PRINTER'S NO. 1425
No. 210 Session of 2005
INTRODUCED BY CORMAN, HUGHES, WONDERLING, ERICKSON, MELLOW,
COSTA, CONTI, WENGER, WOZNIAK, KITCHEN, BROWNE, TARTAGLIONE,
GREENLEAF, FERLO, MUSTO, PILEGGI, LEMMOND, FONTANA, BOSCOLA,
ROBBINS, ARMSTRONG, STACK, KASUNIC, PUNT, D. WHITE,
C. WILLIAMS, STOUT, MADIGAN, THOMPSON, O'PAKE, PIPPY,
RAFFERTY AND ORIE, DECEMBER 14, 2005
INTRODUCED AND ADOPTED, DECEMBER 14, 2005
A RESOLUTION
1 Congratulating the Pennsylvania Department of Health on the
2 occasion of the 100th anniversary of its founding and
3 recognizing the Department of Health's centennial celebration
4 from April 27, 2005, through April 26, 2006.
5 WHEREAS, The Pennsylvania Department of Health was created by
6 Act 312 of 1905, enacted April 27, 1905, to protect the health
7 of all Commonwealth citizens through close partnerships with
8 local health agencies in cities, counties and municipalities,
9 and Act 312 of 1905 has subsequently been modified through The
10 Administrative Code of 1929, granting the department authority
11 to enforce all statutes pertaining to public health for the
12 prevention and suppression of disease and injury; and
13 WHEREAS, Samuel G. Dixon, M.D., LL.D., Sc.D., was the first
14 Commissioner of Health for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
15 serving from 1905 until his death in 1918, and his knowledge of
16 medicine, allied sciences and law, in addition to his keen mind,
1 common sense, diplomacy and humanitarianism, uniquely qualified
2 him to serve as commissioner; and
3 WHEREAS, The Bureau of Vital Statistics was created through
4 Act 330 of 1905, which granted the commissioner supervision over
5 the registration of births, deaths, marriages and reportable
6 diseases; within the first eight years, the Bureau of Vital
7 Statistics recorded more than 1.5 million birth certificates,
8 900,000 death certificates and 490,000 marriage certificates and
9 more than 1 million cases of communicable diseases; there are
10 currently more than 19 million birth records and more than 12.2
11 million death records filed in the Division of Vital Records;
12 and
13 WHEREAS, Seven additional divisions were established in 1905:
14 Medical Inspectors; Sanitary Engineering; Laboratories;
15 Distribution of Immunizing Agents; Tuberculosis Sanatoria and
16 Dispensaries; Purchasing, Auditing and Accounting; and
17 Distribution of Supplies; and
18 WHEREAS, The Division of Child Hygiene, organized in 1918,
19 made substantial changes to both rural and metropolitan
20 communities in the medical evaluation and supervision of
21 sanitary conditions among children in schools and, by its
22 creation, effectively emphasized the role of school nurses; and
23 WHEREAS, The Bureau of Public Health Nurses was created in
24 1920 under the direction of Alice O'Halloran, RN, who served as
25 Chief Dispensing Nurse in the department from 1905 until her
26 retirement in 1954, and at a time when the spread of disease and
27 infection such as poliomyelitis, diphtheria and smallpox was on
28 the rise, the Bureau of Public Health Nurses emphasized disease
29 prevention by teaching households about sanitation and personal
30 hygiene and providing for child health and tuberculosis clinics,
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1 immunizations and medical advice; these activities have served
2 as a catalyst for today's public health infrastructure under the
3 department's Bureau of Community Health Systems; and
4 WHEREAS, The Bureau of Child and Maternal Health was created
5 in 1920 primarily to supervise medical evaluations in schools,
6 including dental hygiene, and implemented the Statewide campaign
7 against diphtheria in 1921; and
8 WHEREAS, In 1920 Pennsylvania was the first state to
9 recognize dental hygiene as an important component of a healthy
10 lifestyle when the Department of Health established the Bureau
11 of Dental Health; and
12 WHEREAS, The Bureau of Field Inspection was organized in 1929
13 to maintain relations between field staff and Harrisburg staff,
14 obtain birth and marriage certificates not already forwarded to
15 Harrisburg, enforce quarantine laws and assist in local
16 emergencies; the Bureau of Field Inspection reported more than
17 10,000 unreported births and prosecuted 15 physicians for
18 failure to report cases of communicable diseases; and
19 WHEREAS, On January 17, 1935, Dr. Edith MacBride-Dexter was
20 appointed by Governor Howard Earle as the first, and only,
21 female Secretary of Health in this Commonwealth; during her
22 administration, through 1939, Dr. MacBride-Dexter was
23 instrumental in the development of the first Statewide diabetes
24 and cancer control plans; and
25 WHEREAS, The Social Security Act of 1935 broadened the
26 Department of Health's tasks to include extensive screening
27 programs and the use of health care facilities and services; and
28 WHEREAS, In 1937 the Division of Industrial Hygiene was
29 transferred from the Department of Labor and Industry to the
30 Department of Health; and
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1 WHEREAS, In 1974 the Division of Vital Records was relocated
2 from Harrisburg to New Castle in Lawrence County to bring more
3 State jobs to economically depressed areas, and in 1979
4 Pennsylvania began issuing computer-generated certified copies
5 of birth records and one free complimentary birth record to
6 parents of newborns; and
7 WHEREAS, Since its inception in 1974, the Pennsylvania Women,
8 Infants, and Children Program (WIC) has provided food, education
9 and referrals to improve the long-term nutrition and health of
10 63,300,899 women, infants and children in this Commonwealth,
11 resulting in healthier birth outcomes, lower anemia rates,
12 increased awareness and support of breastfeeding, and education
13 to families on healthier eating habits to prevent obesity; and
14 WHEREAS, In 1978, Executive Order 1978-16 was signed,
15 establishing the nation's first State Center for Health
16 Statistics in the Department of Health; and
17 WHEREAS, The Governor's Council on Drug and Alcohol Abuse was
18 transferred from the Governor's Office to the Department of
19 Health by Reorganization Plan No. 4 of 1981, under which the
20 council became advisory to the Secretary of Health on issues
21 relevant to drug and alcohol abuse; and
22 WHEREAS, Hospital reporting to the Pennsylvania Cancer
23 Registry was initiated in 1982 and became fully operational
24 Statewide in 1985; and
25 WHEREAS, The Federal High Blood Pressure Control Program
26 expanded in 1988 to include cholesterol screening and education
27 on risk factors for heart disease and stroke and has served as
28 the basis for the Department of Health's Heart Disease and
29 Stroke Program; and
30 WHEREAS, The Commonwealth's Behavioral Risk Factor
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1 Surveillance System telephone survey, first conducted in 1989,
2 continues to be conducted annually; the survey provides useful
3 baseline information on Pennsylvania's citizens 18 years of age
4 and older on the prevalence of smoking, overweight, cancer
5 screening and many other health behaviors; and
6 WHEREAS, Act 113 of 1992 established the Primary Health Care
7 Practitioner Program to develop a comprehensive program to
8 support the supply and distribution of primary care
9 practitioners and since the inception of Act 113, the Department
10 of Health has created robust initiatives, such as the Primary
11 Care Practitioner Loan Repayment, J-1 Visa Waiver Program,
12 National Interest Waiver and Community Challenge Grants for
13 Clinic Development, to assist recruitment and retention of
14 physicians and dentists in rural and urban underserved areas;
15 and
16 WHEREAS, Since 1993 the Department of Health's Healthy Woman
17 Program has screened 43,134 women for breast cancer and cervical
18 cancer and has provided diagnostic tests and referral for
19 treatment to 1,023 women diagnosed with breast cancer and 57
20 women diagnosed with cervical cancer; and
21 WHEREAS, In 1995 the Department of Health implemented a
22 system to allow hospitals to electronically file birth
23 certificates, and today all hospitals and several birthing
24 centers in this Commonwealth use the system as an efficient,
25 time-saving method for registering births; and
26 WHEREAS, In 1998 the Bureau of Health Statistics and Research
27 first released statistical aggregate information via the
28 Internet on the Department of Health's website, and in 2003 the
29 Bureau of Health Statistics and Research implemented an
30 interactive health statistics Internet tool, the Epidemiologic
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1 Query and Mapping System (EpiQMS), to assist health data users
2 to better obtain useful health statistical information; and
3 WHEREAS, Act 77 of 2001 authorized the Department of Health
4 to establish the Commonwealth Universal Research Enhancement
5 Program (CURE), which awards more than $50 million each year in
6 grants to Pennsylvania research institutions for health services
7 and for clinical and biomedical research projects; and
8 WHEREAS, In 2001 the Department of Health began a Statewide
9 Immunization Information System to ensure that all children in
10 this Commonwealth receive adequate protection against vaccine-
11 preventable disease; and
12 WHEREAS, In 2001 the Department of Health initiated an
13 unprecedented partnership to develop and implement the first-
14 ever Pennsylvania Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan to reduce
15 the burden of cancer in this Commonwealth; the plan was released
16 in December 2003 and serves as a Statewide blueprint for all
17 sectors of Pennsylvania to work together against the growing
18 challenge of cancer; and
19 WHEREAS, In 2002 the Department of Health began a partnership
20 with the University of Pittsburgh to conduct research in
21 biomedical informatics, including further development of the
22 electronic surveillance system known as the Real-Time Outbreak
23 and Disease Surveillance System (RODS), which permits real-time
24 analysis of symptom data from emergency departments through
25 geographical information system (GIS) mapping and provides
26 alerts to designated public health officials; and
27 WHEREAS, On November 16, 2003, the Department of Health
28 initiated a cornerstone in bioterrorism preparedness and
29 response through implementation of the Pennsylvania National
30 Electronic Disease Surveillance System (PA-NEDSS), which
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1 improves the timeliness and accuracy of disease reporting and
2 expands the public health infrastructure for response to
3 possible bioterrorism attacks, and the department received the
4 2005 Davies Award of Excellence recognizing "a public health
5 program which improves the health of a defined community through
6 health information and management for PA-NEDSS"; and
7 WHEREAS, The Department of Health released its first
8 Arthritis Burden Report and Pennsylvania Osteoporosis Prevention
9 and Education Strategic Plan in 2004 to improve outreach,
10 education and response efforts to arthritis and osteoporosis
11 health needs; and
12 WHEREAS, In September 2004 the Department of Health was one
13 of five states in the nation to be awarded a five-year grant
14 from the United States Department of Health and Human Services
15 under the Steps to a HealthierUS initiative, a community-based
16 effort to reduce the burden of asthma, diabetes and obesity by
17 focusing on modifiable risk factors--poor nutrition, physical
18 inactivity and tobacco use--in Fayette, Luzerne and Tioga
19 Counties; and
20 WHEREAS, In 2004 the Department of Health joined four other
21 Commonwealth agencies (the Department of Aging, the Insurance
22 Department, the Department of Public Welfare and the Department
23 of General Services) to establish the Health and Human Services
24 Call Center, which provides services for all different age
25 groups within the family, from infancy to elderly parent, and
26 responds to their needs through 15 health and human services
27 programs on eight toll-free lines; since its inception, the
28 Health and Human Services Call Center has received more than
29 89,000 calls; and
30 WHEREAS, Over the past 100 years, the Department of Health's
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1 primary responsibilities have expanded from protecting the
2 safety of water and natural resources, maintaining vital records
3 and controlling communicable diseases to fulfilling a wide range
4 of health education, promotion and protection activities today;
5 and
6 WHEREAS, The current mission of the Department of Health is
7 to promote healthy lifestyles, prevent injury and disease and
8 assure the safe delivery of quality health care services for all
9 Pennsylvanians; therefore be it
10 RESOLVED, That the Senate congratulate the Pennsylvania
11 Department of Health on the centennial celebration of its
12 founding and recognize the department for its everyday work
13 protecting and promoting the health of citizens in every corner
14 of this Commonwealth.
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