The Ten-Chen Medical Group operates in a family-oriented environment with family values. How has it been for the group to operate in such a way?

 

Chairwoman Yu-Mei Chang: We are still a relatively young medical chain in Taiwan. Running a specialized hospital like ours takes a long time to grow and develop; it often takes three generations. When my children were young, I would bring them with me when we went abroad and they would come along to business meetings with me. I felt that bringing them to such meetings would allow to them to learn and broaden their horizons. It allowed us to demonstrate how committed we were to the business through hard work and a family environment.

 

Voices of Leaders:  What would you say is your concept of healthcare, and how would you describe your relationship with the local community?

 

Chairwoman Yu-Mei Chang:  I believe that healthcare needs to be localized. In our healthcare system, we have different layers of hospitals; Ten-Chan Hospital is a regional hospital focused on taking care of the communities around us, such as such as Zhongli and Yangmei. The local community is at the heart of everything we do; it is our fundamental priority. Our hospital is home to a vast number of people with various areas of expertise: doctors, pharmacists, nutritionists, nurses. Almost 95% of patients who come to our hospital can be treated here.

 

Dr. Vincent F.S. Tsai: Our medical group is based on love for people. We care about people – that is our overall goal and mission. We have received two national awards, a national healthcare quality award related to innovation in the area of intelligent homecare services, and another in recognition of our efforts to construct excellent community service using a three-stage, five-level prevention theory from the public health policy.

 

Voices of Leaders:  Do you think Taiwan can leverage its proximity to big markets within Asia and its commitment to innovation to become a medical hub in the coming years?

 

Chairwoman Yu-Mei Chang: Taiwan has a huge opportunity to take advantage of these trends. Because of historical ties, Taiwan has inherited many traits from China. It’s a big opportunity for us if we can work together with China to demonstrate our excellence in medical care. Moreover, we’ve been influenced by western culture so as a country, we are a unique blend of characteristics and influences, allowing us to develop our own special brand.   

 

Voices of Leaders: How do you think technology is changing the medical group?

 

Chairwoman Yu-Mei Chang:  We use technology not only in large equipment, like MRI machines or CT scan machines, but also in intelligent management systems, which improve our efficiency and quality of care. Because Taiwan’s National Healthcare Insurance IC Cards have been implemented since 1995, we have a large database that spans more than 20 years. We see this medical data as our most important asset, so we are currently working with IT companies to take advantage of this.

 

Dr. Vincent F.S. Tsai: Traditionally, healthcare was confined to hospitals and clinics but technology is changing this. IoT and AI can be incorporated into our ecosystem of treating people with sicknesses, preventing illnesses and elderly daycare services.

 

Voices of Leaders: How do you envision the medical group over the next 3 to 5 years?

 

Chairwoman Yu-Mei Chang:  Our hospital group has huge potential to be more involved in the broader health concept industry. We’ve already been doing this for two years since we invested in the Hangzhou golf resort. We can actually carry out health concepts similar to the resorts in Thailand and Indonesia, but with more focus on health expertise and medical care, backed by our over 20 years of experience.

 

Dr. Vincent F.S. Tsai: We will continue to expand our service scope. This year we want to bring the newest, most advanced technologies to our patients. We also have a lot of ongoing expansions — we have a new long-term care facility that just opened up, and our newest project is a smart hospital set to open in two years with intelligent features that focus more on elderly care and internal medicine.

Voices of Leaders:  What sets you apart in the medical industry?

 

Chairwoman Yu-Mei Chang:  I believe that what differentiates a good company from a great company is that a good company is a follower of others, but a great company is a pioneer.  To make a difference, sometimes you have to be the first in the industry. And we have done a lot of firsts. Investing in the health resort in China is an example, as well as a lot of the technological innovations in our hospital. We have already differentiated ourselves and put ourselves in a great position.