[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 179 (Thursday, December 10, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8600-S8601]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                RECOGNIZING THE HENRY FORD HEALTH SYSTEM

  Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize Henry 
Ford Health System as it celebrates delivering a century of high-
quality and innovative health care services to the metropolitan Detroit 
community.
  In 1909, Henry Ford, David Whitney, and a few other leading Detroit-
area businessmen recognized the need for a major health care center in 
Detroit and set out to open Detroit General Hospital. After 
experiencing several years of delays, Henry Ford took over the entire 
project and renamed the facility ``Henry Ford Hospital'', which opened 
its doors to the public on October 1, 1915.
  From the outset, Henry Ford was focused upon adapting the insights 
and innovations he pioneered in the automotive industry for use in the 
delivery of health care services. Among his innovations were a first-
in-the-Nation center for treating chemical dependency and an 
accountability system for promoting shorter patient waiting times. Over 
the years, Henry Ford Health System's commitment to innovation saw 
breakthroughs in the administration of electrocardiograms, improvements 
in the design of hospital beds, and advancements in medication 
regiments for treating bacterial infections.
  Throughout its history, Henry Ford Health System has been committed 
to meet the evolving needs of the metro Detroit region. Recognizing the 
need for access to low-cost health care services, Henry Ford Hospital 
partnered with the State of Michigan in 1970 to

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create the Community Health and Social Services, CHASS, clinic in 
southwest Detroit. Around the same time, Henry Ford Health System also 
began partnering with the Detroit public schools to provide in-school 
health services to students.
  With the growing population in Detroit's suburbs, Henry Ford Health 
System began to expand, opening new medical centers in Troy, Dearborn, 
and West Bloomfield. Today Henry Ford Health System has grown from a 
single facility with 48 beds into a regional health care provider which 
admits around 89,000 patients each year and delivers approximately 3.5 
million clinic visits. The staff has also grown to more than 23,000 
employees, making Henry Ford Health System the fifth largest employer 
in the Metro Detroit region.
  In recognition of its outstanding commitment to delivering world-
class health care services in a novel and effective manner, Henry Ford 
Health System is the only organization to receive all five major health 
care quality awards: the Foster G. McGaw Prize in 2004, the Joint 
Commission's Ernest Amory Codman and John M. Eisenberg Awards in 2006 
and 2011, the American Hospital Association's McKesson Quest for 
Quality Prize in 2010, and the Malcolm Baldrige Award in 2011. As a 
recipient of the Baldrige Award, Henry Ford Health System joins an 
elite group of organizations who have been recognized for outstanding 
innovations in their respective fields.
  I am honored to ask my colleagues to join me today in recognizing 
Henry Ford Health System's 100th anniversary. This significant 
milestone is a great opportunity to reflect upon its century-long 
record of fostering innovations in the development and delivery of 
health care services, its commitment to providing the best possible 
outcomes for its patients, and the transformative effect it continues 
to make, both in the health care field and metro Detroit. Henry Ford 
Health System has made a remarkable impact in southeast Michigan over 
the last century, and I wish its leadership, medical professionals, and 
staff well in continuing to fulfill its mission in the years and 
decades ahead.

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