Yodogawa Christian Hospital ECO:#326002 (YCH)
The Yodogawa Christian Hospital Is located in Japan's second largest City, Osaka. This facility was built as the result of a dream of Christians in Presbyterian Churches in America wanting to help Japan with reconstruction and rehabilitation after World War II. Women of the Presbyterian Church, U.S. gave substantial funds as their 1955 "Birthday Offering."
First a small clinic was opened, and soon afterwards a 75 bed hospital, with Dr. Frank A. Brown as its founding Superintendent. Many others joined the staff and there was a strong feeling of teamwork as the hospital grew. Later after Dr. Brown retired, a chapel at the hospital entrance was dedicated in his memory. Dr. Seiya Shirakata became Superintendent in 1978. He, too, had a vision and gave leadership to a large reconstruction and expansion program, and the hospital took giant steps forward with new equipment and advanced technology. In 1996, Dr. Shirakata retired and became Superintendent Emeritus. Dr. Kasuke Tsujimoto, a surgeon with 30 years of service on the staff is presently Superintendent of YCH.
God has blessed Yodogawa Christian Hospital which is now a 607 bed facility having some 1000 personnel on staff, with a reputation for excellence in many areas of medicine. Yodogawa Christian Hospital especially aims at a high standard of care for the whole person, mind, body, and spirit. From the beginning, there has been an effort to emphasize the Love and Compassion of Christ through whom one can find salvation and the qualities of wholeness for facing life - even in the midst of life's brokenness and illness. Daily, in a morning chapel program, Yodogawa Christian Hospital staff are called to worship our Lord while serving in a Christian ministry model.
Frequently staff from the hospital lecture in Japan and abroad, and publish in national and international journals. The hospital also has a medical and evangelistic outreach to other Asian countries.
For more than four decades the Presbyterian Church has maintained a cordial relationship with this hospital. Through the years missionaries have represented the PCUSA in serving among the members of the YCH Board and Council, and on various hospital committees. Serving with the staff are PCUSA missionaries Mollie and Lardner C. Moore, Sr. who have been associated for 41 years with Yodogawa Christian Hospital.
In 1973 a hospice-type program of special care for terminally ill cancer patients was initiated at Yodogawa under the leadership of Dr. Tetsuo Kashiwagi. It was the first program of this kind in Japan. Later a 23 bed hospice unit was opened within the hospital in 1984. It became a model for hospice programs in many other places, with its special team approach to care for patients and families. Soon Dr. Kashiwagi was recognized as an outstanding leader in the Hospice movement both in Japan and later on an international level. In the Spring of 1997 Dame Cicely Saunders of St. Christopher's Hospice in England, founder of the modern hospice movement, visited and lectured at Yodogawa Christian Hospital. Groups of visitors from other Asian countries frequently visit the Hospice to observe its program of specialized care.
