The 2012 NSD Presidents’ Council of the Adventist HealthCare Association (AHCA) was held from September 24 – 27 in Hangzhou, China. 18 hospital administrators representing 11 member hospitals and 1 associate member hospital coming from Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia joined the council.
The Presidents’ Council is an annual event for the hospital administrators to meet and fellowship with each other for spiritual enrichment, networking and continuing education. The guest speaker at this year’s council Dr. Gerald R. Winslow is the Vice President for Mission and Culture for Loma Linda University Medical Center who serves as the Chief Culture Officer for LLU’s system of 6 hospitals. He is also Professor of Religion at Loma Linda University, specializing in biomedical ethics.
Dr. Winslow gave two presentations on two morning sessions. "Principles of Faithful Leadership" and "Creating the Corporate Character" which was very timely and thought-provoking. To encourage the hospital administrators to become more deeply aware of God’s purpose and to seek a deeper understanding of God’s principles for our Leadership. He also challenged the administrators with the questions," What are the effective, practical ways to create a faithful culture for our organizations?" "What core values fit with our mission?"
Dr. Winslow also shared with the participants the Core Values for Loma Linda University Medical Center : COMPASSION, INTEGRITY, EXCELLENCE, TEAMWORK and WHOLENESS
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On September 25 afternoon, the participants went on a tour of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital (SRRSH) which had signed a cooperative agreement with Loma Linda University about 20 years ago and now developed into a 1200-bed hospital and it’s often regarded as one of the best hospitals in both East China and Zhejiang Province. Decades earlier, Sir Run Run Shaw contacted Neal C Wilson, then president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, with his dream of building a modern hospital to serve the people of his native Zhejiang Province. Sir Run Run Shaw and members of his family had been impressed by the care they had received years before from compassionate Adventist medical pioneers such as Dr. Harry Miller, MD.
Church officials were cautious at first, but they ultimately agreed to support the endeavor by providing vision and funding designed to help the proposed new hospital achieve the desire outcome of providing a core health ministry in postmodern China.
The business session of AHCA was conducted during the mid-day of September 25 with AHCA officers (Dr. Kenji Yamagata, the president, Dr. Myung Sup Choi, the secretary/treasurer and Pr. Stanley Ng, the advisor) leading the meeting. The business session dealt with some routine agenda items and also voted to accept Penang Adventist Hospital as associate member of AHCA and also the next year venue for presidents’ council will be in Penang, Malaysia.
AHCA is the umbrella organization over all the Adventist health-care institutions within the Northern Asia-Pacific Division. The purpose of AHCA is to provide coordination, services, advice and networking amongst the hospital administrators.