William H. Stewart

William H. Stewart
10th Surgeon General of the United States
In office October 1, 1965 – August 1, 1969
President	Lyndon B. Johnson Richard Nixon
Preceded by	Luther Terry
Succeeded by	Jesse L. Steinfeld
Personal details
Born	(1921-05-19)May 19, 1921 Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Died	April 23, 2008(2008-04-23) (aged 86) Metairie, Louisiana, USA

William H. Stewart (May 19, 1921 – April 23, 2008) was an American pediatrician and epidemiologist. He was appointed tenth Surgeon General of the United States from 1965 to 1969.

Biography

Early life and education

Stewart was born in

After graduating in 1945, he received a commission as a

Stewart found himself at the helm of PHS under pressure both to expand his agency because of Medicare and Medicaid and to cut back because of the war in Vietnam and a slowing of the phenomenal growth of NIH. His response was to weave PHS into the Johnson Administration’s creative approaches to federalism, using the highly successful Hill-Burton hospital construction program as a starting point for efforts to improve access to services through government planning. Soon after Stewart became Surgeon General, for example, PHS took on the high-profile and critical task of certifying the nation’s hospitals for compliance with Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prior to the July 1966 implementation of Medicare reimbursement for health services. Public concern that NIH research become the basis for improved care and greater access to care moved DHEW to convene the DeBakey Commission, whose 1964 Report Stewart used as the basis for PHS’s Regional Medical Program (the Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke Amendments of 1965). States relations programs, including categorical grants-in-aid to state health departments, were revamped along the lines of urban planning, as the Comprehensive Health Planning Act (also known as the Partnership For Health Act of 1966 and its 1967 Amendments) bypassed state health departments to award grants directly to local government and community not-for-profits, coordinated through state (so-called "section 314a") and nongovernmental ("section 314b") planning agencies.

Stewart’s influence was more visible during the first reorganization than the second. Reorganization Plan No. 3, enacted April 25, 1966 and effective the following January (1967) gave explicit attention to the issues of access to services and environmental health. The CDC served as a model, with its decentralized administration, relative independence from Washington, and strong public constituencies. PHS activities were arranged into five Bureau-level units: Health Manpower (education programs); Health Services (concerning access, Medicare, and Medicaid); Disease Prevention and Environmental Control (environmental health); the National Institute of Mental Health (research and clinics); and the National Institutes of Health (basic and clinical research).

PHS’s new organizational chart was quickly outmoded. When the second reorganization took place the following spring (1968) the Assistant Secretary for Health and Scientific Affairs for DHEW, Dr. Philip Lee, replaced the Surgeon General as head of PHS. The five Bureaus were consolidated into three: the National Institutes of Health; a new

Stewart died at age 86 in Metairie, Louisiana of complications from kidney failure.

References

• Office of Public Health and Science (4 January 2007). "Office of the Surgeon General: William H. Stewart (1965-1969)". U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Archived from the original on 2008-09-16. Retrieved 2008-01-17.
• John Pope (25 April 2008). "Dr. William Stewart, past surgeon general". New Orleans Times-Picayune. Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 2008-01-17.