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Address by Dr. Jobn Ww, Cronin, Chief, Division of Hospital Facilities,
U, S. Public Health Service, Washington, D. 0.
at Dedication of Citizens General Hospital, November 6, 1952 *

Mr, McCabe, distinguished quests and friends, I bring you first a greeting
and congratulations from Surgeon Jeneral Scheele of the United States Public
Health Service.

We've 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 particular community,
but to the nation as a whole. Now you may wonder how a hospital in New Kensington
could be of benefit to the United States, Well, these are troubled times we are
living ing We're all certain that everything will be fine, but wetre not
ostriches, and we don't stick our heads in the sand and shivers 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-
tent 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 jobe We should do everything we can to keep that
worker working, He can't work if he can't be helped when he is il]. He can't
work if his family is sick. So it ia upon the health resources of this nation
that a great deal depends. Now gome health resources of the nation are bricks
and mortar. This building is brick and mortar, It isn't worth mich in terms of
service if you discard the people who are working in it, if you discard the
people in the commmity who are working for it, and if you discard yourself by
never thinking of ite

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 think
and work and pray and try to achieve those goals, Those goals are entirely as

you want them to bee If you want a hospital that is nothing more than a

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* New Kensington, Pennsylvania.
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doctor's workshop you set the pace. You want a hospital, however, that is a real
health center of vour commmity, a place where health can be maintained, not just
a place where you go to get well when you are sick, It isa place from which:
health education stems, and I would.like to assure you that all health begins
with health education, These hospitals that are boing built today are really
representative of the modern medical commodity which is health maintenance This
is a fusion of curative medicine and preventive medicines

Now I mentioned this great industrial erea. Your geographical location is
such that upon you 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 creat National Hospital Survey and Construction Program. I didn't
think it up. It's my job as the pediatrician to raise the baby. I can report
to you that your hospital here is the 1,009th H411-Burton project which has been
completed in the last five years in this country. Thatts an awful lot. We
have currently 1,950 projects. Eight hundred and ten are under construction.
‘Those projects are mostly general hospitals like yours. Eighty percent of
them, Yours 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 mech bigger 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 lerger industrial areas, on the
peripheral places like Pittsburgh, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta,

Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and San Francisco can very well become evacuation
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destinations if we get in trouble, I'm not saying we will, No one knows. I'm
sure that all of us don't want it to happen, but we do want to be prepared. -low
as far as your own. community's peace time needs are concerned, as.I said before
you have to set the goal. This hospital is a fire hespitel. You had a splendid
architect - you've gotten excellent results,

I enjoyed going through this hospital for one main reason, It is
functionally leid out so that there is a conservation of people's time and effort.
People in hospitals work hard and time means a lot to them. People who are
patients appreciate that. Sometimes most of us who have never been in a hospi-
tal don't quite understand, However, it is very important to the administration
of your hospital, to the -Board of Trustees and to the people working in it to
try to get over to the comminity to face the fact that you have a hospital that
can: serve you and serve you well, But how it serves 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 they 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 salvation. ALL of us respond to a sale of salvation, and we should.
It's the proper thing to do. So also, do we respond to the work of a hospital.
The hospital is dedicated to one thing, end that is service to mankind, The
doctors work and they work hard, the nurses work, as do the dietician, the
pharmacist, the stationary engineer, the man who mows the lawn, and many others;
but they're all doing it for a primary purpose. That is to enable you or me or
our friends who are in that hospital bed to get out of that bed, to get home
and get to work so that the farily can again be maintained on a level of equili-

britam we hope better than before,
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A hospital is people. It's not just brick and mortar. This hospital
has the opportunity to be a fine institution. It is well laid out, well designed
and is in a location where it can serve you.

Now when I knew last week that I was coming here, I was wondering just
exactly what I was going to say, I found a letter from an old Commanding
Officer. He is now over eighty years of age. He was a very fine friend, @
former associate, and I would like to read to you what he said in thet letter,
because he had just learned, having been out of the Service, what 1 was doings
So I will conclude my remarks with first wishing you the best of luck in ‘he
cperation ef the hospital; assuring you of the eccperation cf tne U, S. Public
Health Service in any way we can to assist you; ani read you these three snort
paragraphs. These were written by Assistant Surgeon General, retired, Frederick
Smith, who had charge of the Division of Hospitals twenty or twenty-five years
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"A hospital pays higher dividends in usefulness than any other
public building. A department, burcau, agency or court, post office
er custom house is open only a third of each twenty-fours and is
closed fifty two Sundays and many holidays each year, A hospital is
never closed. Its lights are an eternal fire cn the altar of service.
Its door ig never locked; its windows never darkened.

"When vacation grass grows lush on silent achool house grounds
the hospital knows. no respite. While the Cathedral drowses many
days each week over empty pews, the hospital vibrates through every
crowded moment with never-failing service to humanity, Through
long hot summer days and nights, as in winter storm and autum blast,
the hospital carries on, In public disaster, when other enterprise
is dazed and crippled, the hespital 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 enobles, Pious
resignation, courage and generosity are here daily witnessed, To the
hospital come both saint end 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 refuge
where pain is eased and life held sacred and find there, true to |
hospital traditions, not only scientific efficiency, but tolerance,
kindness and understanding sympathy."