The very best definition
I have ever found for a hospital is the old Quaker expression, bettering
house. It is a simple, honest term, which sums up the whole
reason for being of all our health professions as they work together
on the hospital team.
Jack Masur,
speech to Washington State Hospital Association, Spokane,
October 19, 1955
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Dr. James Shannon remembered it, starting up the Clinical Center
took a very rough couple of years.43
There was no established culture of medical practice supporting
clinical research at Bethesda, no public funding commitment for
basic science breakthroughs or for training the next generation
of clinicians and scientists, and no clear paths to the next level
of biomedical knowledge. The initial barriers were political. President
Dwight D. Eisenhower took office in January 1953, determined to
scale back federal health spending. His administrations budget
for the PHS fiscal year 1954 was $219 million, a reduction of $51
million from the previous administrations projection.44
The Clinical Centers incomplete professional staff complement
of 245 scientists and clinicians was frozen, and the April 1 opening
was postponed for budgetary reasons.45
When Oveta Culp Hobby, the new Secretary of Health, Education, and
Welfare, visited the building in April, she asked NIH Director William
H. Sebrell whether the facility could be kept closed as an economy
measure. Sebrell assured her that the political costs would be prohibitive,
and the administration proceeded with plans to activate the first
150 beds on July 1.46
Dedication ceremonies marking the opening of the first 26-bed nursing
unit were held the following day in sweltering, 100-degree heat.
In her remarks, Secretary Hobby invoked the promise of cures
as yet unthought of and praised Congress for its nonpartisan
willingness to fund medical research. Scientific truth knows
no politics, she averred, and dedicated the Clinical Center
to the open mind of research.47
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Oveta Culp Hobby, soon to be designated Secretary of Health,
Education, and Welfare, visiting the Clinical Center building
on April 6, 1953. With her are (l. to r.) CC Director John A.
Trautman, Surgeon General Scheele, and NIH Director Sebrell.
(Courtesy of Parklawn Library, Public Health Service.) |
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In July 1953, Charles Meredith, a 67-year-old farmer, was admitted
as the first patient. Under the care of Dr. Roy Hertz (rear),
he underwent hormone therapy. |
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