Chest Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare

¡@¡@During the Japanese Occupation Period, Taiwan took passive measures to treat tuberculosis. There were only two nursing homes, Xikou Nursing Home in Nangang, Taipei (Now Songshan Nursing Home) and Qingfengzhaung Pulmonary Nursing Home in the suburbs of Tainan City. In the early days after Taiwan Restoration, tuberculosis spread rampantly, but there were only 200 beds island-wide provided for tuberculosis patients. Neither was there any specifically organized and planned institution in charge of treating and preventing tuberculosis. Therefore, the authorities focused on public sanitation more, that is, prevention was more emphasized than cure, to replace the way of simply clinical treatment, in order to relieve the prevalence of tuberculosis.

¡@¡@ In November, 1945, the provincial authority took over Songshan Nursing Home established in the Japanese Occupation Period, and reorganized it to be ¡§Provincial Songshan Nursing Home¡¨. In January, 1949, Nanjing Hospital of Tuberculosis Prevention under Department of Health, with the help from Central Sanitation Experimental Hospital, moved parts of its facilities and personnel to Jiayi, and then established an Out-patient Department to demonstrate how to prevent tuberculosis. What¡¦s more, some parts of personnel were also transferred to Songshan Nursing Home to meet the requirement of expansion. In May, 1950, Songshan Nursing Home was reorganized to be Taiwan Provincial Hospital of Tuberculosis Prevention and Cure; at the time the name was changed to be ¡§Taipei Hospital of Tuberculosis Prevention and Cure¡¨. In addition to the treatment wards in Songshan, the Taipei Center of Tuberculosis Prevention and Cure was established on Qingdao East Road, Taipei City, to undertake outpatient services for tuberculosis prevention and cure. Since then, the era of passive clinic treatment for tuberculosis was ended, and a new milestone was set.

¡@¡@ In 1951, the Out-patient Department in Jiayi was reorganized to be Jiayi Center of Tuberculosis Prevention and Cure, to undertake outpatient services for tuberculosis prevention and cure. Qingfengzhaung Pulmonary Nursing Home, established in Tainan in the Japanese Occupation Period, was reorganized to be Tainan County Nursing Home for Tuberculosis Patients after Taiwan Restoration. In 1952, it was changed to be affiliated to the provincial government, called ¡§Tainan Branch of Taiwan Provincial Taipei Hospital of Tuberculosis Prevention and Cure¡¨. Later, in order to burden the mission to prevent and cure tuberculosis in Southern Taiwan, it was changed to be called ¡§Tainan Hospital of Tuberculosis Prevention and Cure¡¨. In 1960, the Taiwan Provincial Government took the suggestions from the advisors of tuberculosis prevention in WHO and then established Taichung Hospital of Tuberculosis Prevention and Cure in Taichung. Hence, the four hospitals in Taipei, Taichung, Jiayi and Tainan then formed the four pillars of the system of tuberculosis prevention.

¡@¡@ In 1967, the ¡§Taiwan Provincial Taipei, Taichung, Jiayi, and Tainan Hospital of Tuberculosis Prevention and Cure¡¨ were integrated to be ¡§Taiwan Provincial Bureau of Tuberculosis Prevention¡¨. Its headquarters was established in Taipei, and it supervised the branches in Taichung, Jiayi, and Tainan. The Bureau started to forge a long-term cooperation with National Taiwan University Hospital to improve the quality of its medical services continuously. In addition, Departments of Health under city and county governments established centers of tuberculosis prevention and cure. Since 1955 on, the district or township health centers were established one after another, in which the Provincial Bureau of Tuberculosis Prevention dispatched an officer to be in charge of tuberculosis prevention. Up to then, the framework of tuberculosis prevention had become sounder, and it could also be much beneficial to the promotion of tuberculosis prevention and cure.

¡@¡@ As time changes, middle-aged persons' or elders' chronic diseases, instead of acute diseases, are the major issues in terms of public sanitation. Cerebrovascular diseases, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc., are listed as the ten major causes of death. Therefore, Department of Health under Executive Yuan announced a program ¡§Four-year Program of Prevention and Cure for Diseases of Elders and Middle-Aged Persons¡§ in July, 1986. The first measure was to plan comprehensively based on the existing framework of tuberculosis prevention and to restructure the framework of Prevention and Cure for Diseases of Elders and Middle-Aged Persons. It is aimed to meet the needs of elders and middle-aged persons to prevent and cure tuberculosis. Taiwan Provincial Bureau of Tuberculosis Prevention was changed to be

¡@¡@ ¡§Taiwan Provincial Bureau of Chronic Disease Prevention and Cure¡¨ in 1988. In the meantime, the names of the branches in Taichung, Jiayi, and Tainan were also changed to be the Hospitals of Chronic Disease Prevention and Cure. The names of the city or county centers of tuberculosis prevention were changed to be city or county centers of Chronic Disease Prevention and Cure. Though the names were changed, the overall framework of prevention and cure remained the same. Since then, the network of tuberculosis was responsible not only for chest diseases (mainly tuberculosis), but also for the affairs prevention, cure, research, planning, demonstration, promotion, education training and guidance regarding elders¡¦ and middle-aged persons¡¦ diseases.

¡@¡@ In December, 1997, National Taiwan University Hospital withdrew the area from Hospital of Chronic Disease Prevention and Cure on Qingdao East Road for the preparation plan for Children¡¦s Hospital. It moved to a rented building in Shenkeng Town in Taipei County in January 1998, and maintained its operation. In July, 1999, after the Taiwan Province was streamlined, ¡§Taiwan Provincial Bureau of Chronic Disease Prevention and Cure¡¨ was changed to be ¡§Bureau of Chronic Disease Prevention and Cure under DOH, Executive Yuan¡¨. The branches in Taichung, Jiayi, and Tainan were also changed to be Hospitals of Chronic Disease Prevention and Cure under DOH, Executive Yuan. In July, 2002, such one bureau and three hospitals were integrated to be ¡§Chest Hospital under DOH, Executive Yuan.

¡@¡@ Since Dr. Huang Rui-Ming served as superintendent officially as from Oct. 16, 2003, we have spared no efforts to cooperate with the promotion of policies made by DOH (Department of Health), Bureau of National Health Insurance, Bureau of Health Promotion, Center for Disease Control (CDC). In order to enhance service efficiency, convenience and the capacity of R&D, we revise every service flow, improve service attitude, and pay attention to patients¡¦ safety. Although the hospital has undergone the impacts such as institutional mergers, hospital migration, and personnel shortage and so on, it is still able to exert its specialties that a teaching hospital of Pulmonary Medicine should have, just like a phoenix reborn from fire. It provides teaching, researches, and examinations, as well as medical treatment and care for tuberculosis patents, and it has become a warm shelter for patients of chest diseases in Southern Taiwan.

¡@¡@ Dr. Chui-Yi Pan had been promoted to superintendent on July 26th, 2012. In order to corporate with the national health policy while promoting the prevention and care of tuberculosis (TB). We combined the three major health care systems of medical care, laboratory science and public health. With strong historical background, we are the only hospital dedicated to tuberculosis; we have played an important role in the prevention and curing of TB. Under the major changes in medical care, our hospital remained actively involved in TB prevention and caring, also conducted Human Resources development, research, and participated in international events. We aim to strengthen our services and processes focusing on our patients, to raise the quality of service, and to structure the patient safety software and hardware facilities to archive our goal of being ¡§People-oriented, customer-oriented.¡¨

¡@¡@ On July 23rd, 2013, the Executive Yuan Department of Health was reformed to the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW). After MOHW was set up, it focuses on integrating medical care and social welfare while strengthening the functions of long-term care facility and referral system in order to meet the needs of the general public. The public health care system and acute and chronic medical care have been integrated in our hospital. By providing more convenient, caring, safe and effective health care services in the Greater Rende Region, the accessibility of the general public has been raised significantly.