October 9, 1973
Page 33278
THE CITY OF HOPE STORY
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, last July 14 it was my great pleasure to address the annual convention of the City of Hope Hospital in Los Angeles about the need for continued strong Federal support for health research.
It was a special pleasure for me to be a guest at this convention because the City of Hope has played a unique and outstanding role in seeking to influence medical science everywhere. Since its establishment 60 years ago as a national nonsectarian pilot medical center, the City of Hope has gained worldwide fame for its unsurpassed facilities for free patient care and its pioneering programs in research and education in the major catastrophic diseases of our era – cancer and leukemia, heart and respiratory afflictions, diabetes, and other maladies of metabolism, disorders of the blood and heredity – as well as for its basic studies in genetics and the neurosciences.
In addition, the City of Hope provides a consultation service at no cost to doctors and hospitals throughout the Nation to help them in the diagnosis and treatment of their patients in these diseases. Many hundreds of original findings and discoveries have emerged from its staff and laboratories in recent years in its efforts to relieve pain, prolong life, and effect cures. As a think tank for other hospitals, the City of Hope has had phenomenal success in improving the quality, quantity, economy, and efficiency of health care delivery systems in our country.
Needless to say, the City of Hope, like all medical research centers and hospitals, has a constant budgetary problem in meeting accelerating needs and expanding its research and services. On top of an annual operating budget of $21.5 million, the City of Hope now requires an additional $10,005,000 for new buildings, programs, facilities, and equipment. The executive director of the City of Hope, Ben Horowitz, discussed the economic realities of carrying out the City of Hope's great mission in his 1973 National Biennial Convention Keynote Address, which was delivered on the same night as my address. I ask unanimous consent that Mr. Horowitz, speech be
printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the speech was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
KEYNOTE ADDRESS OF BEN HOROWITZ
Our gathering tonight inaugurates another Biennial Convention of our nationwide family of auxiliaries. That in itself is a landmark event in our progress. Significance is added to the occasion by the fact that we celebrate the Sixtieth Anniversary of our City of Hope.
In a real sense, we are celebrating more than an anniversary. What has motivated our origin, endeavors, and ideology is a celebration of life – life in all its vigor and beauty for every human being – life in all its fullness for the human race.
Commitment of this lofty purpose will certainly permeate every aspect of our deliberations in these three days ... the evaluation of our course during the past two years; the approval of programs for the next two years; the absorbing of knowledge and inspiration from every session to strengthen us for the challenges which lie ahead.
We meet at a juncture in history when faith and confidence in the institutions of our land have declined substantially. This definitely encompasses those institutions concerned with medical diagnosis and treatment. Many years ago, authorities issued dire warnings about the crisis in the delivery of health care. Alarm signals were given about deteriorating hospital facilities, the shortage of medical and paramedical personnel, skyrocketing costs, and the depersonalization of care.
Logically, recognition of the desperate urgency of these problems should have enlisted the best and brightest talents in our society to formulate and implement a quick solution. Astoundingly enough this did not occur. It is sad to note that, in the presence of such deplorable conditions, the people of America seem to be in a state of drugged lethargy. There has been a meek acceptance of heaped up indignities, the wiping out of monetary savings, and deficiencies in the quantity and quality of care which can only be characterized as incredible.
In the midst of this dark picture, the program of the City of Hope has been a shining beacon lighting the way to what should be, what can be, in a nation which is the richest and most powerful on the face of the globe.
To document this, I will highlight the unique accomplishments made possible by the dedicated efforts of our auxiliary workers, Medical center personnel, and organizational staff.
OUR UNIQUE HOSPITAL
Our census records the largest number of patients benefiting from inpatient, outpatient, and home health services dispensed:
On a free basis, as a right and not as a handout.
With protection of their dignity and worth.
By top-level medical specialists.
In a highly personalized manner.
With access to the most modern equipment.
Within the finest facilities.
In an atmosphere of loving kindness and hope.
Nothing and nobody was spared in the single-minded approach to relieve pain and prolong life for victims of crippling and killer diseases. Creative contribution were made to concepts of psychosomatic medicine, total patient care, and family-centered services.
We view with mixed emotions the "patient's bill of rights," recently sent to 7,000 hospitals by the American Hospital Association. It was long overdue, but unfortunately contains only a fraction of what the City of Hope has been practicing for six decades.
OUR UNIQUE CONSULTATION SERVICE
In response to ever-increasing requests, the expertise of our medical staff has been available to private physicians and institutions throughout the country. A panel comprising various disciplines of the Medical Center continues to meet regularly and provide supplemental counsel on diagnosis and therapy for patients with difficult medical conditions.
OUR UNIQUE PILOT MEDICAL CENTER
In the process of making the City of Hope an extraordinary phenomenon on the national and international scene, we carved a role for ourselves as a Pilot Medical Center. Daringly we affirmed, as a primary objective, the constant gathering of superb staff, equipment and facilities to give every encouragement to innovative medical research. Our success is indelibly inscribed not only in the annals of medicine and science everywhere, but on the minds and bodies of people.
During the 1971-73 years, invitations to our doctors, scientists, and other staff, to address conferences in this country and overseas were more numerous than ever before. Leading journals reported their work. Appointments to offices and distinguished awards were bestowed upon them by professional societies. Governmental agencies granted millions of dollars a year to advance their investigations.
Most gratifying of all was the flow of discoveries and findings in clinical and basic research which streamed from our laboratories: 165 in 1971, 192 in 1972, and a new high is expected in 1973.
How abstract are statistics! Translate them into new medical instruments, new diagnostic procedures, new surgical and treatment approaches. Even this does not tell the story. To appreciate it, we must grasp the communication channels between our scientists and their peers in every state and nation. The results mean immediate benefits to patients and the laying of foundations upon which other scientists pyramid their original findings. In the final analysis, the impact is felt by millions of fear-ridden and pain-wracked patients – men, women, and children – who will have the chance to breathe, work, play, love, create, and serve their fellowmen, all because you willed it so.
OUR UNIQUE THINK TANK FOR HOSPITALS
To meet the hospital crisis, the City of Hope accepted the challenge of being a think tank for hospitals. Task forces were assigned to study every phase of hospital functioning, with a mandate to improve the quality, quantity, economy, and efficiency of health care delivery. We can point with pride to the contributions we have made in reducing maintenance costs, alleviating personnel shortages, eliminating medication errors, caring for the non-critically ill in out-patient facilities and at home, assuring safety of patients, bringing the family into the hospital environment, and utilizing pooled computer technology.
OUR UNIQUE AUXILIARY MOVEMENT
From the beginning, sixty years ago, the fate of the City of Hope and supporting auxiliary members were intertwined. This was not a happy accident, but a deliberate design.
A basic people-to-people philosophy was involved in this relationship. The founders were determined to avoid the coldness of an institutional setting. No barrier was to exist between donor and beneficiary. The everpresent refrain was to be: "There, but for the grace of God, go I." This sense of identification would assure a humane spirit of care and an insistence that only the best of care was good enough for those in need.
To reinforce this precious concept, organizational safeguards were incorporated in our Constitution and Bylaws. An elected leadership would be responsible to a democratically-based auxiliary structure, to guarantee the maintaining and enrichment of the ideology of this haven of healing.
The aims of the people in our auxiliary movement broadened in the decades which followed. Our resources, in membership and money, had to be commensurate with our aspirations. The family of auxiliaries burgeoned, spreading from coast to coast.
Since the last Convention, we have chartered 67 new auxiliaries, drawing its membership from every element an the population. We come to this anniversary assembly with 449 auxiliaries, in 185 cities, 25 states and Washington, D.C. We have reached an all-time strength: more than one hundred thousand members and active workers and in excess of a million contributors constitute the lifeline of our National Medical Center.
OUR UNIQUE FUND-RAISING ENDEAVORS
In the last two years, we have waged an all-out fundraising effort. Millions of dollars in one-time gifts had to be replaced. Operating costs of all hospitals had skyrocketed, and the free policy of the City of Hope made it vulnerable. New and expanded programs, approved at the 1971 Convention, had to be funded. New Horizons building plans were awaiting implementation.
It can be definitely stated that our income by the end of our fiscal year on September 30th, will be at least $39,600,000, an increase of about $6,100,000 over the preceding two years.
An historical retrospective is in order. It took 53 years – 1913 to 1966 – for the City of Hope to raise its first $100,000,000. It took only seven years – 1966 to 1973 – to raise our second $100,000,000.
OUR UNIQUE NEW HORIZONS CAMPAIGN
Our capital funds and equipment drive has been conducted at a time when all hospitals were in financial straits because of soaring operating costs. Launched in 1965, and now scheduled to be completed an 1977, this New Horizons campaign entails an expenditure of $30,630,000.
Approximately $10,000,000 have been spent, $10,000,000 in cash and pledges have been raised and will be spent in the next two years, and $10,000,000 must still be raised.
You will be touring the grounds of the Medical Center on Sunday. You will see excavations and photos of the Northwest Hospital, the Sunny and Isadore Familian Children's Hospital, and the Clinical Research Complex, to be erected by the end of 1974. Other buildings are now on the drawing boards.
Remember that construction is only the first step. Thereafter, money must be expended for equipment, staff, programs, and maintenance. All this as part of an ambitious perspective to keep the City of Hope in the forefront of medicine and science.
OUR UNIQUE IDEOLOGY
Our words and deeds emerge from the humanistic ideology to which we are committed. The City of Hope is an instrumentality to express our concern for people; better said, it is a demonstration that we care for every person formed an God's Image. We affirm that the intelligence, compassion, and courage of human beings can gave life a purpose and each day a meaning.
The members of the City of Hope family are oriented to pursue a basic social creed and action: to combat hate, cynicism and indifference; to encourage love, idealism and involvement.
OUR UNIQUE LEADERSHIP
In our modern society, leadership has all too often taken on a distorted form, reflecting the demands of the mass media. Leaders are supposed to look good for television, the movies, and photographs. Convictions are subordinated to so-called charisma, the surface appearance becomes more significant than inner depth.
The City of Hope refuses to be overwhelmed by such criteria. I hasten to add that without question we have more than our share of good looking people. But, in choosing leaders, we have specifications that are far more valid: adherence to our beliefs, a readiness to give of oneself, a capacity for creativity, and a boldness of direction.
You delegates have exemplified such traits in assuming responsibilities in your auxiliaries. In our national organization, we have sought to match your standards of excellence. Percy Solotoy, as President of the City of Hope, the members of the Board of Directors, our Executive Medical Director, Rachmiel Levine, and so many others, have given outstandingly wise and inspiring management to our affairs. The association of Mannie Fineman on a full-time basis has been of immeasurable value in advancing our cause.
I am grateful to you and to them for fortifying and invigorating me in the day-to-day conduct of our work.
OUR UNIQUE FUTURE
It is good that we have a pride in our past and a determination in the present. Further, preparation for the future has always been an essential characteristic of the City of Hope.
We do so with the optimism and confidence natural to us. However, we must soberly assess the difficulties which confront us and the nation. The deterioration of life in the cities at home and the persistence of war abroad, the violations of trust in high places and the uncertainties of our economy, have spread discouragement and disillusionment. The "orders of the day" are – stand still or retreat.
Health care, too, is under attack. The Federal government is withdrawing funds from a whole series of medical programs. Research projects are shrinking as laboratories shut their doors. Proposals in federal and state legislatures, for meeting the health needs of the nation, are being brushed aside. There is not only neglect of the problems of today but a storing up of troubles for tomorrow in this vital area.
I cannot conceive of a single voice in this room or among our multitude of supporters who would urge the City of Hope to follow the example of the government. We would not just be cutting a budget, we would be cutting off human lives. Statistics may be recited in dollars and cents, but what businessmen call the "bottom lane" should be calculated in preventable pain and suffering.
The City of Hope in the coming years must reach out, extend itself as never before, for more members and funds, greater ideas and ideals.
All of us realize that dollars will be crucial in the pursuit of our goals. I have referred to the time span it took to raise the first and the second $100,000,000 by our organization – it took 53 years, then 7 years, and now we must raise $100,000,000 in the next 4 years !
In doing so, we are interested in purpose not bigness. We'll need more dollars to offset inflationary inroads in our budget. We'll need more dollars to take care of more patients, to unlock the mysteries of life, to fill the gaps in American medicine. We'll need more dollars to pilot in humanism as well as health.
This should gave meaning to your deliberations at the various sessions. Then, indeed, will our Convention theme – "Hope, Health and Happiness" – be both a descriptionof the past sixty years and a prescription for the next sixty years.
Word must go forth from this Convention that the City of Hope refuses to stand still or retreat.
Its clarion call, resounding an our own and other lands, must rekindle courage in the hearts and minds and souls of all people. Our vision must mobilize them to go forward to a better day, a better life, for our own generation ... and as a heritage to future generations of the family of mankind.