Bureau of Medical Services
The Bureau of Medical Services (BMS) was a unit of the United States Public Health Service (PHS) that existed in two incarnations. The first was one of three principal operating agencies of PHS from 1943 until 1966, while the second was a division of the PHS Health Services Administration from 1973 until 1982. Both incarnations of the bureau had the principal responsibility of operating the PHS hospital system that had been founded in 1789.
This article is about the former component of the U.S. Public Health Service. Not to be confused with Bureau of Medical Services (U.S. Department of State).Agency overview
December 30, 1943
- Divisions of Hospitals, Foreign Quarantine, and Nursing
December 31, 1966
Upon the formation of BMS in 1943, the system had already reached its peak of 30 hospitals, and this number decreased throughout BMS's existences as hospitals were closed. The first incarnation of BMS also had responsibilities in medical examination of foreigners entering the country, funding construction of hospitals by the states, researching the effective utilization of medical personnel and services, and providing healthcare to Native Americans.
The original BMS was broken up at the beginning of the Public Health Service reorganizations of 1966–1973, but a second incarnation of BMS was established at their end as a division of the Health Services Administration within PHS. This incarnation of BMS inherited only the hospital system and closely related functions, with the other programs located in other divisions. The system reached its final number of nine in 1970, and the system was abolished in 1981 with all but one hospital transferred to other organizations. The bureau was merged with another division in 1982 to form the current Bureau of Primary Health Care.
The other divisions of the original BMS now form the Indian Health Service, part of the Healthcare Systems Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Federal Occupational Health within the Department of Health and Human Services Program Support Center.
Agency overview
1973
- Federal Health Programs Service
1982
This is a list of Public Health Service hospitals active after 1943. For a list including hospitals that ceased operating prior to 1943, see List of U.S. Marine Hospitals. The links are to the hospital rather than the city. They are grouped by the date that they were closed, transferred to another organization, or downgraded to a clinic.
The Chief of the Bureau of Medical Services was one of the positions holding the title of Assistant Surgeon General. This list only contains chiefs of the original, operating-agency-level BMS.