Moving forward one step after another, the hard-earned fruits of the Tainan Municipal Hospital have thrived and prospered over time. This joint achievement makes everyone proud with gratitude and joy.

The name of Tainan Municipal Hospital was first documented in 1973. In March 1971, the director of the Tainan City Health Bureau, Mr. Jun-Jeh Chen, concerning the city’s insufficient medical care facilities provided medical care to members of the general public, proposed a “Tainan Municipal Citizens Hospital Plan” to Tainan City Hall. In September 1973, the councilor Ling-Mu Oou formally put forward a filed no. 4 motion to establish “Tainan Municipal Hospital” in the second extra City Council sessions of the eighth term.

Locally, there was only one large general hospital - Taiwan Provincial Tainan Hospital - served the physically or mentally ill in Tainan area before Tainan Municipal Hospital came into exist. The sole government-owned hospital could not afford sufficient medical resources to the general public in Tainan area and made people in Tainan in troubles. Residents suffering from diseases or critically ill should be referred to hospitals in Kaohsiung or Taipei. This causes the residents experienced physically and financially disturbance. Therefore, the former Tainan Mayor Mr. Nan-Cheng Shu commanded City Hall to build a large-scale hospital for Tainan residents.

The construction of Tainan Municipal Hospital, located in Tainan City’s 4th Replanning District, could be tracked back to the tenure of Tainan Mayor Nan-Cheng Shu’s in 1980. Soon after the completion of its stage I exterior wall construction in 1982, the construction came to a halt due to a number of issues such as the financial crisis of the City Hall, the recruitment of physicians and staffs, business model, and so on. The construction site was left unfinished for as long as six years in total.

In 1987, the area along Chung-Te Road at the Eastern District remains barren and is full of weeds. There stands a decayed building on this land, which was the antecedent of the Tainan Municipal Hospital.

However, everything would be different when Tainan Legislator Mr. Lien-Hui Lin proposed a wonderful idea to his colleague, Dr. Min-Ho Huang, a legislator and the director of Changhwa Show Chwan Memorial Hospital, to take over Tainan Municipal Hospital. Even facing with a dilapidated building and an unfavorable operating agreement – not exceed 10 years leasing term for each contract period – as well as not preferred by other hospitals and syndicate, Dr. Min-Ho Huang still insisted his belief in “commitment to our community, and benefit humanity through patient care” to host Tainan Municipal Hospital regardless of cost and benefit. Some efforts made through several negotiations with Tainan City Hall and City Council and in preparing a business plan. After the two-track negotiation processes ex ante on long-term cooperative action, the charter bill, authorized the operation right to Chang-hwa Show Chwan Memorial Hospital, passed by the Tainan City Council, by a vote of no objection in 1987. This marked the beginning of new business model, Rehabilitate-Operating-Transfer Hospital, in Taiwan.

Upon entering the chartered contract, the director of the Changhwa Show Chwan Memorial Hospital soon dispatched personnel to take over Tainan Municipal Hospital. From now on, Tainan Municipal Hospital stepped into a brand new age. The preparatory crew spent ten months to gradually renovate on the basis of the preliminary structure built six years ago. The hospital hardware and medical equipment purchase cost as much as more than 300 million to get everything ready. In the period nearly ten months of preparation, Tainan Municipal Hospital was able to reopen with a brand-new image on May 29, 1988 in virtue of the unrelenting efforts of all working personnel and the full support of the local gentry. Subsequently, Tainan Municipal hospital was sanctioned as appointed hospital for the insurance programs of civil servants and labors on June 8, 1988, which was made as the official date of operation. Thus, Tainan Municipal Hospital becomes the precedence of ROT hospital and also shifts the paradigm of business model for running hospitals in Taiwan.

Since the hospital’s founding, Tainan Municipal Hospital aims at “commitment to our community and benefit humanity through patient care” and affords round-the-clock service for all patients. To enhance the medical service quality, several physicians of various specialties have been brought in from large medical centers island-wide to serve Tainan residents. We also made ties with medical centers such as National Taiwan University Hospital and Cheng Kung University Hospital with expect to improve the hospital’s medical service quality. Every employee of Tainan Municipal Hospital consistently holds the core value of “dedication, innovation and treating people as our own families,” to diligently serve the patients and to vow to excel in the medical service for the Tainan area, and to safeguard the health of the public.

We pioneer as the first Rehabilitate-Operate-Transfer (hereafter, ROT) hospital in the island and also shift the paradigm of business model for running hospitals in Taiwan.

In 1987, when I was a newly elected Legislator, I devoted myself to benefit my people in this Island. Then, there come up with the wonderful chance which my colleague, Lien-Hui Lin, proposed to take over Tainan Municipal Hospital. I must confess that the idea of taking over a public hospital at that time would be a very bold idea since such a business model never showed up in this island. Conceived of the belief of “nobody but me”, my staffs in Show Chwan Memorial Hospital and I resolutely hosted Tainan Municipal Hospital, which remained barren and unfinished then, and in turn initiated the first ROT hospital in Taiwan.

I would like to express my sincere appreciation to our distinguished guests, who visited this hospital for help or for business, and to our supervisors who gave us advice from City Hall, City Council, and seniors in medicine arena during the past decades. In addition, I also thank all my staff in this hospital for their efforts and dedication. Our achievement can be recognized as having the most satisfied patients, and the best possible clinical quality and outcomes. We still strikes for delivering patient-oriented service, inspiring managerial insight and commit to advance medical practices on the basis of medical techniques, strict disciplines, and highest ethical standards. All these efforts in turn will strengthen our core competence and sustain our competitive advantage.

All members of the Show Chwan Health Care System family believe in and practice these core values: “Dedication, innovation, and treating patients as our own family” to deliver high quality heath care as those offered by medical centers. There is much to be proud of from the past decades. I would like to invite you to learn more about how my staff in Tainan Municipal Hospital make difference in fully meeting the healthcare demands for all Tainan citizens.