In 1968 Father Fox Memorial Hospital (presently Chi Mei Medical Center) was established with Dr. Bing-Syun Song serving as the first director of the Department of Internal Medicine (DoIM). In 1991 our hospital became a training hospital of internal medicine specialists. In 1993 Dr. Change-Hai Wang was appointed as director of DoIM, succeeded by Dr. Wei-Siou Huang, director of the Department of Hematology and Oncology in March 1998. In 2000 our hospital was officially accredited as a medical center with 45 attending physicians in DoIM. Director Huang made every effort to promote the development of the DoIM practices.
In March 2003 Professor Yin-Ching Chuang was appointed as director with Hepato-Gastroenterology Dr. Ching-Yih Lin serving as deputy director. With director and deputy director's endeavors to advance internal medicine teaching and encourage research culture we continued to recruit many attending physicians, seeing phenomenal growth of practices and gradual expansion of the scale.
In September 2007 Deputy Director Ching-Yih Lin was promoted to director and kept on furthering each of the DoIM practices. In September 2003 Director Lin set up an unprecedented system in Taiwan that full-time attending physicians were responsible for admitting and treating new patients at midnight shift, relieving the burden on DoIM residents on duty who worked night shifts, and increased excellence of medical services. At present we are still characterized by the system by which residents are drawn to our hospital.
In September 2010 Director Ching-Yih Lin was promoted to medical deputy superintendent with Dr. Kuo-Chen Cheng, director of the Department of Intensive Care Medicine, succeeding Director Lin as director of DoIM. Director Cheng not only developed medical services characteristic of each department, but also put emphasis on talent cultivation, keeping on promoting practices of each clinical department of DoIM. Apart from medical services of internal medicine of the Chi Mei Medical Center we also supported diagnosis and treatment practices of internal medicine of the Department of Emergency Medicine, Chi Mei Hospital, Chiali, Chi Mei Hospital, Liouying and Jin San Chronic Care Hospital and Nursing Home. Under the leadership of Director Cheng DoIM received critical acclaim for our achievements and contributions to medical services. Working in collaboration with each department DoIM provided high quality and high performance medical services as well as becoming a best teaching and training place for medical students and residents. We were committed to teaching of medical students with outstanding achievements. This had been reflected in unprecedented registration and full enrollment of PGY and residents over the past few years.
Now we have around 400 beds, 53 attending physicians, 40 residents, 40 nurse practitioners, 2 case managers and 3 medical administrative assistants in the subspecialities of Cardiology, Hepato-Gastroenterology, Pulmonary Medicine, Hematology and Oncology, Nephrology, Endocrinology, Infectious Disease and Rheumatology and Immunology (Department of Neurology's administrative practices are included in DoIM but its enrollment of residents is independent of DoIM's training number). In March 2008 our hospital earned accreditation as Department of Health's general internal medicine training center, with the teaching feature aimed at cultivating young residents (PGY) to possess six core competencies. Our hospital also maintained accreditation many times as an excellent “general internal medicine training center”. In June 2010 Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology was created, providing counseling and management of the medical problems for the elderly people, and fulfilled the concept of integrated and continuous holistic care for medical services.
We will continue to cultivate talents systematically, offer excellent medical services and encourage our colleagues to carry on medical research, in the hope of constant improvement and sustainable development.