September 23, 1945
Dear Mr. :
Instead of calling a meeting of' the Committee at this time, I am sending you a report, together with reprints, and a map of proposed study districts in Colorado.
Governor Vivian has requested a Survey of our Hospital Facilities to be made by your committee with the technical assistance of the U. S. Public Health Service and this survey will begin about October first.  A study of' 19 Tuberculosis Sanatoria is already under way.  It is sponsored by a special committee, of which Doctor Lee Briskman, President of the Colorado Tuberculosis Association, is Chairman.
For the general survey, the State has been divided into 12 districts of several counties each.  See Map.  At the present time, it is our plan, with a chairman to be selected, to bring together interested parties to whom the scope and purpose of this study may be explained.  Each member of the Governor's committee will be notified in advance when a meeting is to be held in his district.  The chairmen selected for each district will be asked to obtain a place to hold a meeting, and to invite interested parties to attend.
Perhaps the most important thing to bear clearly in mind is that the nation-wide study of hospital facilities, of which the Colorado study is a part, is sponsored by the "Commission on Hospital Care", of which Mr. Thomas S. Gates, University of Pennsylvania, is Chairman and Mr. Edward L. Ryerson, President of the Board of the Inland Steel Company, is Vice-Chairman.  The Commission on Hospital Care is made up of representatives from the American Hospital Association.  The U.S. Public Health Service is merely loaning to the States experts to make an inventory of existing hospital facilities, and to offer for the consideration of the Governor's Committee such suggestions for improvement as seem to be indicated.
The Federal Government under a bill now before Congress, Senate Bill No. 191, is asked to give to the States some portion of the building costs of new hospitals recommended in the report and then authorized by local authorities in the States.  This Bill envisages construction only and not maintenance of hospitals.  If Senate Bill 191 is enacted into law an inventory of hospital facilities will be a prerequisite to any Federal aid.  This study will meet the requirements of Senate Bill 191 for a preliminary plan.
It is the function of your committee to study our present hospital facilities as they will be set forth in the Survey and to pass on the wisdom of the recommendations for improving the distribution of hospital facilities throughout the State.  It is thus clear that the major work of this committee will be after the completion of the studies and the analysis of the data by the Commission on Hospital Care - sometime early in 1946.
Governor Vivian has also asked the American Public Health Association in New York City, of which Doctor Reginald Atwater, formerly of Colorado, is Director, to make a study of our State Health Services, and if Governor Vivian's request is granted you will be so advised.
We will keep you informed of important developments, and I take this opportunity to thank you for accepting the Governor's request that you serve on this committee.
Respectfully
Florence H. Sabin, Chairman
Governor's Committee on Health