pathology services includes Core Laboratory, Special Chemistry/Immunology, Special Hematopathology, Transfusion Medicine, and Microbiology.

  • Keck Hospital of USC and USC Norris Cancer Hospital combined operations in March 2010. The Interim Anatomic Pathology Chief is Peter W. Nichols, M.D. Clinical Pathology Chief is Jane F. Emerson, MD, PhD Combined statistics are not yet currently available.

    Previously at Norris, our pathologists handled 3,780 surgical specimens/year with the majority being large complex specimens from cancer surgery. In addition, there were 1,200 referral specimens and 220 bone marrows. The particular strengths are breast, GU and hematologic neoplasms, which relate well with research interests of the Keck School of Medicine faculty. The clinical laboratory at Norris performed approximately one million tests per year. Pathologists are integrated with the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center research programs as collaborators and co-investigators.

    The Keck Hospital of USC anatomic pathology service handled 5,584 surgicals per year. The clinical laboratory performs approximately 1.6 million tests per year. There was a steady increase in all areas of activity during the 10 years since opening, with the greatest growth in the surgical subspecialty areas of gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, orthopedic and transplantation. Currently kidney, heart, lung and liver transplants are being performed. It should be noted that Keck Hospital of USC was the first hospital to perform living related lobar bilateral transplantation. An active bloodless surgery service includes transplants also. The laboratory handles specimens from the various outpatient clinics, as well as the clinic on the University Park campus.

    The Blood Bank service at Keck Hospital of USC provides the blood products for 12 inpatient and four outpatient surgery rooms, obtaining blood from the American Red Cross and campus Donor Center. Gary D. Zeger, M.D., is the medical director of the USC Blood Donor Center and also the director of the hospital blood bank. The Donor Center acts as the campus pheresis center, as well as providing blood products to the hospital.