Cloris Huang

Taipei City Hospital

Taipei City Hospital is a full-service, total care medical institution that is prepared to meet the comprehensive healthcare needs of Taipei's 2.6 million residents. The merger of ten municipal hospitals into one unit has made the Taipei City Hospital the largest healthcare organization in Northern Taiwan. Each hospital is referred to as the respective branch of the central organization; for example, Taipei City Hospital – Renai Branch. The purpose of this merger was not only to improve hospital and community based healthcare, but also to rebuild Taipei City's entire public healthcare system. The theme of this reform was the creation of a "Total Care System", namely a network that begins caring for an individual from before they are born until they are elderly. To do this, we seek to instill a new sense of healthy living, to facilitate a healthier environment, and to integrate healthcare into the community. Taipei City Hospital is changing the way that people seek medical treatment in our fair city. In the past, people often sought unnecessary critical care at the hospital level, thus adversely affecting the quality of service provided at top-level institutions, while leaving lower-level care providers with little to do. Community-based healthcare is the focus of our reform and we are actively encouraging citizens to first seek out local clinics and pharmacies to treat minor illness and discomfort. This system allows for referrals to higher level treatment if necessary and reduces the strain on hospitals and speciality-care institutions. In doing so, we can ensure that a higher level of quality healthcare is provided to all citizens. By combining human resources and materials, it has been possible to reduce overhead, eliminate duplicate positions and simplify procedures. Unifying the logistics of running medical institutions and creating bulk purchasing, has resulted in lower costs for everything from office supplies to pharmaceutical products to medical equipment; saving the City's residents billions of NT dollars. New technology platforms have allowed hospital administration to access medical information necessary to aid life-critical decisions remotely from anywhere that has an Internet connection. It is our goal to align local attitudes toward healthcare with those of other first-world nations. Moreover, we aim to rebuild the public healthcare system in a way that emphasizes preventive medicine, long-term care, rehabilitation, and total care. Taipei City Hospital is dedicated to ensuring the health of all citizens, as well as bringing about improvements in prenatal healthcare, adolescent healthcare, adult care, long term care and care for the aged.