History of the U.S. Public Health Service

• In 1798, the United States passed an act to provide care for injured and sick merchant seamen. Marine hospitals were set up on the east coast and soon expanded to the Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico and Pacific coast. 
   
• Soon after his appointment as the first Supervising Surgeon in 1871, John Maynard Woodworth adopted a military model for his medical team requiring them to pass applicant examinations and wear uniforms. These teams worked in mobile units at marine hospitals as needed.
   
• In 1889, legislation established them as the commissioned officer corps (now called the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps).
   
• Originally open only to physicians, in the twentieth century, the public health service corps expanded to include dentists, nurses, pharmacists, sanitary engineers, scientists and others in the health care profession.
   
• The National Quarantine Act of 1878 assigned the Marine Hospital Service with authority over quarantine functions that originally belonged to the states.
   
• The Marine Hospital Service, headquartered in Washington, D.C., appoint a Supervising Surgeon (later named the Surgeon General) who would serve as chief administrator.
   
• In 1891, the Marine Hospital Service also became responsible for processing immigrants arriving in the U.S., providing them with medical inspections intended to help manage and prevent diseases from entering the country.
   
• As the nineteenth century came to a close, the Marine Hospital Service had broadened its mission to manage and control the spread of infectious disease.

• Due to its expanded roles and responsibilities, the Marine Hospital Service was renamed the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service in 1902. Ten years later, it would be shortened to Public Health Service, with the Commissioned Corps continuing to lead the way in its traditional and broadened duties, including the following:
  
  
  • Preventing the spread of diseases
  • Conducting biomedical research
  • Regulating the food and drug supply
  • Delivering health care to underserved groups
  • Providing medical assistance in the wake of natural disasters

• In the twenty-first century, the Public Health Service encompasses all agencies under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Commissioned Corps. Some of the agencies included the following:
   
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
  • The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
  • The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
  • The National Institutes of Health (NIH)
  • The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
     
• Growing over the course of two centuries and counting, the Public Health Service and its Corps has maintained its mission to protect and advance the nation's health and safety, offering not only research and insight but education as to how we can influence our own health and the health of others for the better.

Learn more about public health careers, or find public health schools in our directory.