Capitalizing departments, divisions and specialties
Do not capitalize common organizational terms such as department, division or committee when they used as general reference.
He was brought to surgery from the emergency room.
The patient will be referred to the eye clinic.
She will need to go to the orthopaedic department for prosthetic adjustment.
Capitalize common organizational terms when they are part of the formal name.
I referred the patient to the Sherman Oaks Burn Center.
The patient has his prior records from the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.
I advised the patient that I will have to contact Adult Protective Services.
The key to determining whether a department, division or specialty is a proper noun is determining its personification in the context. The definition of a word or the full entity name can be substituted and make sense in the context to determine personification.
The patient will be seen by Anesthesia for a preoperative consultation.
Substitute: The patient will be seen by the anesthesia department for a preoperative consultation. (correct)
Substitute: The patient will be seen by loss of sensation for a preoperative consultation. (incorrect)
The specimen was sent for pathology.
Substitute: The specimen was sent for study or evaluation of disease. (correct)
Substitute: The specimen was sent for the pathology department. (incorrect)
Wiki