Annual Report the Surgeon General United States Army Fiscal Year 1960
REDESIGNATION OF HOSPITALS
Department of the Army General Orders No. 44, dated 21 December 1959, redesignated as 'general' hospitals the seven Army hospitals in CONUS (continental United States) that are under the command of The Surgeon General. The redesignation of the following hospitals became effective as of 1 January 1960:
Old designation | New designation |
Walter Reed Army Hospital | Walter Reed General Hospital |
Brooke Army Hospital | Brooke General Hospital |
| Letterman Army Hospital | Letterman General Hospital |
| Fitzsimons Army Hospital | Fitzsimons General Hospital |
Madigan Army Hospital | Madigan General Hospital |
| William Beaumont Army Hospital | William Beaumont General Hospital |
| Valley Forge Army Hospital | Valley Forge General Hospital |
The Surgeon General initiated this action primarily to differentiate between named hospitals (class I) which provide local and area medical support and those named hospitals (class II) which are especially staffed and equipped for observation, treatment, and disposition of patients requiring long periods of hospitalization and highly specialized medical care. These latter hospitals provide worldwide medical support to the Army and, when required, to the Navy and the Air Force.
Under the policy inaugurated in fiscal year 1957, when the first hospitals in the Army's construction and modernization program were dedicated, new Army hospitals under the jurisdiction of army area commanders are being named in memory of deceased AMEDS (Army Medical Service) personnel whose military contributions were of a distinguished character. As a result, there was no distinction in the nomenclature between these hospitals and those under the command of The Surgeon General.
In redesignating its class II hospitals as general hospitals, the army reverted to the term which was used traditionally until 1950 to identify its specialized medical treatment facilities.
