PRINTER'S NO. 3336
No. 543 Session of 2005
INTRODUCED BY KENNEY AND OLIVER, DECEMBER 20, 2005
INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35,
DECEMBER 20, 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,
17 common sense, diplomacy and humanitarianism, uniquely qualified
18 him to serve as commissioner; and
1 WHEREAS, The Bureau of Vital Statistics was created through
2 Act 330 of 1905, which granted the commissioner supervision over
3 the registration of births, deaths, marriages and reportable
4 diseases; within the first eight years, the Bureau of Vital
5 Statistics recorded more than 1.5 million birth certificates,
6 900,000 death certificates and 490,000 marriage certificates and
7 more than 1 million cases of communicable diseases; there are
8 currently more than 19 million birth records and more than 12.2
9 million death records filed in the Division of Vital Records;
10 and
11 WHEREAS, Seven additional divisions were established in 1905:
12 Medical Inspectors; Sanitary Engineering; Laboratories;
13 Distribution of Immunizing Agents; Tuberculosis Sanatoria and
14 Dispensaries; Purchasing, Auditing and Accounting; and
15 Distribution of Supplies; and
16 WHEREAS, The Division of Child Hygiene, organized in 1918,
17 made substantial changes to both rural and metropolitan
18 communities in the medical evaluation and supervision of
19 sanitary conditions among children in schools and, by its
20 creation, effectively emphasized the role of school nurses; and
21 WHEREAS, The Bureau of Public Health Nurses was created in
22 1920 under the direction of Alice O'Halloran, RN, who served as
23 Chief Dispensing Nurse in the department from 1905 until her
24 retirement in 1954, and at a time when the spread of disease and
25 infection such as poliomyelitis, diphtheria and smallpox was on
26 the rise, the Bureau of Public Health Nurses emphasized disease
27 prevention by teaching households about sanitation and personal
28 hygiene and providing for child health and tuberculosis clinics,
29 immunizations and medical advice; these activities have served
30 as a catalyst for today's public health infrastructure under the
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1 department's Bureau of Community Health Systems; and
2 WHEREAS, The Bureau of Child and Maternal Health was created
3 in 1920 primarily to supervise medical evaluations in schools,
4 including dental hygiene, and implemented the Statewide campaign
5 against diphtheria in 1921; and
6 WHEREAS, In 1920 Pennsylvania was the first state to
7 recognize dental hygiene as an important component of a healthy
8 lifestyle when the Department of Health established the Bureau
9 of Dental Health; and
10 WHEREAS, The Bureau of Field Inspection was organized in 1929
11 to maintain relations between field staff and Harrisburg staff,
12 obtain birth and marriage certificates not already forwarded to
13 Harrisburg, enforce quarantine laws and assist in local
14 emergencies; the Bureau of Field Inspection reported more than
15 10,000 unreported births and prosecuted 15 physicians for
16 failure to report cases of communicable diseases; and
17 WHEREAS, On January 17, 1935, Dr. Edith MacBride-Dexter was
18 appointed by Governor Howard Earle as the first, and only,
19 female Secretary of Health in this Commonwealth; during her
20 administration, through 1939, Dr. MacBride-Dexter was
21 instrumental in the development of the first Statewide diabetes
22 and cancer control plans; and
23 WHEREAS, The Social Security Act of 1935 broadened the
24 Department of Health's tasks to include extensive screening
25 programs and the use of health care facilities and services; and
26 WHEREAS, In 1937 the Division of Industrial Hygiene was
27 transferred from the Department of Labor and Industry to the
28 Department of Health; and
29 WHEREAS, In 1974 the Division of Vital Records was relocated
30 from Harrisburg to New Castle in Lawrence County to bring more
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1 State jobs to economically depressed areas, and in 1979
2 Pennsylvania began issuing computer-generated certified copies
3 of birth records and one free complimentary birth record to
4 parents of newborns; and
5 WHEREAS, Since its inception in 1974, the Pennsylvania Women,
6 Infants, and Children Program (WIC) has provided food, education
7 and referrals to improve the long-term nutrition and health of
8 63,300,899 women, infants and children in this Commonwealth,
9 resulting in healthier birth outcomes, lower anemia rates,
10 increased awareness and support of breastfeeding, and education
11 to families on healthier eating habits to prevent obesity; and
12 WHEREAS, In 1978, Executive Order 1978-16 was signed,
13 establishing the nation's first State Center for Health
14 Statistics in the Department of Health; and
15 WHEREAS, The Governor's Council on Drug and Alcohol Abuse was
16 transferred from the Governor's Office to the Department of
17 Health by Reorganization Plan No. 4 of 1981, under which the
18 council became advisory to the Secretary of Health on issues
19 relevant to drug and alcohol abuse; and
20 WHEREAS, Hospital reporting to the Pennsylvania Cancer
21 Registry was initiated in 1982 and became fully operational
22 Statewide in 1985; and
23 WHEREAS, The Federal High Blood Pressure Control Program
24 expanded in 1988 to include cholesterol screening and education
25 on risk factors for heart disease and stroke and has served as
26 the basis for the Department of Health's Heart Disease and
27 Stroke Program; and
28 WHEREAS, The Commonwealth's Behavioral Risk Factor
29 Surveillance System telephone survey, first conducted in 1989,
30 continues to be conducted annually; the survey provides useful
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1 baseline information on Pennsylvania's citizens 18 years of age
2 and older on the prevalence of smoking, overweight, cancer
3 screening and many other health behaviors; and
4 WHEREAS, Act 113 of 1992 established the Primary Health Care
5 Practitioner Program to develop a comprehensive program to
6 support the supply and distribution of primary care
7 practitioners and since the inception of Act 113, the Department
8 of Health has created robust initiatives, such as the Primary
9 Care Practitioner Loan Repayment, J-1 Visa Waiver Program,
10 National Interest Waiver and Community Challenge Grants for
11 Clinic Development, to assist recruitment and retention of
12 physicians and dentists in rural and urban underserved areas;
13 and
14 WHEREAS, Since 1993 the Department of Health's Healthy Woman
15 Program has screened 43,134 women for breast cancer and cervical
16 cancer and has provided diagnostic tests and referral for
17 treatment to 1,023 women diagnosed with breast cancer and 57
18 women diagnosed with cervical cancer; and
19 WHEREAS, In 1995 the Department of Health implemented a
20 system to allow hospitals to electronically file birth
21 certificates, and today all hospitals and several birthing
22 centers in this Commonwealth use the system as an efficient,
23 time-saving method for registering births; and
24 WHEREAS, In 1998 the Bureau of Health Statistics and Research
25 first released statistical aggregate information via the
26 Internet on the Department of Health's website, and in 2003 the
27 Bureau of Health Statistics and Research implemented an
28 interactive health statistics Internet tool, the Epidemiologic
29 Query and Mapping System (EpiQMS), to assist health data users
30 to better obtain useful health statistical information; and
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1 WHEREAS, Act 77 of 2001 authorized the Department of Health
2 to establish the Commonwealth Universal Research Enhancement
3 Program (CURE), which awards more than $50 million each year in
4 grants to Pennsylvania research institutions for health services
5 and for clinical and biomedical research projects; and
6 WHEREAS, In 2001 the Department of Health began a Statewide
7 Immunization Information System to ensure that all children in
8 this Commonwealth receive adequate protection against vaccine-
9 preventable disease; and
10 WHEREAS, In 2001 the Department of Health initiated an
11 unprecedented partnership to develop and implement the first-
12 ever Pennsylvania Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan to reduce
13 the burden of cancer in this Commonwealth; the plan was released
14 in December 2003 and serves as a Statewide blueprint for all
15 sectors of Pennsylvania to work together against the growing
16 challenge of cancer; and
17 WHEREAS, In 2002 the Department of Health began a partnership
18 with the University of Pittsburgh to conduct research in
19 biomedical informatics, including further development of the
20 electronic surveillance system known as the Real-Time Outbreak
21 and Disease Surveillance System (RODS), which permits real-time
22 analysis of symptom data from emergency departments through
23 geographical information system (GIS) mapping and provides
24 alerts to designated public health officials; and
25 WHEREAS, On November 16, 2003, the Department of Health
26 initiated a cornerstone in bioterrorism preparedness and
27 response through implementation of the Pennsylvania National
28 Electronic Disease Surveillance System (PA-NEDSS), which
29 improves the timeliness and accuracy of disease reporting and
30 expands the public health infrastructure for response to
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1 possible bioterrorism attacks, and the department received the
2 2005 Davies Award of Excellence recognizing "a public health
3 program which improves the health of a defined community through
4 health information and management for PA-NEDSS"; and
5 WHEREAS, The Department of Health released its first
6 Arthritis Burden Report and Pennsylvania Osteoporosis Prevention
7 and Education Strategic Plan in 2004 to improve outreach,
8 education and response efforts to arthritis and osteoporosis
9 health needs; and
10 WHEREAS, In September 2004 the Department of Health was one
11 of five states in the nation to be awarded a five-year grant
12 from the United States Department of Health and Human Services
13 under the Steps to a HealthierUS initiative, a community-based
14 effort to reduce the burden of asthma, diabetes and obesity by
15 focusing on modifiable risk factors--poor nutrition, physical
16 inactivity and tobacco use--in Fayette, Luzerne and Tioga
17 Counties; and
18 WHEREAS, In 2004 the Department of Health joined four other
19 Commonwealth agencies (the Department of Aging, the Insurance
20 Department, the Department of Public Welfare and the Department
21 of General Services) to establish the Health and Human Services
22 Call Center, which provides services for all different age
23 groups within the family, from infancy to elderly parent, and
24 responds to their needs through 15 health and human services
25 programs on eight toll-free lines; since its inception, the
26 Health and Human Services Call Center has received more than
27 89,000 calls; and
28 WHEREAS, Over the past 100 years, the Department of Health's
29 primary responsibilities have expanded from protecting the
30 safety of water and natural resources, maintaining vital records
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1 and controlling communicable diseases to fulfilling a wide range
2 of health education, promotion and protection activities today;
3 and
4 WHEREAS, The current mission of the Department of Health is
5 to promote healthy lifestyles, prevent injury and disease and
6 assure the safe delivery of quality health care services for all
7 Pennsylvanians; therefore be it
8 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives congratulate the
9 Pennsylvania Department of Health on the centennial celebration
10 of its founding and recognize the department for its everyday
11 work protecting and promoting the health of citizens in every
12 corner of this Commonwealth.
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