April 24, 1981

''The church is vital to the community. I'm not a member of the church, but it's important to a lot of people who are important to me.''

Gerard Bonomo, president of the Shiavone-Bonomo Corporation, watched a giant 6,000-horsepower shredder take a wrecked car and in a few seconds convert it into strands of scrap, which were then carried by conveyor to the top of a towering 60,000-ton pile. Crane operators at the yard, which lies almost directly across the Hudson River from the World Trade Center, were taking huge bites of metal from the pile and dumping it into the hold of a freighter, soon to head for Bangladesh. Finding overseas customers, Mr. Bonomo said, has meant survival for his company and the scrap industry as a whole. But it has also meant conflict with domestic steel mills over scrap supplies.

Artificial skin made from cowhide, shark cartilage and plastic has been successfully used by doctors at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to replace skin destroyed by burns, the doctors reported yesterday. They said that the new skin successfully performed many of the functions of real skin. Unlike other substances that are used temporarily to cover the skin of burned patients, they said, the newly developed skin avoids the need for drugs that suppress the body's immune system when skin is taken from relatives and other people for skin grafts. Accordingly, the new skin does not increase the burn patient's chances of getting a fatal infection. Infections are a common cause of death among burn patients.

In a 1979 strategic planning meeting, the Hospital Corporation of America established the goal of doubling its revenues, which then totaled $797 million, within six years. Come September, when the giant Nashville-based hospital chain expects to complete its proposed acquisition of Hospital Affiliates International, a wholly owned subsidiary of the INA Corporation, the Hospital Corporation will have met its goal four years ahead of schedule. The merger, a cash and stock transaction valued at $650 million, will move the 13-year-old company into undisputed leadership of its industry, giving it the credibility it has sought since its inception. From the beginning, H.C.A.'s goal has been twofold: growth and social acceptance, both for itself and for the private sector of the health-care industry.

Consumer prices rose last month at an annual rate of 7.5 percent, the Labor Department reported. The increase was the smallest advance since July. The small advance reflected the slowing of energy price increases and an apparent imporovement in the inflation picture overall. (Page A1.) Adjustable-rate home loans were approved by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in a move that will significantly change the structure of the nation's home mortgage market. The absence of a limit on rate changes was criticized by consumer groups. (A1.)