CHAPTER III ORGANIZATION The head of the Public Health Service is the Surgeon General, who under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury is responsible for the supervision of all matters connected with the administration of the affairs of the service. He is directly assisted by an executive officer who acts' on behalf and by order of the Surgeon General in all matters of routine administration. The detailed work of the service is carried on by means of the following administrative units, which report directly to the Surgeon General : Office of Chief Clerk. Inspection Service Division of Personnel and Accounts Hospital Division Division of Venereal Diseases Division of Domestic (Interstate) Quarantine Division of Foreign and Insular Quarantine and Immigration Division of Scientific Research The Office of the Chief Clerk, the Inspection Service, and the Division of Personnel and Accounts are institutional units, as they are concerned entirely with matters relating to the operation of the service, and do not carry on any of the activities for which the service exists. These units assist the other units in carrying on their work. The other seven units are functional, as they are concerned with the administration of specific laws or the direction of investigations undertaken by authority of law. Office of the Chief Clerk. The Office of the Chief Clerk has general supervision over the routine matters connected with the administration of the business of the service of the bureau or ganization in Washington. On the personnel side this work includes, for the clerical, messenger and labor force, the making of appointments, promotions, and demotions, the assignment of employees, granting leaves of absence, enforcing discipline, keeping records of attendance and leaves of absence, and preparation of pay-rolls. Other duties are the administration of the library, the furnishing of supplies of all kinds for the bureau in Washington, the care of buildings, the supervising of telephone and motor car service, the custody of the files and archives, the furnishing of stationery and printed forms to both the Washington office and the field stations, the preparation and transmittal of requisitions for printing publications, the execution of multigraph and mimeograph work, and the preparation and custody of mailing lists. It should be noted that the Chief Clerk has no supervision over the Hygienic Laboratory which is a field station. The organization of the Office of the Chief Clerk is as follows: 1. Chief Clerk's Immediate Office 2. Office of the Appointment Clerk 3. Office of the Administrative Clerk 1. Office proper of administrative clerk 2. Mail room 3. Telephone operators 4. Duplicating unit 5. Messenger and custodian force 6. Motor transportation service 4. Stationery and printing requisition section 1. Administrative Office 2. Shipping and stock unit 5. Office purchase and supply clerk 6. Bureau Library 7. Files section On December 31, 1921 there were 131 employees in the Chief Clerk's Office. Inspection Service. The Inspection Service is an administrative unit that has been created as a result of the increase in the hospital work during 1919 and 1920, and also because of the very apparent necessity for closer supervision of all of the lines of activity pursued by the Public Health Service. Formerly all charges and complaints were investigated by an officer specially detailed for that purpose, but the increase in number of complaints resulting from the rapid growth of the hospital service led to the creation of an inspection section in the Hospital Division during the early part of the fiscal year 1920. Under this arrangement the Hospital Division had charge of the investigation of all matters relating to hospitals, while officers were specially detailed to make needed investigations of other branches of the service. The Hospital Division was thus investigating its own operations. It was felt that more satisfactory results would be ob tained if an independent agency, reporting directly to the Surgeon General, was established for inspection purposes, and accordingly the Inspection Section was created on February 16, 1920. This was changed to the General Inspection Service by the regulations approved August 29, 1920. The Inspection Service makes routine inspections of hospitals operated by the service and other stations and establishments pertaining to the other divisions of the bureau. In addition to these routine examinations, the Inspection Service investigates complaints against any division, establishment or branch of the service. The inspector is authorized to takę testimony under oath in order to ascertain the truth of the charges. Annual inspections of property reported unserviceable are made by the Inspection Service in order to provide for its disposition. The number of inspections and investigations made during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1921, were as follows: The Inspection Service is in charge of an Assistant Sur geon General, assisted by an executive officer. The Washing ton office of the Inspection Service is divided into the Section of Records and Correspondence and the Section of Reviews and Reports. The Section of Records and Correspondence has charge of the files of the service and looks after the clerical details relating to the correspondence. The Section of Reviews and Reports examines the findings of the field inspector in order to determine whether the inspection fully covers the ground and makes recommendations regarding the action to be taken. The work of the field inspectors is generally confined to the determination of facts, but the Section of Reviews and Reports drafts recommendations to the Surgeon General regarding the remedial action, disciplinary or other, that should be taken. Since October 8, 1921, the United States has been divided into four general inspection areas, as follows: Atlantic General Inspection Area, comprising the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, with headquarters in New York, N. Y. Central General Inspection Area, comprising the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana, with headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. Southern General Inspection Area, comprising the States of Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas, with headquarters in New Orleans, La. Pacific General Inspection Area, comprising the States of Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, and California, with headquarters in San Francisco, California. On December 31, 1921, the number of employees in the inspection service was nineteen in Washington and nineteen at the field headquarters. Since the transfer to the Veterans' Bureau of the hospitals for the medical treatment of the beneficiaries of that organization the duties of the Inspection Service have materially decreased, but the organization is essentially the same. Division of Personnel and Accounts. The Division of Personnel and Accounts has charge of the payment of all vouchers, the record of disbursements from various appropriations, and all matters relating to the appointment, promotion, and discipline of commissioned officers, personnel of every character in the field, and the technical and scientific personnel in Washington. In the field special disbursing officers are stationed at the large centers in order to avoid the delay incident to transmitting vouchers to Washington for payment. The activity of this division in the work of personnel administration consists in arranging for the appointment and promotion of all commissioned officers, employees of every character in the field, and technical and scientific employees in Washington. It also, by direction of the Surgeon General, convenes boards for the examination of applicants for appointment, for the examination of employees entitled to promotion, for the trial of commissioned officers, and for other purposes. The division is in charge of an Assistant Surgeon General, the organization being as follows: On December 31, 1921, there were 111 persons employed in this division. Hospital Division. The Hospital Division has charge ofall medical relief except that furnished by the trachoma hospitals and clinics and the leper hospital at Kalihi, Hawaii. The work of the Hospital Division includes the maintenanceand operation of service hospitals,1 the furnishing of medical 1 For complete list of marine hospitals see page 185. |