Only once before in its 78 years did Giffard Memorial Hospital, a once-thriving Seventh-day Adventist mission in Nuzvid, central India, face closure: during the dark days of World War II.

Now, however, the venerable institution, which has graduated more than 800 nurses, is on the brink of shutdown because of extensive disrepair—some buildings have gaping holes in the walls and ceilings.

Giffard Memorial and nine other Adventist hospitals in India this year were accepted into Adventist Health International, an Adventist hospital management organization with eight sponsors, including the church’s world headquarters. The AHI program aims to help hospitals with management and financial expertise geared toward health care. So far, the organization has taken on 26 hospitals in 10 countries since it began in 1997.

The expectation is that Giffard Memorial will gain the management strength and financial resources to make needed repairs and bolster medical care and instructional programs.

“Hospitals are becoming increasingly difficult to manage,” says Dr. Richard Hart, president of AHI and chancellor of Loma Linda University, an Adventist institution in southern California. “That’s why AHI arose—to provide governance and a management system.” He says most church regional presidents come from a pastoral background, rather than from the complex world of medicine. They are made board chairman of a hospital and don’t necessarily have the health care management experience needed.

Rodney Applegate, vice president of AHI, cites management expert Peter Drucker, who once said hospitals are the most complicated enterprises to run: “It’s a group of businesses and you have to serve many different publics,” Applegate says.

“Our hospitals [in some areas of the world] 20 and 30 years ago used to be ‘the’ place to go,” he adds. “That’s not the case now. It’s very difficult to stay up with the times. We’ve got our work cut out for us.

“It’s a thrill to see it start happening, but it takes a lot of work,” he adds. “It takes three to five years to turn a hospital around. We’re focusing on one to three at a time. First we set policy procedures, then it’s training, training, training.”

AHI receives half a million dollars in grants and donations each year. Medical equipment is donated by hospitals, private doctors’ offices and private donors.

Davis Memorial Hospital in Georgetown, Guyana, was nearly to the point of shutting down, says Dr. Elie S. Honore, health ministries director for the Adventist Church in Inter-America. In 1998 it began negotiations with AHI. Within 18 months of joining AHI, the institution had paid 80 percent of its debt.

“I was told, ‘I admire what you’ve done but this institution has run its course.’ Now it’s the only place in the country that offers continuing education for nurses,” says Honore.

Davis Memorial has since begun a foundational health care course, and graduates more than a dozen students each year who are trained to assist in many departments of the hospital.

In Zambia, AHI’s “Project Fix It” has repaired much of the equipment in two of six Adventist hospitals, and there are plans to build a medical and dental clinic in the capital city of Lusaka. In Ethiopia, a five-year building project has constructed a new hospital, while an existing building is due for restoration.

The Adventist Church has some 600 health care facilities around the world; 175 of those are hospitals, half of which are in the United States. Seventy are in developing countries—25 in Africa, 11 in India, 10 in Central America, and 10 in the Philippines.

Eight corporate members of AHI include the Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda University Medical Center, Adventist Development and Relief Agency International, Adventist Health System, Adventist Health Inc., Adventist Health System Sunbelt Healthcare Corporation, and the Kettering Medical Center Network.

For more information, visit www.adventisthealthinternational.org.