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.[1] 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]
Many hospitals refused to treat Chinese patients
Most hospitals were distant from Chinatown,and prospective patients were subject to attack en route
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 25 by 60ft (7.6 by 18.3m) and not adequate to meet community demands.[4]
While his parents were touring the United States as part of a Chinese Opera Troupe,actor and martial artist Bruce Lee,Lee Jun-fan,was born at Chinese Hospital on November 27,1940.[12]
1924 and 1979 buildings
The facade of the now-demolished 1924 hospital. The 1979 annex stands uphill.
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 US$10,500(equivalent to $190,000 in 2024).[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[13] and opened on April 18,1925.,[14] followed on April 29 by a huge Chinatown celebration that would last for nine days.[15][16][17]
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.[13]
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.[18] The plans were approved and the 1924 building was demolished,despite significant opposition by the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP).[19] The NTHP commemorated the 1924 building as one of ten historic sites lost in 2013.[20] There was a 41-space parking garage behind the 1924 building which was also demolished to make room for the new building.[13][18]
As of September 2016,the new eight-story,$180 million building called the Patient Tower was set to officially open.[21] 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.[13] Fundraising for the project was spearheaded by Rose Pak,a Chinese American activist who died September 18,2016.[22]
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 $17.4million operating loss in 2016. According to the hospital's CEO,Brenda Yee,"reduced support from the community physicians" has resulted in fewer admissions.[23]
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.[24] Yee,who heads both CCHP and Chinese Hospital,stated that CCHP was free to contract directly with doctors.[24][25] CCHCA stated the hospital had cut them out of a mutually beneficial profit-sharing arrangement.[23]
Leadership
Chinese Hospital is governed by a Board of Trustees,with members selected from sixteen community organizations serving Chinatown.
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:
Worse than expected - 0
As expected - 8
Better than expected - 1
For patient safety ratings the same three possible ratings are used. For this hospital they are"
Worse than expected - 0
As expected - 11
Better than expected - 0
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%[27]
↑ "The Supervisors. Various Municipal Matters Are Quickly Disposed Of". Daily Alta. Vol.42, no.14151. May 29, 1888. Retrieved 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.
↑ "Neighboring Places". Los Angeles Herald. Vol.41, no.100. January 29, 1894. Retrieved October 14, 2016. Senator Gwin died in 1887, and his family mansion on Jackson street has been a Chinese hospital for sixteen years.
↑ "Ghastly Dens in Chinatown". San Francisco Call. Vol.79, no.97. March 6, 1896. Retrieved 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.
↑ "Slavery in San Francisco". San Francisco Call. Vol.82, no.54. July 24, 1897. Retrieved 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.
↑ "Incorporations". Los Angeles Herald. No.162. March 11, 1899. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
↑ "Perrault Exposes a Peculiar Condition". San Francisco Call. Vol.86, no.27. June 27, 1899. Retrieved 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 [...]
↑ Hom, Laureen D (2013). Early Chinese immigrants organizing for healthcare: The establishment of the Chinese Hospital in San Francisco (G.J. Yoo et al., Handbook of Asian American Healthed.). New York: Springer. pp.353–362. ISBN978-14614-2226-6.
"Chinese Hospital". flickr. San Francisco Public Library. December 2012. Retrieved October 14, 2016. A collection of photographs and news clippings detailing the history of Chinese Hospital.
"Chinese Hospital". flickr. San Francisco Film Office. May 12, 2005. Retrieved October 14, 2016. A collection of photographs showing the exterior of the 1924 building.
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