San Francisco Chinese Hospital

San Francisco Chinese Hospital
The new patient tower and the 1979 Annex, to the right.
Geography
Location	San Francisco, California, United States
Coordinates	37°47′44″N 122°24′33″W / 37.79556°N 122.4092°W / 37.79556; -122.4092Coordinates: 37°47′44″N 122°24′33″W / 37.79556°N 122.4092°W / 37.79556; -122.4092
Organization
Funding	Non-profit hospital
Hospital type	General
Services
Emergency department	Yes
Beds	54
History
Founded	1925
Links
Website	www.chinesehospital-sf.org
Lists	Hospitals in California
San Francisco Chinese Hospital Traditional Chinese 東華醫院 Simplified Chinese 东华医院 Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Dōnghuá yīyuàn Wade–Giles Tunghua i-yuan IPA [tʊ́ŋxwǎ íɥɛ̂n] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Dūngfàa yīyún IPA [tʊ́ŋfâː jɪ́ʔy̌ːn] Jyutping Dung1faa1 ji1jyun2

San Francisco Chinese Hospital is a hospital in San Francisco and the only Chinese hospital in the United States. The hospital is located in San Francisco's Chinatown.

Chinese Hospital primarily serves the elderly, poor and immigrants from China in the San Francisco area and provides an alternative to San Francisco General Hospital for patients with a language barrier. The hospital also operates the Chinese Community Health Plan. The hospital's staff can provide services spoken in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Taishanese and other languages.

In 1888, the Chinese Hospital Association sought permission to erect a hospital in the University Mound neighborhood, but the Board of Supervisors referred the request to committee instead, based on opposition from existing property owners. Several so-called Chinese hospitals were established in San Francisco as privately-run institutions of poor repute, mainly functioning as hospices and morgues, throughout the late 1800s.

Chinese Hospital traces its origins to 1899, when the Oriental Dispensary, with ties to the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals in Hong Kong, was founded over the protests of property owners on Sacramento Street. A modern building opened in 1925, replacing the original Sacramento Street location.

The original "modern" building at 835 Jackson Street was built in 1924. A new annex was built in 1979 at 845 Jackson Street, housing 54 beds. With the opening of the 1979 hospital annex, the original 1924 building was converted to a Medical Administration Building.

In 2012, Chinese Hospital announced plans to build a replacement hospital building in the space where the 1924 building currently stood. The new building would take over patient care from the 1979 building, and the 1924 building would be demolished as it was seismically unsafe. The plans were approved and the 1924 building was demolished, despite significant opposition by the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP). The NTHP commemorated the 1924 building as one of ten historic sites lost in 2013. There was a 41-space parking garage behind the 1924 building which was also demolished to make room for the new building.