Old Chinese Hospital
 

Old Chinese Hospital sign

New Chinese Hospital
 

Chinese Hospital
845 Jackson St.
San Francisco, CA 94133
415.982.2400
4th Annual Women's Health Day

The first Chinese people to San Francisco were forced to settle in Chinatown. Isolated from the rest of the city, they did not have access to the services provided by San Francisco institutions. Schools and hospitals were not open to the Chinese people for decades. Even during the bubonic plague outbreak at the turn of the century, the city’s health department quarantined Chinatown rather than open health facilities to afflicted Chinese. The only facility available that practiced western medicine was the Tung Wah Dispensary-a dispensary staffed by Christian missionaries.

Built in 1925 to replace the Tung Wah Dispensary, after it was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake, the Chinese Hospital gave the Chinese population a convenient option to the distant San Francisco General Hospital. The San Francisco Chinese Hospital the first and only Chinese hospital in America. Fifteen Chinese service organizations, including the Chinese Christian Union and the Chinese Democratic Constitutionalist Party, came together and raised funds for the original building. Today, they each continue to elect a representative to the hospital's board; the only new board position, added in the 1980s, is for a member of the medical staff.

Chinese Hospital's mission emphasizes these important points:
• Community ownership and responsiveness
• Community leadership
• Cultural uniqueness
• Concern for a broad spectrum of health needs, including but not limited to hospital care

The mission defines the basic purpose of the organization and guides the organization in selecting among its many strategic options.

In focusing on the Chinese community, many people held low income jobs working in small businesses - businesses that insurance companies did not find profitable to insure. With the help of Blue Shield of California, Chinese Community Health Plan formed in 1982 as an alternative HMO for patients who wanted to continue receiving care within the Chinese health system. The health plan, now independently owned by the hospital, obtained a Knox-Keene license in 1987 so it could offer affordable insurance plans to small businesses within the community. Today, the Chinese Community Health Plan has over 8,000 members and is involved in administration of an additional 7,000 members in Medi-Cal, Medicare and commercial programs.

Unique to this health plan is the Chinese Community Health Care Association (CCHCA), the independent provider association (IPA). Formed by the Chinese Hospital medical staff, this non-profit IPA earmarks a portion of its budget to finance community projects. With the cooperation of the CCHCA , Chinese Hospital has been able to form the Chinatown Resource Center. The center provides health education classes in both Cantonese and Mandarin, dietary counseling, translation of health materials from English to Chinese and offers cancer and cigarette cessation groups.

To meet San Francisco's fire codes in 1979, a new hospital needed to be built. The current hospital was built right next to the original facilty. The Chinese Hospital still remains the primary care hospital in the San Francisco Chinese community. It continues to provide hospital based services in a cost effective and culturally sensitive manner and takes a leadership role in the health of the entire community.

Chinese Hospital provides primary and secondary inpatient and outpatient care to the Chinese community. The hospital has 54 beds, with two surgical suites and an Intensive Care Unit. Outpatient care is offered at the 24-hour Treatment Center, Same Day Surgery Unit, and the Western San Francisco Community Clinic (with CCHCA, their physician partner). All patients are served by their diagnostic and therapeutic departments such as the Clinical and Pathology Laboratories, Imaging Services (Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, CT Scanning, Ultrasound, Mammography, etc), Cardiopulmonary Unit (Cardiology, Pulmonary Function, Respiratory Therapy, Neurology, etc) and Pharmacy.

Chinese Hospital is also a founding member of the NICOS, a coalition of health care organizations. With a grant from PG&E, NICOS is involved with developing a disaster plan for Chinatown. It has brought the large and small health care groups together. The coalition includes a federally licensed clinic, the San Francisco Health Department clinic, children and adult mental health clinics and other organizations that are involved with Asian health care.

The poor, the elderly the monolingual Asian have all made Chinese Hospital their point of access to the medical system. It is the leader in expanding the San Francisco safety net and continues to be deeply involved with health care needs of the greater Asian community.

The Chinese Hospital is also where Bruce Lee was born.