San Francisco Chinese Hospital Explained

San Francisco Chinese Hospital
東華醫院
Location:San Francisco
State:California
Country:United States
Funding:Non-profit
Type:General
Emergency:Yes
Beds:54
Founded:1925
Module:
Showflag:stp
S:东华医院
T:東華醫院
P:Dōnghuá yīyuàn
W:Tunghua i-yuan
J:Dung1waa4 ji1jyun2
Y:Dūngwàa yīyún
Ci:pronounced as /tʊ́ŋwȁː jɪ́ʔy̌ːn/

San Francisco Chinese Hospital is a community hospital in San Francisco and the only Chinese hospital in the United States.[1] [2] The hospital is located in San Francisco's Chinatown.

Chinese Hospital primarily serves the elderly, poor and immigrants from China in the San Francisco area and provides an alternative to San Francisco General Hospital for patients with a language barrier. The hospital also operates CCHP, (Chinese Community Health Plan). The hospital's staff can provide services spoken in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Taishanese and other languages.[3]

History

Origins

Historian Him Mark Lai cites three factors that made it difficult for early Chinese immigrants to seek medical care:[4]

  1. Many hospitals refused to treat Chinese patients
  2. Most hospitals were distant from Chinatown, and prospective patients were subject to attack en route
  3. Most Chinese immigrants did not have sufficient knowledge of English to communicate with American doctors

In 1888, the Chinese Hospital Association sought permission to erect a hospital in the University Mound neighborhood, but the San Francisco Board of Supervisors referred the request to the Health and Police Committee instead, based on opposition from existing property owners.[5] Several so-called Chinese hospitals were established in San Francisco as privately run institutions of poor repute, mainly functioning as hospices and morgues, throughout the late 1800s.[6] [7] [8]

Chinese Hospital traces its origins to 1899,[9] when the Oriental Dispensary, with ties to the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals in Hong Kong, was founded[10] over the protests of property owners on Sacramento Street.[11] The Tung Wah Yi Kuk opened at 828 Sacramento Street, a site currently occupied by the Willie "Woo Woo" Wong/Chinese Playground.[4] After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, it relocated to 14 Trenton Street.[4] However, the building was small at and not adequate to meet community demands.[4]

1924 and 1979 buildings

A site was acquired to expand the existing dispensary on Trenton in 1920, and the Chinese Six Companies convened a meeting of 15 community organizations, who boldly decided to build a modern hospital instead, which would require extensive fundraising; the 15 organizations met again in October 1922, forming the hospital's Board of Trustees, and acquired the land where the present-day hospital stands in August 1923 for .[4] From 1923, Chinese immigrants in the Bay Area contributed $145,000 towards the construction, and the goal of $200,000 was reached by early 1925.[4] The modern Chinese hospital, in concrete and steel, with a touch of Oriental style in the roof lines, was completed at 835 Jackson St. in 1924[12] and opened on April 18, 1925, with a huge Chinatown celebration lasting several days.[13] [14]

By the early 1970s, the original building did not meet earthquake and fire standards established in 1947, and income (mainly derived from rental properties in Chinatown) was not adequate to provide sufficient funds to improve it.[4] A new annex was built in 1979 at 845 Jackson Street, housing 54 beds. With the opening of the 1979 hospital annex, the original 1924 building was converted to a Medical Administration Building.

2012 expansion

In 2012, Chinese Hospital announced plans to build a replacement hospital building in the space where the 1924 building currently stood. The new building would take over patient care from the 1979 building, and the 1924 building would be demolished as it was seismically unsafe.[15] The plans were approved and the 1924 building was demolished, despite significant opposition by the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP).[16] The NTHP commemorated the 1924 building as one of ten historic sites lost in 2013.[17] There was a 41-space parking garage behind the 1924 building which was also demolished to make room for the new building.[12]

As of September 2016, the new eight-story, $180 million building called the Patient Tower was set to officially open.[18] The replacement hospital building was planned to have 54 beds and add a new 22-bed skilled nursing facility; the 1979 building would be converted to serve as a Medical Administration and Outpatient Center. Fundraising for the project was spearheaded by Rose Pak, a Chinese American activist who died September 18, 2016.[19]

Operations

The hospital has been operating at approximately one-third of its 52-bed capacity since opening the Patient Tower, and Chinese Hospital sustained a $17.4 million operating loss in 2016. According to the hospital's CEO, Brenda Yee, "reduced support from the community physicians" has resulted in fewer admissions.[20]

The non-profit Chinese Hospital, the Chinese Community Health Care Association (CCHCA, a group of physicians), and the Chinese Community Health Plan (CCHP, a for-profit insurer) have been allied since 1982 to provide an integrated health network in Chinatown. CCHCA negotiated contracts on behalf of its physicians, but in July 2015, CCHP began sending contracts directly to doctors, sparking a lawsuit by CCHCA against CCHP in August 2015.[21] Yee, who heads both CCHP and Chinese Hospital, stated that CCHP was free to contract directly with doctors.[22] CCHCA stated the hospital had cut them out of a mutually beneficial profit-sharing arrangement.

Leadership

Chinese Hospital is governed by a Board of Trustees, with members selected from sixteen community organizations serving Chinatown.

Chinese Hospital Board of Trustees[23]
RoleMember Organization
ChairKitman Chan Chinese Chamber of Commerce
Vice ChairHarvey Louie Chinatown Y.M.C.A.
English SecretaryThomas T. Ng Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association
Assistant English SecretaryJack Sit Kong Chow Benevolent Association-Chinese Secretary
Assistant Chinese Secretary-->
TreasurerRobert Wong Chinese American Citizens Alliance (同源會)
Assistant TreasurerRobert Chiang Yan Wo Benevolent Association
Board MemberGustin Ho, MD Chinese Democratic Constitutionalist Party (民主憲政黨)
Board MemberJack Lee Fong Sue Hing Benevolent Association
Board MemberChinese Hospital Medical Staff
Board MemberClifton Leung Chee Kung Tong
Board MemberYick C. Tam Kuomintang of China
Board MemberNing Yung Benevolent Association
Board MemberPaul M. Lee Yeong Wo Association
Board MemberHop Wo Benevolent Association
Board MemberDan Quan Sam Yup Benevolent Association
Board MemberDick W. Wong Chinese Christian Union of San Francisco
Notes

Hospital rating data

The HealthGrades website contains the clinical quality data for San Francisco Chinese Hospital, as of 2018. For this rating section clinical quality rating data, patient safety ratings and patient experience ratings are presented.

For inpatient conditions and procedures, there are three possible ratings: worse than expected, as expected, better than expected. For this hospital the data for this category is:

For patient safety ratings the same three possible ratings are used. For this hospital they are"

Percentage of patients rating this hospital as a 9 or 10 - 68%

Percentage of patients who on average rank hospitals as a 9 or 10 - 69%[24]

Services

Services provided by SFCH include:

Famous patients

Actor and martial artist Bruce Lee was born at Chinese Hospital.[25] [26] San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Norman Yee was also born in Chinese Hospital.[27]

See also

Other Chinese hospitals and health care serving local Chinese communities:

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Chinese Hospital . SanFranciscoChinatown.com . March 31, 2012.
  2. News: The healing power of community / City's top-ranked Chinese Hospital offers western medicine with eastern touch . Torassa, Ulysses . May 19, 2002 . San Francisco Chronicle . October 14, 2016.
  3. Web site: Medical Staff & Clinics. San Francisco Chinese Hospital. November 20, 2016.
  4. News: Chinese Hospital: An institution of, for, and by the Chinese community . Him Mark Lai . January 16, 1974 . East/West . 11 June 2021.
  5. News: The Supervisors. Various Municipal Matters Are Quickly Disposed Of. . . 29 May 1888 . Daily Alta . 42 . 14151 . October 14, 2016 . At the regular weekly meeting of the Board of Supervisors last night a petition was received from the Chinese Hospital Association, asking permission to erect a hospital on Block 98 of the University Mound Tract. The matter was referred to the Health and Police Committee. It will be remembered that the Board refused to take action on the protest of property-owners against the erection of the proposed hospital..
  6. News: Neighboring Places . . January 29, 1894 . Los Angeles Herald . 41 . 100 . October 14, 2016 . Senator Gwin died in 1887, and his family mansion on Jackson street has been a Chinese hospital for sixteen years..
  7. News: Ghastly Dens in Chinatown . . March 6, 1896 . San Francisco Call . 79 . 97 . October 14, 2016 . These are the Chinatown morgues, or hospitals, and deadhouses combined. They are little rooms at the end of long, foul alleys, where those who are dead and those who are dying lie together until their friends ship their dry bones back to China for burial. There are several of these places in Chinatown. [...] A few years ago the Chinese merchants raised a large fund to erect a hospital. Plans were drawn up and submitted to the City authorities, but for some reason the Chinese were not permitted to build. Large sums of money are subscribed by missionary societies to erect hospitals in China, but there is no place in the Christian City of San Francisco where a sick and friendless Chinaman can breathe his last, except among coffins and boxes of bones in a Chinese charnel-house. In some cases they are dumped into these hideous "chambers of peace" and left to die unattended, except a peep now and then to see when life is extinct..
  8. News: Slavery in San Francisco . . July 24, 1897 . San Francisco Call . 82 . 54 . October 14, 2016 . There is work for the Board of Health and for the police authorities in the dark dens of the Chinese quarter. The revelations made within the last few days concerning the dread horrors of the Chinese hospitals and the inhuman and even murderous treatment of Chinese girls who are held in most accursed bondage are enough in themselves to spur the proper authorities to remedial action without delay..
  9. News: Incorporations . . March 11, 1899 . Los Angeles Herald . 162 . October 14, 2016.
  10. News: Hospital for Sick Chinese . . May 16, 1900 . San Francisco Call . 87 . 177 . October 14, 2016.
  11. News: Perrault Exposes a Peculiar Condition . . June 27, 1899 . 86 . 27 . San Francisco Call . October 14, 2016 . The following protests were received and referred to the proper committees: Property owners [...], against establishment of Chinese hospital on Sacramento street below Stockton [...].
  12. Draft Environmental Impact Report—835-845 Jackson Street: Chinese Hospital Replacement Project . . Case No. 2008.0762E . Planning Department, City and County of San Francisco . April 16, 2012 . October 14, 2016.
  13. News: 'Frisco Chinatown Being Modernized . . January 14, 1926 . United Press . Healdsburg Tribune . 60 . October 14, 2016.
  14. Book: Hom . Laureen D . Early Chinese immigrants organizing for healthcare: The establishment of the Chinese Hospital in San Francisco . 2013 . Springer . New York . 978-14614-2226-6 . 353–362 . G.J. Yoo et al., Handbook of Asian American Health.
  15. News: Chinese Hospital plans new $160 million building . Wildermuth, John . May 10, 2012 . San Francisco Chronicle . October 14, 2016.
  16. http://www.sfheritage.org/NTHPChineseHospitalDEIRcomments.pdf . Brian R. . Turner . Mr. Bill Wycko . Commons on Draft EIR 835-845 Jackson Street Chinese Hospital Replacement Project, Case No. 2008.0762E . English . May 30, 2012 . October 13, 2016.
  17. News: . Associated Press. A look at 10 historic sites saved, 10 lost in 2013. January 19, 2014. Post Crescent. January 5, 2014. F3 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161014140326/https://www.yahoo.com/news/look-10-historic-sites-saved-10-lost-2013-085936846.html . October 14, 2016 . live.
  18. News: Chinatown hospital set to unveil 8-story, $180 million building . Veklerov, Kimberly . April 15, 2016 . San Francisco Chronicle . October 14, 2016.
  19. News: Rose Pak, SF political powerhouse, dies . Wildermuth, John . September 21, 2016 . San Francisco Chronicle . October 14, 2016.
  20. News: SF's Chinese Hospital, Rose Pak's pet project, bleeding cash . Matier, Phil . Ross, Andy . October 2, 2017 . San Francisco Chronicle . October 2, 2017.
  21. News: S.F.'s Chinese Hospital, doctors clash in contracting dispute . Colliver, Victoria . August 13, 2015 . San Francisco Chronicle . October 2, 2017.
  22. News: Chinatown health care battle engulfs doctors, insurance plan and Chinese Hospital . Rauber, Chris . August 2015 . San Francisco Business Times . October 2, 2017.
  23. Web site: Senior Leadership Team . Chinese Hospital . November 19, 2018.
  24. Web site: Chinese Hospital - San Francisco, CA Healthgrades. 2020-12-02. www.healthgrades.com.
  25. Web site: Tourism For Locals: San Francisco was Bruce Lee's Native City and There's No Homage to It [BLOG] ]. De Anda, Juan . November 14, 2014 . SF Weekly . October 14, 2016.
  26. News: Chinese Hospital Gives New Meaning to Family Medicine . Hua, Vanessa . May 26, 2015 . NBC News . October 14, 2016.
  27. News: How San Francisco's Chinatown Got Ahead Of the Coronavirus . Stamos, Alyson . Wu, Meiying . April 17, 2020 . subscription . 19 April 2020.