Ball Memorial Hospital is an
integrated network of hospitals, diagnostic centers, pharmacies, a
primary care physician network, comprehensive rehabilitation
services, urgent care centers, and managed care partnerships.

Founded in 1929, Ball Memorial Hospital serves as a regional
tertiary referral center and teaching hospital and the largest
non-government employer in East Central Indiana.

Ball Memorial Hospital is a not-for-profit organization.
The hospital has 2,500 employees. It boasts a 260-
member clinical staff, which represents more than
45 medical specialties.

The hospital campus is also home to the Edmund
F. Ball Medical Education Center and includes
the largest physician teaching program in
Indiana outside of Indianapolis. The
hospital provides internships and residency
programs representing family medicine,
internal medicine, pathology and transitional
year with a total of 61 physicians in training. It
also maintains a close affiliation with the
Indiana University School of Medicine as a satellite
center for the students in the first two years of medical school.

The laboratory performs over 2.8 million procedures
per year. These include 26,882 surgical specimens,
300 autopsies (hospital and forensic), 1016 fine
needle aspirations, 227 bone marrows and over 59,539 cytologic specimens per
year. We have “State of the Art” instrumentation including an 18-headed microscope, digital cameras and digital projectors, ligase chain reaction and polymerase chain reaction instruments. The pathology resident is given an ample work area with a personal telephone, microscope, and dictation equipment.

The pathology resident is an active teacher and consultant for family medicine, internal medicine and transitional residents. The pathology resident has direct contact with medical students since the Muncie Center for Medical Education is a branch of the Indiana University School of Medicine. Our program offers the optimal blend of academics and “private practice” pathology. We have a very close relationship with the clinical staff and often directly affect patient care. We feel it is important to be trained as a consultant in laboratory medicine since this is an important role of the pathologist.

The Pathology Residency Program is designed to prepare the resident to effectively fulfill the duties and responsibilities of a practicing pathologist by developing a broad knowledge of clinical medicine, science basic to medicine, and clinical laboratory sciences. Our goal is to train pathologists as generalists with strong specific subspecialty interests. With the increasing prevalence of large pathology groups, our graduates are encouraged to pursue fellowship positions in subspecialty areas. Although the majority of our graduates choose to practice in a community hospital setting, a significant number of our residents have gone on to practice in academic medical centers. It is the goal of this program to educate the resident to understand the complex problems facing pathologists in our changing climate of healthcare delivery. Our residents are well-prepared to deal not only with the scientific complexity of the modern laboratory but also issues such as reimbursement and the competitive challenges created by consolidations of large national laboratories. Strong emphasis is placed on the pathologists' relationships with the clinical staff and hospital administration. Our residents are an integral part of the healthcare team. They interact with other members of the department as well as clinical staff members. This practical experience prepares our graduates to assume medical staff leadership roles in community or academic settings.