A surprise awaited me when recently I and others were given a tour of the Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care (YHC) while attending a conference in Toronto, Canada.\u00a0 Completely unexpected, I was actually touring one of the world’s best geriatric centers, and witnessing an example of the power of one.<\/p>\n
The life expectancy of the residents of the YHC’s nursing homes after admission is 7 years, while the provincial average of nursing homes for Ontario, Canada is 2.5 years.\u00a0 Another way of presenting this is that in 2007, 15.8% of YHC’s nursing home residents passed away, as compared to Ontario’s average of 40%.\u00a0 This is even more impressive when considering that the new residents at YHC are on the average more frail and require about 9% more care than the Ontario average because of the longer waiting time for admission. \u00a0The YHC has the longest waiting list, with all 805 beds occupied and a waiting list of over 2,000 people, and the projected waiting time for a standard bed in their Scarborough centers is about six years.\u00a0 The skin ulcer rate is 3%, while the provincial average is 30%.\u00a0 The use of restraints by residents is 1.2%, while the provincial average is 18.3%.\u00a0 The fall rate of residents is 8.9%, while the provincial average is 12.5%.<\/p>\n
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Besides the statistics, during the tour I also saw certain characteristics that make the YHC stand out among nursing homes.\u00a0 The first thing that impressed me was the cleanliness of every room and every floor of the place, and they didn’t do anything special before our visit, because we were not a VIP tour group.\u00a0\u00a0 All the rooms were well lit, the halls were wide, the air was clean and fresh, and the rooms were spacious.\u00a0 More importantly, I saw the serenity and happiness on the faces of the residents.\u00a0 Such characteristics just reflect and support the numerical statistics quoted earlier.<\/p>\n
How Was YHC Started?<\/strong><\/p>\n The Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care, formerly called the Chinese Community Nursing Home for Greater Toronto, came about when Dr. Joseph Wong witnessed the lack of emotional support and difficulty in communicating for Chinese seniors within mainstream medical facilities. So in 1987, Dr. Wong, spearheading the cause, gathered a group of 30 Chinese Canadian friends who shared his vision of building a nursing home to care for parents and grandparents with respect and dignity in their last years.\u00a0 Out of that vision and seven years of dedication, commitment, and hard work, Dr. Wong and his collaborators were able to mobilize thousands of others at the grassroots level to contribute time and money, and in October 1994 realized their dream by opening a nursing home which turned out to be the first of four (and counting) Yee Hong Centres for Geriatric Care.\u00a0\u00a0 They were able to generate an attitude adopted at the grassroots level that they must give back to the community and that no challenge is too great to overcome.<\/p>\n The YHC has repeatedly received the highest praise from the Canadian government.\u00a0 For example, in 1999 the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation praised YHC for providing “stellar care” to elderly members of the Chinese population, and found YHC to be so perfect that “no recommendations have been made herein,” which is an amazing ringing endorsement from a national body that scrutinizes and gives accreditation to health facilities all over Canada.\u00a0 Since 1997, the Ontario Long Term Care Association has thrice selected YHC as the Grand Prize winner in their Occupational Health and Safety Week Competition.\u00a0 The Canadian Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care is always referring delegates and media to YHC as the shining example and the model of continuum of care for seniors. The May 31, 1999 issue of Time Magazine in its “Special Report:\u00a0 Canada 2005” had an article about YHC together with a full page of pictorial coverage.<\/p>\n Expansion of YHC<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n In ten years’ time, the YHC has expanded from one nursing home to four nursing homes in the Greater Toronto area with 805 beds.\u00a0 Besides nursing homes, the YHC has also enlarged its scope by providing 308 life lease housing units (housing units with some support services) and 131 private condominiums, so that seniors can go from independent living to assisted living and then to nursing home as they age and require more health-care assistance.\u00a0 YHC has also extended its services to non-Chinese seniors, particularly those from the South Asian, Filipino and Japanese communities, while attuning to the cultural values and traditions of those ethnic groups.\u00a0 YHC has added a full program of community-based services serving their residents as well as non-residents.<\/p>\n Many of these community-based services are not funded by the government, and rely solely or mostly on their own fundraising.\u00a0 Even many basic nursing home services are only partially funded by the government.\u00a0 As a result, in order for YHC to continue to provide top-quality care and to expand in size and in services, it has required large and continuous fundraising, and a large number of volunteers.\u00a0 During the roughly 20 years of existence starting from the seed of a vision, Dr. Joseph Wong and his many collaborators and their army of volunteers have raised about $200 million.\u00a0 Their largest regular single fund raising event is their annual Dragon Ball, which in 2008 raised a net proceed of $900,000.<\/p>\n Not only there is a long waiting list to move into one of YHC’s nursing home beds or housing units, almost unprecedented there is also a waiting list of volunteers to contribute their services to YHC!<\/p>\n Why was YHC so successful?\u00a0 I think that there are several reasons:<\/p>\n Ongoing Challenges Faced by YHC<\/strong><\/p>\n To sustain their current level of care, YHC needs to raise a net of $2.5 million every year.\u00a0 Due to the increasingly competitive fundraising environment and the economic downturn, this is difficult to achieve, and YHC has not met its fundraising target for the past three years.\u00a0 That was why they had to reduce or eliminate certain services, an example of the latter is their in-home Cancer and Palliative Care Service.\u00a0 A long-term solution would probably need to rely on an overhaul of the whole healthcare industry on a national level.<\/p>\n Power of One<\/strong><\/p>\n The Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care is definitely a great success story.\u00a0 Such a great success of course was due to the contributions of many people.\u00a0 However, if it weren’t for the vision, passion, dedication, commitment, and hard work of one person, Dr. Joseph Wong, spanning more than two decades, there would not be the Yee Hong Centre success story.<\/p>\n In June 1998 on the occasion of receiving the Max Beberman Award from her high school in Urbana, Illinois, Iris Chang, the award-winning author of the best seller book The Rape of Nanking:\u00a0 The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II<\/span> said in her acceptance speech to the high school graduates, “Please believe in THE POWER OF ONE. One person can make an enormous difference in the world. One person \u2014 actually, one idea\u2014 can start a war, or end one, or subvert an entire power structure. One discovery can cure a disease or spawn new technology to benefit or annihilate the human race. You as ONE individual can change millions of lives. Think big. Do not limit your vision and do not ever compromise your dreams or ideals….”<\/p>\n The impact of Dr. Joseph Wong for providing geriatric care in Toronto and beyond is a shining example of “THE POWER OF ONE.”<\/p>\n\n
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