OUTSIDE CONSULTATIONS      All outside cases sent for an opinion or on which an opinion is offered (telephone calls; interdepartmental conferences, etc.) must be accessioned and a report issued with a copy for permanent departmental records. Exceptions to this rule may occur when specimens are obtained for research or teaching purposes solely; but even among these, if an opinion is rendered, particularly one that differs in some way with the outside opinion, it should be accessioned and reported.      Prudent medical practice dictates that patients referred to this institution have all their pertinent tissue sections reviewed by this institution's pathology department.     A thorough and accurate review requires that the original pathology report as well as the sections be evaluated. In order to minimize chance or error, it is the policy of this department not to issue an official report unless a copy of the outside report accompanies the slides. YOU WILL RECEIVE OUTSIDE CONSULTATIONS ON THE DAY THAT YOU REVIEW SLIDES. PROCEDURES---OUTSIDE SLIDE CONSULTATIONS     The outside consultations are considered to be the "choice" cases of the Department. They are from outside facilities requesting a consultation on difficult cases from our own clinicians requesting diagnosis verification on patients treated at OHSU, or review of the case for protocol initiating from this University. When dictating an outside consultation, the following form is standard: CLINICAL BRIEF: This may be as little as the age of the patient if nothing else is known. GROSS DESCRIPTION:     1)    number of slides and/or blocks and stains     2)    outside hospital accession number     3)    originating hospital and location (city, state)     4)    date of accompanying pathology report If more than one set of slides is received, give each accession number along with the number of slides, all in the same paragraph. DIAGNOSIS: If more than one set of slides is received, use the slide accession number and/or tissue site as the heading for each particular diagnosis. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, ask in the office and they will help you.