Medical care in the Republic of China has advanced along the same rapid lines as the nation's industrialization and economic well-being in both the public and private domains.
The nation's hospitals are now numerous, and many offer specialties and other unique features. With this issue, Sinorama continues its hospital series with a review of Taipei City municipal hospitals, and a special visit to one.
There are three types of public hospitals in the ROC today: national, provincial, and municipal.
National hospitals include National Taiwan University Hospital, operated by the Ministry of Education, and the Tri-service General Hospital belonging to the Ministry of National Defense. Provincial hospitals, which are run by the Taiwan Provincial Health Department, include Taoyuan Provincial Hospital and the Tainan Provincial Hospital. Municipal hospitals are under the jurisdiction of the city health department. All are subject to the direction of the Department of Health, a cabinet-level agency on the national level.
The Taipei municipal hospital system sees its mission as providing convenient and effective health care at reasonable prices. Accordingly, it has located its facilities so that they can offer quick service to all city residents. Since the city's public hospitals are all general hospitals, their physicians have wide experience in treating a great variety of complaints, and provide quality care, especially for low and middle income families. Due to this nature, however, there is too much work for too few personnel. These hospitals also tend to be small and have rather few beds. The administrators of the hospitals have requested the implementation of a number of changes, among which are expansion of facilities and salary increments for their employees.
There are ten municipal hospitals in the Taipei area, among them four larger facilities which offer their own specialties. Ho Ping Hospital, for example, offers dialysis equipment and an Herbal Medicine Clinic. Chung Hsing Hospital focuses especially on cardiovascular problems. Jen Ai Hospital is famous for its Gastrointestinal Department. Most famous of all is the Taipei Municipal Hospital for Women and Children, recipient of a meritorious achievement award in 1982.
There is something special about the hospital from the moment you enter its halls--exemplified, perhaps, in the number of colorful and lively cartoons dotting its walls and in the smiling personnel. It is a very relaxed atmosphere. One can hardly believe this cheerful place is really a hospital.
The reception area with its long queues of children and pregnant women is, nevertheless, quiet and orderly. It has to be. The Women's and Children's Hospital handles 800- 900 births per month as compared to the 500 at Mackay Memorial Hospital. It is a good bet that Women's and Children's is the only hospital in the whole world that has such concentrated combined facilities for the care of both pregnant women and children--the latter from conception to fifteen years of age.
In order to enhance the quality of care available, administrator Ch'en Chiung-lin has instituted an exchange program with the prestigious National Taiwan University Hospital. Thus students at National Taiwan University Medical School can get practical experience at Women's and Children's, while employees of the municipal hospital can keep their training up to the minute at the university hospital.
The quality of the care offered by the hospital has resulted in increasing patient loads and, at the same time, increased burdens on hospital personnel. Now, Women's and Children's records a record 20,000 patient visits per month.
In recognition of its growing role in the city, in 1981 the hospital was expanded to seventeen departments from eight. The most famous of its clinical departments are, of course, Gynecology, Obstetrics, and Pediatrics.
The Gynecology Department gives assistance to woman other than those who are more than four months pregnant. The most important services offered by this department are the Gynecological Ailments Clinic and pre-natal examinations.
The Obstetrics Department of the hospital gives the expectant mother the best nursing and care possible. This is also the department of the hospital that enjoys the most business. The basic reason is that it has excellent delivery and postpartum care facilities. It also conducts hygiene instruction.
The Department of Pediatrics includes the clinics of Neonatology, Pediatrics, and Pediatric Surgery. The Neonatology Clinic cares for babies until they reach the age of one month.
Recently, an Adolescent Clinic was added to the Department of Pediatrics to provide medical care for children between the ages of twelve and fifteen. The new clinic extends the period of time youngsters can continue seeing the doctors who know them at the hospital, at a critical juncture in their growing years.
Many of the children have been known to the staff of the hospital since birth. For this same reason, the parents have great confidence in the quality of the concern and care given to their offspring--a result both public health and municipal authorities are proud to acclaim.
[Picture Caption]
Not only mothers but also babies receive treatment at Women's and Children's Hospital.
1. The outside of Women's and Children's Hospital. 2. The reputation of the hospital has in the past few years grown enormously, as have the number of patients. 3. The Friendship Room has toys and reading matter for young patients to use. 4. The Dentistry Department has designed a cute children's dental chair. 5. An eye doctor examines the eyes of a young patient.
1. Former Hospital Director Chen Chiung-lin's contributions to the hospital were immense. 2. Obstetrics Director Wu Shou-cheng is in favor of expectant mothers receiving periodic checkups in order to safeguard both the mother's and child's health. 3. Pediatrics Director Chen Shu-chen suggests that with a commonsense approach to medicines, parents can give their babies the best care. 4. Specially designed remote-control X-ray machines for children. 5. Infant heart monitors for newborns are among the newest additions to the hospital's equipment. 6. Nurses show expectant mothers how to change baby diapers.
1. A Pediatrics Department nurse gives a young boy an intelligence test. 2.3.4. Three municipally run hospitals in Taipei (clockwise): 2. Chung Hsing Hospital; 3. Ho Ping Hospital; 4. Jen Ai Hospital.
1. The outside of Women's and Children's Hospital.
2. The reputation of the hospital has in the past few years grown enormously, as have the number of patients.
3. The Friendship Room has toys and reading matter for young patients to use.
4. The Dentistry Department has designed a cute children's dental chair.
5. An eye doctor examines the eyes of a young patient.
1. Former Hospital Director Chen Chiung-lin's contributions to the hospital were immense.
2. Obstetrics Director Wu Shou-cheng is in favor of expectant mothers receiving periodic checkups in order to safeguard both the mother's and child's health.
3. Pediatrics Director Chen Shu-chen suggests that with a commonsense approach to medicines, parents can give their babies the best care. 4.
Specially designed remote-control X-ray machines for children.
5. Infant heart monitors for newborns are among the newest additions to the hospital's equipment.
6. Nurses show expectant mothers how to change baby diapers.
1. A Pediatrics Department nurse gives a young boy an intelligence test.
2.3.4. Three municipally run hospitals in Taipei （clockwise）: 2. Chung Hsing Hospital.
; 3. Ho Ping Hospital; 4. Jen Ai Hospital.
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