[Music]
[Narrator:] We are convinced that fulltime health service can be rendered New York State
citizens most effectively under a district plan of administration.
Thirty state health districts and subdistricts are now in operation
or will be in operation at an early date.
The five county health departments are integral parts of their respective districts.
Suitable quarters are provided for district offices, such as those at Albany and Buffalo.
A fulltime district state health officer is in charge of each district.
Civil service qualifications for new district officers include a medical degree,
a postgraduate course in public health, and five years fulltime experience.
The district officer is the commissioner's representative and authorized to act for him.
He has available for technical advice the directors of the eleven divisions
and two district health directors.
Besides the district officer, the average district staff includes an assistant district officer,
a district supervising nurse, one or more engineers,
supervising-in-field public health nurses, and a clerical staff.
Full records are kept in all district offices, such as syphilis and tuberculosis registers,
maintained and checked according to the status of each case.
District offices conduct the state program through 798 local
health officers and five county health commissioners.
There are frequent conferences with local health officers.
When serious epidemics or unusual circumstances occur, assistance is given to the district
officer by temporary assignments from other districts, or the central office.
District staffs are flexible and not subject to local authority.
An important function of the district officer is the preliminary field training of
young physicians, and participation and selection of physicians for academic postgraduate
training and careers in public health.
The district state supervising nurse supervises nurses employed by the department, as well
as many employed locally. She has a responsibility for the training and selection of nurses,
similar to that of the district officer for physicians.
The district officer has a part in all the departments' major activity.
[ Music ]
New York State is now conducting an experimental field study to determine the feasibility of
nursing delivery service as part of the generalized nursing program in a rural county.
Because of persistently high infant mortality, preponderance of home delivery,
and maternal deaths chiefly in rural sections, St. Lawrence County was selected.
Conferences were held of state and local health officials and with local physicians,
hospital, and welfare representatives. The country was zoned for accessibility.
Ten nurses and a supervising nurse who was midwife-trained were assigned.
The nurses were equipped with cars, fitted bags, and electric lanterns as well as strong snow shovels.
Nurses instruct prospective mothers and help them make their preparations.
[ Music ]
Obstetric packages for use by the doctors in home deliveries were made and assembled
in WPA sewing rooms, and by volunteer groups of women.
The nurses supervised the work and assembled the packages for sterilizing at the local milk plant.
[ Music ]
The doctor, arriving for a delivery, finds a nurse in charge, room and patient prepared,
and hot water ready. Towels and sterile supplies are waiting in the package.
The electric lantern is better than the kerosene lamp, and the nurse is a willing, efficient helper.
Nurse returns next morning to bathe baby, care for mother, and instruct neighbor or relative.
This doctor believes the service is meeting a real need
and appreciates the work of the nurses,
who in addition to general duties, have assisted at 84 home deliveries and supervised
431 patients during the first six months of the demonstration.
[ Music ]
Engineering is a major branch of public health work. Reduction in typhoid fever in New York State
has been due in large measure to the control exercised by the Division of Sanitation
over water, milk, and sewage disposal.
Engineers supervise the sanitary quality of water supplied to more than twelve million persons.
Over 90 percent of the water consumed in New York State receives treatment.
Many water purification plants have been constructed as a result of recommendations
made by department engineers.
Water supplies are inspected frequently and subjected to routine bacteriological tests
at regular intervals.
In milk-borne disease outbreaks, all suspected cows are examined by a department veterinarian.
For assured safety, the department urges the use of pasteurized milk.
Pasteurizing plants are inspected frequently.
Routine tests used in laboratory-controlled milk supplies are the direct microscopic count
to determine quality of the raw product, the phosphatase test to determine the thoroughness
of pasteurization of the milk, and the Coli test to detect contamination after pasteurization.
Pollution of streams is being abated by requiring installation [?] sewage treatment plant, regularly
inspected by department engineers. More than one hundred plants have been constructed
in New York State since 1930.
Plans for all sewerage improvements must receive approval of the Division of Sanitation prior to construction.
In five years, the value of works represented by such plans has amounted
to more than one hundred million dollars.
Two thousand swimming pools throughout the state are supervised by the division as well
as 3,000 summer and tourist camps, which provide accommodations
annually for two million persons.
Routine work of the Division of Sanitation is expedited by the assignment of district
engineers and milk sanitarians to the staff of the various state health districts,
enabling prompt service to be rendered in connection with any sanitary problems
arising within the district.
[ Music ]
New York State's program for the control of pneumonia embraces a variety of activities.
Anti-pneumococcus serums for the treatment of the five types for which it has been proved
of value are produced and dispensed at no cost to physicians.
Diagnostic serums for six types are dispensed to 112 approved laboratories and typing stations.
Sputum is examined immediately by the Neufeld technique.
Virulent flecks are mixed with each type of serum and examined.
Blood cultures are highly important in cases of pneumonia.
Extensive graduate medical education is being undertaken,
in cooperation with the New York State Medical Society.
Every available means of reaching the medical profession is being utilized
in the belief that earlier diagnosis and wider and more adequate use of
the serums now available may result.
The need for teaching the general public the seriousness of certain of the early symptoms
of pneumonia and the urgency of medical care is recognized.
The mere availability of serum is insufficient, unless an enlightened public makes its early use possible.
Skillful nursing care is important. Public health nurses throughout the state are devoting
increasing time to bedside care, as well as to teaching demonstrations for pneumonia cases.
The New York State Nurses Association is cooperating with the state health department
in graduate education of its members.
Research has resulted in further advances in the methods of production and refinement
of the therapeutic serums.
A series of sixteen hundred and sixty Type1 pneumonia cases, treated with serum produced
and dispensed by the department, was accumulated during the first twenty months of the program.
Fairly complete data are available on all of these, and their careful analysis gives
promise of adding substantially to our knowledge of the limitations, requisites, and potentialities
of serum treatment as a method of pneumonia control.
[ Music ]
The state of New York owns and maintains the oldest cancer research laboratory in the world,
established in 1898.
This hospital located in Buffalo, and called The State Institute for the Study of Malignant Disease,
has research facilities in all branches of science and a bed capacity of a hundred
and thirty after completion of a new wing.
The state institute is equipped with a complete surgical department and modern X-ray and
radium appliances for the diagnosis and treatment of malignant disease.
[ Music ]
There are eight grams of radium at the state institute--two in solution,
and six grams of the insoluble salt.
As much radium as is possessed by any hospital in the world.
As radium in solution disintegrate, it gives off a gas which can be utilized only after
it is removed from the solution by means of oil and mercury pumps.
Modern shockproof x-ray machines are available for the treatment of malignant growth.
Last year 3,645 new patients were admitted to this hospital for diagnosis and treatment.
This service is free to all residents of New York State
who are recommended for examination and treatment by their family physicians.
An extensive educational program is being carried on for the purpose of dispelling
fear of cancer, and impressing upon the laity that there is a cure
if the disease is recognized in its early stages.
It is always borne in mind that this is primarily an institute for the study of malignant disease
and every opportunity is embraced to conduct a continuous program of research
in the unsolved problems of cancer control.
[ Music ]
Since 1916, New York State has been rebuilding its crippled children and now spends more
than one and a half million dollars annually on their rehabilitation and education.
Through efforts of the orthopedic nurses and family physicians, they are brought to clinics
for examination by an orthopedic surgeon.
If a child has a condition that can definitely be improved, arrangements are made to admit
the youngster to a local institution that meets the state requirements, or to the
New York State Reconstruction Home at West Haverstraw.
[ Music ]
Here, specialized surgery is available when needed.
Hospital care by specially-trained nurses guards the child if an operation is necessary.
Physiotherapy aids his recovery.
Trained teachers work with him so that when he goes home he will be able to follow along
with his schoolmates. Outside activities keep the youngsters busy and happy.
Some of them have reached a point where their physical condition will permit them to
carry on restricted activities on the playground.
A twelve-piece orchestra furnishes music at the institution and plays at the
annual state health conference at Saratoga Springs.
You are listening to it now, playing a selection which is used as the theme music of the
state health department's weekly radio program.
[ Music ]
When the patient is ready to leave the reconstruction home, she is returned to her home and
family physician under the care of the orthopedic nurse and a field clinic service
conducted by the State Department of Health.
[ Music ]
New York state's tuberculosis case- finding program is based on the fact that the control
of tuberculosis depends on the prevention of spread of tuberculus infection.
This can be accomplished by segregation, treatment, and education of the open cases of tuberculosis
and by going out into the field and finding cases.
Tuberculosis is a family problem and the most fertile source for finding new cases
is among close household contacts of those having the disease.
Early discovery of tuberculosis means early recovery. To that end our efforts should be devoted.
Early tuberculosis is not characterized by any special signs or symptoms.
And we should investigate other possible fertile sources for finding early cases.
These men have been x-rayed.
X-ray is our most valuable ally in discovering the disease in its earliest stages.
And these workers, too, have been x-rayed.
These normal school students, mostly young women at the age of greatest perceptibility
to adult-type pulmonary tuberculosis are tuberculin tested and x-rayed yearly until graduation.
Consecutive admissions to general hospitals are x-rayed.
[ Music ]
This patient had advanced disease when discovered. His treatment is prolonged, his prognosis is dubious.
The cost to himself, family, and community is great.
On the other hand, this patient was discovered early and after a suitable length of observation
and treatment is well on the road to complete rehabilitation.
It is real economy to spend money and effort to find the early case.
[ Music ]
Public health programs are effective only so far as they are taken to, understood,
and accepted by the public.
Frequent press stories are released to news services, local correspondents, and the
130 dailies and 540 weeklies in New York State.
Health news is sent every week to fourteen thousand physicians, nurses, hospitals, libraries,
public health workers, and other interested individuals and agencies.
Qualified experts prepare special stories and pamphlets on health subjects.
During the first nine months of 1937, one million two hundred and seventy five thousand
of these educational pamphlets were distributed.
From the beginning, visual instruction has been foremost among health education aids in New York.
Now, 16 and 35-millimeter cameras record the progress of public health,
and silent and sound projectors spread the story as told in a library of 50 film subjects.
The health-mobile rolls over paved roads and country lanes with this equipment,
as well as exhibits and displays and other portable educational material.
Probably the most intimate approach into the homes of the people with the state's health message is radio.
Each week since August 1933, health plays written, acted, and produced entirely
within the State Department of Health have been presented from WGY Schenectady.
Now, by means of electrical transcription recordings, these programs are broadcast
throughout the state over a chain of 19 other radio stations.
Then these electrical transcriptions are available by means of portable sound equipment for use
before granges, parent-teacher associations, school classes, women's organizations,
service clubs, and similar groups.
From radio alone, since the beginning of the weekly play series, responses have been received
from 745 different cities and villages in the state.
Health education is reaching the people of New York State.
[ Music ]