Chairman Douglas Hsu’s Remarks on the 41st Founding Anniversary of Far Eastern Memorial Hospital

While being invited to the 41st anniversary celebration of Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, Chairman Douglas Hsu not only demonstrated his appreciation for the solid foundation set forth by the colleagues from their 40 years of dedication, but also hope that with joint efforts, a new milestone will be reached.

Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to participate in the 41st anniversary celebration of Far Eastern Memorial Hospital.  Time flies, yet I can still recollect vividly the challenges incurred during the early establishment of the hospital. In the beginning, the idea of setting up a hospital in Banqiao City of Taipei County was not taken positively by friends of our Founder Mr. Y. Z. Hsu and the medical community since no physicians would like to work in such a remote area.  However, the group Founder Hsu insisted on establishing a large modern hospital to provide health care to Far Eastern employees and its neighboring residents.  Due to this strong persistence, and thanks to the long-term efforts of all colleagues, the Far Eastern Memorial Hospital was able to become the primary healthcare destination as the first medical center in New Taipei City.

The “41st year anniversary” indicates a brand new start to Far Eastern Memorial Hospital.  How to set its future direction is an important topic for the management team.  Given the limited hinterland of the hospital in Banqiao, we plan to establish the hospital’s Taoyuan branch at the old Far Eastern Textile plant.  It is interesting to learn that the site of Banqiao hospital was a manufacturing plant, that also once served as a golf course, then converted into a hospital.  After 40 years, the site of Taoyuan Far Eastern Memorial Hospital also follows a similar historical path to open a new page.

In other words, the whole hospital staff not only needs to fulfill its current responsibilities, but also needs to execute the planning of the new branch.  During this process, there are so many things that need to be properly managed, which are extremely challenging and require everyone’s understanding with full engagement and support; however, this is also a great opportunity for Far Eastern Memorial Hospital to transform and expand its service scope.

While the objective of setting up a hospital is to serve patients, but in terms of the scale of a large institution, the operation efficiency will undoubtedly suffer without meticulous management, in particular with the complexity of hospital management.  And among all management concerns, cost is the most critical.  Recently I was traveling to Europe and the U. S., and it came to my attention that “cost” has become a universal concern across all managements.  Competition, production and sales between the enterprises all rely on the strict “cost control.”  In the meantime, we also need to sieve precisely our own industry position, and should frequently review” “Who are you?” “What are you?” “What is the future direction?” and “Where is it heading to?”

Aside from the tangible assets, revenues, and hospital rankings, intangible assets such as product quality and corporate image are also equally important.  Far Eastern Memorial Hospital now operates with 1,400 plus beds, which is of course an advantage, but still the hospital must examine if the allocation of the beds is properly done.  On the other hand, ESG has become an index to assess sustainable developments of the corporation, the hospital should also follow this blue print and constitute its sustainable operation guidelines.

Hospital management requires long-term and substantial investments, the funding of “Far Eastern Medical Foundation - Far Eastern Memorial Hospital” mainly comes from donation and support of Far Eastern Group’s affiliated companies.  Therefore, from another perspective, Far Eastern Group is not only a conglomerate, but also a large philanthropic organization.  Hope with our continuous efforts, we may jointly commit to the mindset of “Contributing back to the Society.”

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