This is an archive page.  The links are no longer being updated.

REMARKS BY: TOMMY G. THOMPSON, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
PLACE:	The Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
DATE:		October 13, 200

I'm glad to see two friends from Capital Hill, Minnesota's own Congressmen Gil Gutknecht and Mark Kennedy. They are staunch friends of the Mayo Clinic and wonderful public servants, as is your Health Commissioner, Jan Malcolm. Thanks to each of you for all your good work.

It's also good to see my friend, Dr. Tom McDonald. Tom and I met in late July in my office at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington and had a tremendous time talking about a range of issues.

Tom, let me take a brief moment to let you know how deeply saddened I was to learn of the recent loss of your son, Robert. I hope you know you and your family are in my thoughts and prayers. God bless you, my friend.

Behind me is a statue called "Man and Freedom." It was created by a Croatian-born sculptor named Ivan Mestrovic. His personal longing for freedom was intensified during his time as a prisoner of the Nazis during the Second World War. Just nine years after the end of the war, "Man and Freedom" was installed here in the Gonda Building.

The Second World War reminded us of how precious our freedom is. The terrorist attacks on September 11 reminded us again.

We are a nation that values what George Washington called "ordered liberty" - freedom exercised in the context of just laws and mutual respect. The horrible acts in New York City, at the Pentagon and in rural Pennsylvania did nothing to shake our belief that "liberty and justice for all" is the central objective of American life.

To the contrary, the terrorists merely roused a peaceful giant, a nation of decent people who have always stood united when our freedom and security are threatened. Perhaps even today, as Osama Bin Ladin and his henchmen run in fear, they are beginning to realize that they cannot hide from the United States of America.

We will find them and we will root out international terrorism. The President is utterly committed to this goal. It will be achieved.

The enemies of liberty can ruin buildings and even commit mass murder, but they can never place even a scratch on America's spirit. American resolve cannot be measured, any more than our courage can be exhausted. As President Bush said two days ago at the Pentagon memorial service, "On September 11th, great sorrow came to our country. And from that sorrow has come great resolve. Today, we are a nation awakened to the evil of terrorism, and determined to destroy it.

The President continued, "That work began the moment we were attacked; and it will continue until justice is delivered."

Of course, the terrorist threat is not yet over. The anthrax cases that have been widely reported demonstrate that we have to keep our guard up and our eyes open. But the quick reporting of these incidents and their rapid treatment indicate just how thorough we are being . and how aggressive our efforts are to contain and stop any bioterrorist threat.

In the space of less than 12 hours, my department is prepared to move 50 tons of medical supplies to any location in the United States. We have a stockpile of 400 tons of supplies in 8 locations. We have 7,000 physicians on alert nationwide, including, I suspect, some of you in this audience.

Let me tell you how glad I am that America has the Mayo Clinic to depend on at a time like this. You are a national resource, and our country rests more easily knowing that you and your two sister sites in Jacksonville and Scottsdale are ready to swing into high gear should the need arise.

The Mayo Clinic is known for remarkable medical breakthroughs . the highest professional standards in medicine . and a spirit of hope and compassion that grew from the vision of some remarkable medical pioneers - two men named Charlie and Will Mayo.

The Mayo brothers saw the value of working in tandem with other top-quality physicians. As Dr. Will Mayo put it, "Individualism in medicine can no longer exist." That seems like common sense, but at the turn of the century, it was visionary. And it was a vision that transformed the practice of medicine.

We take group practice, with its benefits of advanced diagnosis, treatment and research, for granted today. But it began right here.

Now, I hate to admit this, but the Mayo Clinic is better known worldwide than the outstanding medical facilities in my great home state of Wisconsin. Mayo is probably the only place outside of Washington, D.C., with as many leaders in its field. It actually could be debated as to which one has more.

In fact, when I leave the Department of Health and Human Services, if the President asks me who should succeed me, I will point to the Mayo Clinic as the best place to look.

The reason is very simple: Mayo is one of the premier medical institutions in the world - perhaps the single most outstanding forum for medical diagnosis and treatment anywhere.

The Clinic is legendary for treating world leaders, heads of government and top CEOs. But the Clinic is also renowned for opening its doors to ordinary men and women from every walk of life, from all over the nation, hurting people who need the best care America can offer.

Mayo casts rays of hope across a planet that so desperately needs help. In our country, we have unparalleled medical resources and we're doing all we can to make them available to every American. But in so many regions of the world, pain is as real as hope seems distant.

In the growing refugee camps of Pakistan . in the teeming slums of Cairo . in the crowded clinics of Bombay . desperation is the norm. And in our own country, too many of our fellow Americans lack the kind of care they can and should enjoy.

One of the great callings of our time is to replace desperation with inspiration. Sometimes, that calls for strong measures. Today, even as I speak, brave American service men and women are fighting to rid the world of organized terror. But as they triumph in their mission, we must consider our priorities anew.

Surely, one of chief goals of American policy, both at home and abroad, is to provide the means through which hope can be realized and freedom can ring loudly and clearly.

One of the ways we can do that most effectively is to provide all of our citizens with the promise of a better life through the highest quality health care possible. But let me suggest that this goal must extend beyond our borders. Under the President's leadership, we're providing humanitarian aid in a thousand ways to the hurting people of the world, including the suffering children of Afghanistan.

We must hold out to them not just our generous charity but also our welcoming friendship. That's where the Mayo Clinic comes in. The Clinic is perhaps the single greatest model of what a comprehensive health care system should be. Mayo reminds the world that hope is not lost, that for no one has the dream of a better life been extinguished.

Here at home, I am looking to the Mayo Clinic for counsel as we at the Department of Health and Human Services consider how best to improve the quality of America's health care system.

Over the years, the Department of Health and Human Services has worked with Mayo on many, many projects. For example, this year, we awarded Mayo and its researchers 334 grants totaling more than $108 million to study a host of important issues.

Across the medical spectrum - from molecular studies to severe forms of cancer, from liver transplantation to diabetes - scores of Mayo scientists are performing groundbreaking research that will add to our knowledge and improve the quality of care Americans receive.

Mayo physicians have given me many good ideas about how to make the Department of Health and Human Services run more efficiently. I value that input. I need it, and I'm applying it within my department.

One area of particular concern is our nation's Medicare system, which I'll touch on more in a moment. But let me just say that Mayo's top people have given me invaluable insight into what we need to do to improve, strengthen and protect Medicare for seniors today and for the millions of men and women who will retire in coming years.

But I want to stress that the Clinic is known not just for its peerless medical expertise, but also for its compassionate approach to caring for hurting people. In fact, the key to the success of the Clinic can be captured in a two-word phrase - compassionate innovation. Compassionate innovation has been the Clinic's operating principle for more than a century.

That's a tradition that will be strengthened by the new Practice Integration Projects. The Projects' buildings will, together, compose the largest facility of its kind in the world. The buildings will live up to their name - they will be fully integrated, offering patients not just convenience but the benefits of some of the world's leading experts working in concert, shoulder to shoulder.

For example, a patient will be able to obtain a CAT scan . be evaluated by a neurologist . and have surgery, all on the same floor. As Mayo itself notes in its description of the Projects, they will, and I quote, "support new models of patient care through (the) closer integration of medical practice, education and research."

This kind of integration will save time, energy and money. It will foster greater efficiency and will cut down on medical errors. Perhaps most importantly, the integration of every facet of medical care will provide patients and their families with world-class treatment during times of pain.

That's the best news of all, and it's typical of the kind of compassionate service Mayo has rendered the nation for more than a century. Perhaps Dr. Charlie Mayo said it best: "If we excel in anything, it is our capacity for translating idealism into action." To put it another way, Mayo fulfills its commitment to compassion by innovating. And today, we're seeing that same commitment renewed once again.

With the advent of the new Practice Integration Projects, Mayo's next major step in its distinguished history of compassion-based innovation is being taken. Yet it's also clear that medical advances are only useful to hurting people if they can be delivered in a cost-effective, efficient manner.

That's why I'm working closely with Mayo as we develop a panel of experts to help us weed out Medicare regulations that hinder quality care instead of enhancing it.

This is a major initiative. Physicians and nurses and hospitals are committed to caring for people. They shouldn't have to spend countless hours filling out forms and negotiating with bureaucrats, especially when it comes to caring for senior citizens who depend on Medicare benefits. We're going to get rid of useless Medicare regulations, and Mayo is playing a key role in helping us reach that goal, and we're already taking some significant steps to that end.

Mayo's commitment to compassionate innovation, which is represented by today's groundbreaking, will continue because two brothers named Mayo believed in seizing the priceless opportunities our country affords and using them with energy and optimism.

Will and Charlie Mayo were willing to think outside the accepted limits . to try new things . and to do so for the sake of people in need and pain. That remains your calling, and you are fulfilling it today and every day.

For hurting children and their bewildered parents . for desperate patients who long for answers and wait for treatment . and for future generations whose hope for a good life rests, in significant degree, in the capable hands of qualified caregivers . Mayo is an example, a model and an inspiration.

But in a larger sense, the inspiration mayo offers is a reflection of the inspiration that America offers to all people and all nations. Freedom . justice . human dignity . hope. Those are the watchwords of the American experiment in self-government, an experiment that our military is protecting in foreign lands.

So let me leave you with a quote from one of the great leaders of that conflict, one of my own heroes, Winston Churchill. Words he spoke in 1941 ring as true today as they did then.

"These are not dark days," said Sir Winston. "These are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived." So with Britain in 1941, also with America in 2001.

I've never been prouder to be an American . I've never been prouder of a President . and I've never been more confident that the bright hope that shines from the Statue of Liberty to the Golden Gate . from Mount McKinley to the Everglades . will burn ever brighter in coming years.

I'm also so very proud to be associated with this remarkable institution. Thank you for inviting me to be here today and share in this historic occasion. May God bless each of you, and may He always bless our country.