Shing Mark wood factory owner builds $300 mln hospital, 'prioritizing the impoverished to thank Vietnam'

Fourteen years after building his Shing Mark wood factory in Vietnam, Taiwanese businessman Chao Chung Lee set up the $300 million Shing Mark University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital in 2017, with similar medical examination fees to public hospitals.

The investment in Shing Mark Enterprise Co., Ltd. is a 100-hectare facility in Trang Bom district, Dong Nai province, that makes hardwood goods and couches.

"I chose to thank Vietnam after 14 years by building a hospital in Dong Nai. The hospital has facilities like a hotel, but to serve the poor, the examination cost is equivalent to a public hospital,” Chao Chung Lee, founder of Shing Mark University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital, said during an event themed "For Community Health" on Saturday.

According to Lee, helping others, especially the underprivileged, is the aim. Hospital examination fees at Shing Mark and Vietnam’s public hospitals are the same. The hospital also features a VIP area reserved for the upper class.

According to research by The Investor, an examination costs VND50,000 ( $2.07) for people with health insurance and VND80,000 ($3.31) per visit for those without.

According to doctor Hoang Nghia Dai, professional director of Shing Mark University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital, numerous patients living in tough circumstances have had their hospital costs waived over six years of operations. The hospital's goal over the next three years is to become one of the province's key facilities, helping to relieve the strain on local public hospitals.

The hospital currently has 14 clinical and paraclinical departments, including internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics, pediatrics, and oncology. Shing Mark has also used innovative techniques such as interventional cardiology, radiation-linear acceleration in cancer treatment, hemodialysis for chronic renal failure patients, and knee and cavernous joint replacement surgery.

Currently, the hospital receives 900-1,100 patients per day on average and has 250 inpatient beds.

Shing Mark University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital was established on September 15, 2017, marking a development step in the medical field in Dong Nai, a manufacturing hub in southern Vietnam. With a scale of 1,500 beds, the project has a total investment of up to $300 million, making it the first 100% foreign-owned hospital in the province.

In 2022, Shing Mark University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital examined and treated nearly 300,000 patients, of whom nearly 200,000 had health insurance, accounting for about 70% of the total number of patients examined and treated at the hospital.

Shifting to attract investment in education, healthcare

Prof. Nguyen Mai, chairman of the Vietnam's Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises (VAFIE), remarked at the ceremony that he was very impressed with the scope of the hospital and the way it had developed into a spacious and contemporary hospital, despite the fact that it was not perfect.

The investor's philosophy is not for profit but for the happiness of the people, with incentives for families of war invalids and martyrs from the provinces of Dong Nai, Binh Duong, and Vung Tau, in accordance with Vietnamese people's ideals. This concept corresponds to Vietnam's development plan, he noted.

"Along with investments in industry, agriculture, services, banking, and finance, Vietnam is shifting its focus to attract more investment in education, health, and community health care. When people's earnings rise, the work that Vietnam must focus on is enhancing the high-quality labor source and people's physical health, so medical care and health become significant goals in our strategy until 2030 and beyond, which is most important," said Prof. Nguyen Mai.

"We hope that you will make a worthy contribution to implementing the strategy so that the Vietnamese people will be stronger and have better health," he added.