Taiwan Adventist Hospital

Taiwan Adventist Hospital (TAH; Chinese: 臺安醫院; pinyin: Tái'ān Yīyuàn), located in Songshan District, Taipei, Taiwan, and operated by the Northern Asia-Pacific Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church,¹ is the only Adventist hospital in the territory of the Taiwan Conference.

Background and Founding

The origin of Taiwan Adventist Hospital may be traced back to the Seventh-day Adventist hospital in Shanghai founded by Harry W. Miller, an American doctor often affectionally referred to by many as the “China Doctor.”² After the establishment of the new government in mainland China in 1949, the hospital relocated to Taipei, Taiwan.³ After several years of planning by Harry Miller, E. L. Longway, and other church leaders in Taiwan, with support from local businessmen and Taiwan government officials, funds were raised and a piece of land acquired in preparation for the building of the hospital. Originally named Taiwan Sanitarium-Hospital, or Taiwan Sanitarium and Hospital,⁴ it officially opened March 28, 1955, when Madame Chiang Kai-shek performed the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Dignitaries and church leaders present at the opening ceremony included former administrator Yuan Premier Yu, American ambassador Karl Rankin, South China Island Union Mission president E. L. Longway, hospital medical director Harry Miller, hospital business manager Charles Yao, nursing service director Muriel Howe, and Taiwan Mission president Carl Currie. During his address at the opening ceremony, Dr. Harry Miller declared that the aim of the hospital was "to follow Jesus Christ's example by teaching the Gospel and healing the sick”. ⁵

History of Taiwan Sanitarium and Hospital

When Taiwan Sanitarium and Hospital opened in 1955, organizationally it came under the jurisdiction of the South China Island Union Mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which included the territories of Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. The South China Island Union Mission, reorganized from the then defunct China Division, was part of the Far Eastern Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church with headquarters in Singapore. In this sense, the hospital was and still is a member of the worldwide Adventist health system.

The hospital began with 70 beds, with an additional wing added a bit later. The facilities and services of the hospital continued to expand until, in November 1965, a third story opened, increasing the number of beds to 150. By this time, the hospital was offering all the major medical specialties, plus a dental department. ⁶

Taiwan Sanitarium and Hospital was the first hospital in Taiwan to provide tobacco cessation programs, introducing the courses in 1965. Every year, the hospital regularly schedules five to seven such courses that may be designed or customized for specific communities, such as the workplace, schools, and even female smokers. Program lecturers may include physicians, smoking cessation health educators, dieticians, and pharmacists. The course content focuses on increasing the patient’s ability to refuse cigarettes, providing stress control instruction, and forming a healthy self-image.⁷

Major Development of Taiwan Adventist Hospital

The hospital was renamed Taiwan Adventist Hospital in 1971.⁸ In the same year, in response to public demand, the hospital began to provide community health-care services. In 1977 it modernized its emergency department and added a recovery room and an intensive care unit. The next year Taiwan Adventist Hospital started its first major out-reach program by opening a medical-dental clinic in the city of Kaohsiung. In the same year, the hospital added a department of respiratory therapy. In 1979 a new section of orthodontics expanded the dental department, while the hospital acquired a new department of audiology and speech therapy. Also in August of that year the hospital began to operate a health screening van. So far, approximately 17,649 clients have benefited from the van service. During the first 30 years (1955-1985) since the opening of the hospital, it has served 100,000 inpatients, 1,300,000 outpatients, and provided 25,000 baby deliveries. Furthermore, it has given a total of NT$50,000,000 worth of free charity care.⁹

On February 10, 1980, Taiwan Adventist Hospital made a major decision to totally replace its existing buildings. The hospital board appointed an architect selection committee consisting of S. J. Chen, C. D. Welch, Joseph Lee, Dick Peng, and Albert R. Deininger, who spent approximately nine months choosing an architectural firm to develop a master site and building development plan. Requests for expression of interest went to 54 firms. Thirteen responded with proposals. The committee short-listed five: T.L. Chang; Haines Lundberg Waehler-C. Y. Lin; Anderson DeBartolo Pan-Fei, Cheng, Pan and Associates (ADP-FCPA); Stone, Marraccini and Patterson-Fei, Cheng Pan and Associates (SMP-FCPA); and Bechtel.¹⁰

After careful consideration by the committee, it selected the joint venture proposal submitted by Stone, Marraccini and Patterson-Fei, Cheng, Pan and Associates (SMP-FCPA). SMP has offices in San Francisco, Honolulu, and New York City, and is one of the leading architectural and health-planning firms in the United States. ¹¹ By 1986 a new building stood on the original site, enabling the hospital to provide superior medical services and promote healthy life-style concepts.¹²

In 1997 Taiwan Adventist Hospital established a department of health promotion. It introduced the health principles of the Adventist lifestyle to the public in an effort to improve the general health of Taiwanese society. That same year, the department employed the NEWSTART Program developed by the Weimar Institute¹³ to educate the public on preventing and treating chronic and degenerative conditions, and to advocate the use of natural remedies. After the hospital had run the program for 16 years, more than 4,000 clients testified that the program had had a positive impact on their health with respect to mind, body, and soul.¹⁴ The aim is to improve the deteriorating health conditions of people in Taiwan by providing lifestyle education, with the goal to lower the incidence of cancer and chronic diseases, and to minimize health care costs.¹⁵

In 1994 the hospital received accreditation from the Taiwan Department of Health (DOH) as a regional teaching hospital, and it was again re-accredited in 2006 under the new accreditation system. In 2009 the hospital changed its Chinese name to “Seventh-Day Adventist Medical Care Corporation Taiwan Adventist Hospital” (基督復臨安息日會醫療財團法人臺安醫院, Pinyin: Jī dū fù lín ān xī rì huì yī liáo cái tuán fǎ rén tái an yī yuàn). That same year, the hospital received an “Outstanding” award in the new hospital accreditation system by the DOH.¹⁶ In 2011 the Check-Up Center of the hospital qualified for Japan’s Ningen Physical Examination Association Certification, becoming the first hospital to receive the Japanese physical examinations certification for overseas hospitals.¹⁷ Then in 2012 the Joint Commission International first recognized the hospital for the quality of its health care and subsequently re-accredited it twice--in 2015 and 2018.¹⁸

Taiwan Adventist Hospital provides integrated healthcare services for a variety of patient groups, with 21 different specialties in its featured centers. In addition, the hospital was honored as a certified Gold Level member by the ENSH-Global Network for Tobacco-Free Health Care Services in 2011, achieved the SGS Qualicert-Quality Service Certification in 2010, and qualified as an age-friendly health hospital in 2015. In addition to winning an Outstanding Fulfillment of WHO HPH Standards Award in 2014, the hospital is committed to maintaining compliance as it continues the journey for quality improvement and safe care. The hospital’s postpartum nursing home had been awarded the PAS 2050-Carbon Footprint Verification in 2008.¹⁹

To pursue corporate sustainability, the hospital not only completed the CSR (Corporate Sustainability Responsibility) report in 2015, reaching a milestone in its focus on fulfilling its mission, vision, and goals, but also received certification from the British Standards Institution (BSI) in 2016.^{20 21}

International Medical Care and Healing Ministry

The International Priority Care Center at Taiwan Adventist Hospital is experienced in providing a full range of hospital services to meet all patients' needs without language barriers. The center opened in 1989 with the goal to provide efficient multi-lingual services. The hospital not only serves English-speaking patients, but also has the largest number of Japanese speaking patients in the Taipei region. ²²

The center proactively provides outpatient services, including rapid appointment reservations, examination scheduling, and prescription fulfillment, as well as medical consultation services. One-on-one assistance can also be arranged to guide foreign patients through the entire treatment process, which would save valuable time. All members of the center’s medical team are fluent in English. Also a medical team provides health treatment in Japanese. Hospital patients may come from anywhere around the world, including the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, Japan, Korea, and India. Furthermore, the hospital collaborates with numerous tourist hotels to offer a complete health package to foreign tourists who travel to Taiwan. The package not only offers medical assistance in case of unforeseen health emergencies, it also ensures that the clients would not experience any language barriers when seeking medical help. Security, comfort, and speed of service are the key values provided by this package. The program also assists foreign patients and their relatives with other matters relating to their medical treatment, such as travel arrangements, accommodation information, post-operation outpatient follow-up visits, and return journeys to their home countries. In addition, the fact that the hospital serves healthy and tasty vegetarian meals has attracted the interest of many international travelers who have special diet restrictions or preferences, such as those from India or Islamic countries. As a result, Taiwan Adventist Hospital has become the appointed contract hospital for a number of both national and international travel insurance companies and organizations.²³

To explore the possibility of providing international medical and health care service, the president of the United Chinese Association of Guam (UCAG), Mr. Michael Randall, invited hospital president Hui-Ting Huang to lead a nine-member team to visit Guam on June 18, 2014. Seven out of the nine members were physicians: VP for medical affairs Suei-Tasu Tsai; cardiovascular surgeon Ming- Chi Yong; orthopedic surgeon Da-Yong Liu; cardiology specialist Li-Wei Chen; urology surgeon Kevin Shin-Hong Chen; and emergency medicine/aviation medicine specialist Marty Hsu. The visit resulted in a closer collaboration in international medical care between Taiwan and Guam.²⁴ On May 19, 2016, H. E. Tommy E. Remengesau, Jr., the president of Palau, paid a special visit to Taiwan Adventist Hospital, strengthening its ties with the Pacific nation of Palau. ²⁵ On the other hand, to comply with Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy–encouraging Taiwan companies to have greater cooperation with Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia for the potential of halal markets--Taiwan Adventist Hospital has passed the halal certification and obtained the “Muslim Friendly Hospital” qualification on November 28, 2018.²⁶

Taiwan Adventist Hospital Attached School of Nursing

Taiwan Adventist Hospital School of Nursing (臺安醫院護理學校) is the only nursing training school in the Taiwan Conference. Even though some publications have reported that the school was established in 1957, the Taiwan Sanitarium-Hospital Nurses’ Training School, the name by which it was known then, actually first took in students September 1954, a year prior to the opening of the Taiwan Sanitarium-Hospital itself. In fact, 1957 was the year when the first group of trainee nurses graduated from the nursing school. ²⁷

H. Carl Currie, the then president of the Taiwan Mission, and Helen Lee, wife of the well-known evangelist, Milton Lee, founded the nursing school. Helen Lee served as principal of the nursing school from 1954 to 1955. In the beginning from 1954 to 1958 the school accepted trainee nurses provided they satisfactorily completed junior middle school studies, commonly referred to as Year 9. Since 1959 until today, the minimum entry requirement now requires graduation from senior high schools or vocational training schools ²⁸ with at least 12 years of formal education.

Due to changes in governmental policies and church directives, the length of the nursing training program and the administrative structure of the training program has also shifted several times. From 1954 to 1961 nursing training was a three-year program, but from 1962 to 1967 it became a four-year program. Initially, the nursing school was attached to the hospital, but from 1966 to 1967 nursing training became a college-based program under the administration of Taiwan Adventist College. Successful graduates received a Bachelor of nursing degree at the end, one recognized by the Far Eastern Division However, from 1968 onward, the nursing training program changed back to the hospital-based model due to governmental requirements. As a result, graduates of the four-year program from 1968 to 1974 were no longer recognized by the Far Eastern Division. From 1972 until 1984, the nursing training program again shortened to three years, with the first year conducted at Taiwan Adventist College.²⁹ Records about the school of nursing after 1984 are virtually nonexistent, thus it is not possible to provide further description of its history since that year.

It is interesting to examine the roles that the school of nursing has played in Taiwan. An analysis by Han Lerui (韓樂瑞) in 1984 showed some interesting trends for the school’s first 30 years. The school of nursing had fulfilled not only its role of meeting the human resource need of the church, but also had become an effective means of evangelism. While most of the entry students to the nursing school were non-Adventists, out of a total of 377 graduates between 1957 to 1983, 315 (84 percent) became members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The same report also showed great mobility among the nursing graduates. Out of the 377 graduates during the same period, apart from those still bound by the employment contract they signed when they entered the nursing school, about 40 percent had moved to the US or other countries. ³⁰ While it would be nice to have a higher retention rate, this trend is not too dissimilar to that for professional graduates in Taiwan. In this sense, the school of nursing is able to provide a continuing supply of Christian nurses to the Taiwan Adventist Hospital.

Principals of the Taiwan Adventist Hospital Nursing School

Helen Lee 1954-1955; Muriel Howe (賀美麗) 1956-1965; Luo Aifen (羅藹芬) 1965-1971; William Ding (丁維廉師母) 1971-1972; Gu Side (古思德) 1972-1978; Luo Aifen (羅藹芬) 1978-1980; Wu Shizhu (吳世筑) 1981; Han Lerui (韓樂瑞) 1982- 1984; No further records were found after 1984.³¹

Chief Officers of Taiwan Adventist Hospital

Harry W. Miller (米勒耳) 1954-1956 ; D. A. Mitchell Jr. (米啟奧)1958-1961; R. O. Heald (郝耀德) 1962-1962; Edward C. Frank (傅人楷) 1964-1968; Wm. Van Arsdale (潘士德) 1969-1970-1974; Albert R. Deininger (戴寧基) 1974-1986³²; Vernon Small 1987-1988 (Acting President); James D. Roberts (羅慎德) 1988-1991; Teru Yamanishi (高光輝) 1993-1996; Su Chu-Hui (Susan蘇主惠) 1997-2005; Huang Hui Ting (Joseph) 2006-.³³

Sources

Deininger, Albert R. “The History of The Taiwan Adventist Hospital,” 30th Anniversary & Ground Breaking Ceremony Program Brochure, March 28, 1985.

English in Taiwan, Business Directory, “Taiwan Adventist Hospital 臺安醫院”, accessed August 19, 2018, https://www.englishintaiwan.com/business-directory/taipei/taiwan-adventist-hospital.

Han, Lerui (韓樂瑞). “History of Taiwan Adventist Hospital School of Nursing: 1954 to 1984,” Last Day Shepherd’s Call, 1984, 11 (in Chinese).

Huang Hui Ting. “Northern Asia-Pacific Division presentation 2016.” In author’s private collection.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbooks. Available online at: https://www.adventistyearbook.org/.

Taiwan Adventist Hospital 40^th Anniversary Brochure. In author’s private collection.

Taiwan Adventist Hospital Introduction Brochure, 2017. In author’s private collection.

Taiwan Adventist Hospital Newsletter, April 15, 1980. In author’s private collection.

Taiwan Adventist Hospital Newsletter, August 2014. In author’s private collection.

Taiwan Adventist Hospital Newsletter, February 2016. In author’s private collection.

Taiwan Adventist Hospital, Planning & Development Office. “Document submit to WHO for HPH” 2014.

Taiwan Adventist Hospital website. Accessed August 19, 2018. https://www.tahsda.org.tw/en/main.php.

Taiwan Sanitarium School of Nursing. “History of the Taiwan Sanitarium & Hospital School of Nursing.” In 1962 Class Book.

Notes

1. Taiwan Adventist Hospital website, accessed August 19, 2018, https://www.tahsda.org.tw/en/main.php; English in Taiwan, Business Directory, “Taiwan Adventist Hospital 臺安醫院”, accessed August 19, 2018, https://www.englishintaiwan.com/business-directory/taipei/taiwan-adventist-hospital.↩

2. Raymond S. Moore, China Doctor: The Life Story of Harry Willis Miller (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 2014).↩

3. Taiwan Adventist Hospital Introduction Brochure 2017, 4↩

4. “Institutions in The Far Eastern Division,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1955), 102.↩

5. Albert R. Deininger, “The History of The Taiwan Adventist Hospital,” in 30th Anniversary & Ground Breaking Ceremony Program Brochure, March 28, 1985.↩

6. Ibid.↩

7. Taiwan Adventist Hospital, Planning and Development Office, “Document submit to WHO for HPH” 2014↩

8. Taiwan Adventist Hospital Introduction Brochure 2017, 4↩

9. Albert R. Deininger, “The History of The Taiwan Adventist Hospital,” in 30th Anniversary & Ground Breaking Ceremony Program Brochure, March 28, 1985.↩

10. Taiwan Adventist Hospital Newsletter April 15, 1980, 1, 2.↩

11. Ibid.↩

12. Taiwan Adventist Hospital Introduction Brochure 2017, 4.↩

13. NEWSTART Lifestyle Program, accessed 11/30/2019: https://www.newstart.com/program/.↩

14. Taiwan Adventist Hospital Introduction Brochure 2017, 24.↩

15. Planning & Development Office, “Document submit to WHO for HPH” 2014↩

16. Taiwan Adventist Hospital Introduction Brochure 2017, 4↩

17. Ibid, 26.↩

18. Ibid, 4.↩

19. Planning & Development Office, “Document submit to WHO for HPH” 2014↩

20. Huang Hui Ting “Northern Asia-Pacific Division presentation 2016.”↩

21. “TAH has been certified by BSI for its Corporate Social Responsibility Report,” in Taiwan Adventist Hospital Newsletter, February 2016, 14.↩

22. Taiwan Adventist Hospital International Priority Care Center website, accessed August 23, 2018, https://www.tahsda.org.tw/en/IPCC.php↩

23. Taiwan Adventist Hospital Introduction Brochure 2017, 10↩

24. “Building Up the Bridge for International Medical Care Between Taiwan and Guam,” in Taiwan Adventist Hospital Newsletter, August 2014, 1.↩

25. Taiwan Adventist Hospital website, accessed August 30, 2019, https://www.tahsda.org.tw/mediareport/news_detail.php?id=8 “An interview with the president of Palau H.E. Tommy E. Remengesau, Jr.”↩

26. Taiwan Adventist Hospital website, accessed August 19, 2018, https://www.tahsda.org.tw/m/Award.php↩

27. “Institutions in The Far Eastern Division,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1955).↩

28. Han, Lerui (韓樂瑞), “History of Taiwan Adventist Hospital School of Nursing: 1954 to 1984,” Last Day Shepherd’s Call, 1984, 11.↩

29. Ibid.↩

30. Ibid.↩

31. Ibid.↩

32. Historical records available appear to show conflicting start dates. The Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook indicates 1974, while the historical record of Taiwan Adventist Hospital indicates his official term started in 1971. It is the author’s belief that 1971 probably was the year when Deininger came to the hospital, while 1974 was when he took up the president's position.↩

33. “Institutions in The Far Eastern/Northern Asia-Pacific Division,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, https://www.adventistyearbook.org/.↩