Heritage Snapshot Part 221: The China Project

LOMA LIMDA>> Loma Linda University Health improved the quality of hospital care throughout the People’s Republic of China, the world’s largest population of more than 1.36 billion. How can it possibly be that a relatively small, faith-based, Christian university in Southern California could have such a major impact? A new book now in design, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital in Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China, will document how it was done both indirectly and directly. Loma Linda University Health introduced the following health-care concepts to China: laparoscopic surgery, trauma care, respiratory care, physical therapy, dental sterile technique, dental hygiene and patient-centered, whole-person care. It reduced the hospital’s length of stay by more than 50 percent. It helped it through consultations and mock surveys, to become the first public hospital in China — now there are 56 — to be accredited by Joint Commission International. The Chinese government noticed and not only raised its own hospital standards to match, but also required its larger hospitals to mentor its smaller ones. The impact of JCI accreditation has influenced hospital care throughout the country. But directly, the Chinese government eventually sent more than 12,000 hospital administrators, physicians, and quality care personnel to the 1,200-bed Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital to observe and learn, spending from a few weeks up to six months. By 2016, 20,000 nurses, sometimes as many as 80 at a time, have updated their nursing skills at SRRSH. From the beginning, the hospital elevated nursing as a profession by promoting nurse management to the vice-presidential level, advanced-practice nursing, teamwork and multi-disciplinary patient care. It became the cleanest hospital in China. It started continuing medical and nursing education in China. It enhanced accommodations by providing air conditioning, hot and cold running water 24-hours-a-day, the daily changing of bed linens and patient privacy. Also, it significantly reduced the use of intravenous drugs and antibiotic medication. Sir Run Run Shaw wanted his hospital to become an example for the entire country. And it has. To date, Loma Linda has sent 750 people to China and China has sent more than 300 people to Loma Linda. The initiation of The China Project was multifaceted. It not only involved Sir Run Run Shaw, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1977, but also Dr. Zheng Shu, president of the Zhejiang Medical University in the 1980s. As a surgeon, she recognized the value of Western medicine and that her school of medicine could benefit significantly. To accomplish her vision of building a Western-medicine-style hospital in China, she contacted Sir Run Run Shaw, a multi-billionaire philanthropist, in Hong Kong. Shaw believed American hospitals were 30 to 40 years ahead of Chinese hospitals at the time. She knew that he already had donated different kinds of facilities for the Zhejiang province because it was his homeland. The meeting with Sir Run Run Shaw went well, but he insisted that his involvement be based on an agreement that contact be made with the American church that sponsored Dr. Harry W. Miller in China in the early 1900s. Miller had been the physician for Sir Run Run Shaw’s mother. Shaw had been favorably impressed by the care he and his family had received at the Seventh-day Adventist-operated Shanghai Sanitarium and Hospital and more recently at the Hong Kong Adventist Hospital, which were both started by Miller. Following a careful evaluation by a Feasibility Study Committee, Neal C. Wilson, president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, eventually approved of the health-care arm of the denomination assisting Shaw in a proposed hospital project in Hangzhou. The General Conference asked Loma Linda University and Medical Center administrators if they would be willing to collaborate with Sir Run Run Shaw and the Zhejiang province to plan and manage a modern, multi-storied, Western-medicine-style hospital in Hangzhou. He later told Dr. Gordon Hadley, at the time president of the hospital, “You people know how to run hospitals.” Dr. Zheng Shu was president of the Zhejiang Medical University from 1984 to 1997. When she heard that Sir Run Run Shaw wanted to build a first-class hospital in Zhejiang province, similar to the hospitals in the United States, she also learned that he wanted it to be an academic-scientific institution with first-class construction, equipment, and service. It would be a learning bridge to America. The government of Zhejiang province encouraged her to participate, and even contributed a financial grant to purchase the land and complete the construction. Earlier, in the fall of 1988, a delegation from China arrived in Loma Linda to negotiate participation in the project. Present in the delegation were several leaders from Zhejiang province and Dr. Zheng Shu, who Dr. Lyn Behrens, at the time, dean of Loma Linda University School of Medicine, felt to be “a delightful counterpart.” In collaboration over a few days with Loma Linda surgeons David B. Hinshaw Sr., and Bruce W. Branson, Loma Linda administrators decided to participate as advisors. During the visit, it became apparent that both women shared passion for the health and well-being of their patients. Dr. Behrens was a practicing pediatrician and Dr. Zheng Shu was a practicing cancer surgeon. They were both committed to improving the quality of life for their patients. “We resonated from the very beginning,” reported Dr. Behrens. They were both committed to the vision of making something really big happen. Early in the conversations, the Chinese surgeon asked Dr. Behrens why Loma Linda University would even consider being involved in the project. The question gave Dr. Behrens pause to think how would be the best way to answer. So, together the two women walked down the University mall and stood in front of the Good Samaritan Statues. Dr. Behrens explained what it meant to have compassion and to be neighborly, and that if by participating in the project Loma Linda University could help the health and well-being of the Chinese citizens in that region, or even beyond, it would be Loma Linda’s privilege to participate. Later, as the two groups parted, Loma Linda administrators gave Dr. Zhen Shu a photo album of the various events that had taken place during the visit, including places she had visited. As she leafed through it, she came to a picture of the Good Samaritan Statues and said to Dr. Behrens that it was the most meaningful photograph in the entire album, “because it helps me understand why you would do it,” she said.