mill@Llillill *1 Address by Dr. ',Tohn W,, Croninp Chief, Division of Hospital Fa@ ities, U. S. Public Health Service, Washin.aton, D, C, at Dedication of Citizens G,@neral Hospitalt November 61 1952 i@. l@icCabs, distinguished -uests and friends. I brinr-- you first a greeting and conC.-atul-al..6ons '.-Om '@urgeon ":ene@ 3c,@@ee'Le of United States @b'L4-c Health Ser7ice. Wetve been watching this project with considerable interest. You had a little trouble and it's maybe the troubled one we watch tut, fortunately, it was resolved and resolved in the best interest not only in this @i@ iity, but to the nation As a whole. Now you may wonder how a hospital in Yew Kensington could be of benefit to the United States. Wells these are troubled times we are living in* Welre all certain that everything will be finev but wetre not ostriches, and we donft stick our heads in the 'Sand and shiver. We know that you are near one of the greatest industrial areas of this country one of the areas which is very important to all the people of this nation; in fact,, very impor- tant to all the people of the world - that is, a free world. We know that one of the most important assets we have in this land is the worker who can stay on the job. We should do everything we can to keep that worker working. He =It work if he cantt be helped when he is ill, He can't work if his f@ is sick. So it is upon the health resources of this nation that a great deal depends* Now some health resources of the nation are bricks and =rtar. This building is brick and mortar. It isn't worth much in terms of service if you discard the people who are working in it, if you discard the people :In the county who are working for it.. and if you discard yourse,. never thinking of it, A hospital is a public service institution. As such,, you as the public set certain goals for your hospital. The people working in your hospital and work and pray and try to achieve those goals. Those goals are entirely as you want them to be. If you want a hospital that is nothing more than a New Yuensington.. Pemsyvania. 2 doctor's workshop ,Ou set the pace. You want a hospital, hol.-rever, that is a real health center of ?,our co@miuiity, a nlace irl@.ere health can be maintained, not Just a ou go 4-c --s' -del" en you are s a place from whicli .e.Lace jrere y Q %, - health education and I would like to asswe you that all health begins with health education.' These hospitals that @ boing built today are really representative of the modern medical com=dity which is health maintenance This is a fusion of curative medicine and preventive medicine. 17ow I Mentioned this great industrial area. Your geographical location is such that upon yo-Li may fall a very Creat responsibility. The program which is my responsibility to head up - to be the pediatrician on, because on the platform here today is former Surgeon General Thomas Parran,, who was one of the obstetri- cians -is the great I!ational Hospital Survey and Construction Program. I didn't think it up., It's =1 job as the pediatrician to raise the baby. I can report to you that your hospital here is the 1,,009th Hi .11-Burton project which has been completed in the last five years in this coLmtry. @.hatts an awful lot, We have c=ently 1,950 projects. Eight hundred and ten are under construction. -Those projects are mostly general hospitals like yours. Eighty percent of them. Youro'is a big hospital as compared to most of those projects* Most of the projects, the 80%, are in towns under 5)000 population and are under 50 beds in size. Your hospital here is much biGaer than that but) nevertheless, you will serve the same purpose if this country ever does have a national catastrophe. It was Providential - it was not planned - that many of these hospitals are being built around the larger towns. These-hospitals on the periphery of the larger industrial areas, on the peripheral places like Pittsl=gh, New York-, Bostonp Philadelphia, Atlantap Cleveland, Detroit, Chica.-o@ and San Francisco can very well become evacuation 3 destinations if we get in trouble. It-@i not sayinF we wll. 1-io one I ows. I'm cn sure -@hat ql'@ of -,is don@t @-,o 'f@,nen, 7ju@@ we do Grant @.o '3e -,ore-,oarcd. -.@ow as far as your own-co t7ls peace tire needs are concerned, as.1 said before you have to set the goal. This hospital is a f@e hospital. You had a splendid architect - youtve gotten excellent results. I enjoyed going through this hospital for one main reason. It is functionally 1,-,id out so that there is a conservation of people?s time and effort. People in hospitals work hard-and tire means a lot to them. People who are patients appreciate that. Sometimes most of us who have never been in a hospi- tal donft quite understand. However, it is very important to the administration of your hospital, to the-Board of Trustees and to the people iiorking in it to try to get over to the co=mity to face the fact that you have a hospital that can@serve you and serie you well. But how it se--ves you is dependent upon you. There is a salesmanship job to a hospital, and I don't think people in the hospital business should ever feel that ttiey are above selling this hospital. Not to be disrespectful, but I think one of the bigGest sales organizations on the face of the world are those organizations that are selling the Lord. We have to sell @vation. A3.1 of us respond to a sale of salvation, and we should. It's the proper thing to do. So also, do ,re respond to the work of a hospital. The hospital is dedicated to one thing, and that is service to i@cind* The doctors worl. and they work hard, the nurses woric, as do the dietician, the pharmacist, the stationary engineer, the roan who mows the lawn, and many others; but theytre all doing it for a pr@ purpose. That is to enable you or me or our friends who are in that hospital bed to -et out of that bed, to get home and get to work so that the family can again be maintained on a level of equili- brftm we hope better than before. 4 A hospital is people. It's not just briel, and mortar. This hospital has the oD ortunity to be a fine institution. it is well "aid out, 4ell designed .P and is in a location ,ihere it can serve yoiio Now when I knew last week that I was coming here., I was wondering just exact:Ly what I was going to say. I found a letter from an old Commanding Officer. He is now over eighty 7ears of age. He was a very fine friend, a former associate) and I would like to read to you w@-at he said in that l@t'ter, because he had just learned, having been out of the Service) what 1. 4,j,,to-. du-.'i..i-igo So I will conclude my remarks with first wishing you the best of luck in -L. -0 operation of the hos-r.@-.tal;'a ssuring you of the of t'ne U. Sr P-,.,,blic Health Se7.-vice in any way we can to assist you; atni read these three short paragraphs. These were writ@tien by Assis';j,-unt Surgeon Gene--aii., retired, Frederick S-@uth, who had charge of the Di@-Lon of 'hospitals twe.-ity or tw3nty-five years ago@ IIA,hospital pays higher dividends in usefulness than any other public building. A department, @,-@au, agency or court., post office or custom house is open only a third of each tdenty--Pours and is closed fifty two Sundays and many holidays each year, A hospital is nev Its lights are an eternal fire on the altar of er closed. service* Its door is never looked; its windows never darkened. NWhen vacation Grass grows lush on silent school house grounds the hospital knows no respite. While the Cathedral drowses many days each week over empty pews) the hospital vibrates throufh every crowded moment with never-failing service to humanity. T@-ough long hot summer days and nights, as in winter storm and autumn blast, the hospital carries on. In public disaster, when other enterprise is dazed and crippled, the hospital never fails. *The best that is in men and women is brought out in the crises that try the soul. In operating room and ward is forged, in the fire of sacrifice and renunciation, the character that snobleso Pious resignation, courage and generosity are here daily witnessed. To the hospital come both saint and( sinner, the victim of wasting disease,, of violence or of his own vicious habits. Whether they march to the drums of war or the pipes.of peace, the sick and. maimed seek refuee where pain is eased and life held sacred and find there) true to , hospital traditions) not only scientific efficiency, but tolerance kindness and understanding @athy.1