[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 111 (Friday, August 7, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1614-E1615]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO DR. JOHN H. BLOSSOM

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. GEROGE P. RADANOVICH

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, August 6, 1998

  Mr. RADANOVICH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Dr. John 
H. Blossom for his life long dedication and hard work in the health 
care arena. Mr. Blossom's care giving efforts in decentralized rural 
clinics has allowed other physicians to enter and start their own 
practice.
  For nearly three decades, Dr. John H. Blossom has worked to establish 
physician training programs in rural clinics through his long-standing 
relationship with the University of California, San Francisco-Fresno 
Medical education program.
  Dr. Blossom began training family practice residents in decentralized 
rural clinics. This idea of recruiting physicians to generally 
underserved areas worked well and has since been used in many other 
parts of the country.
  Dr. Blossom first came to Fresno for training at Valley Medical 
Center and was appointed chief resident in 1974. Once he completed his 
residency training, Dr. Blossom became a medical director of a 
community health center in Mendota, a small rural town west of Fresno.
  During the two years that he provided patient care services there, he 
introduced that

[[Page E1615]]

site to medical education, forging an alliance between the Fresno 
Family Practice and the Firebaugh-Mendota Health Center. This brought 
medical students from a variety of west coast medical schools.
  Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I pay tribute to Dr. John H. 
Blossom. Dr. Blossom's life long dedication and hardwork in the health 
care arena has allowed other physicians to enter and start their own 
practice. I ask my Colleagues to join me in wishing Dr. Blossom many 
years of success.

                          ____________________