From K-QED.

There's a hospital in the Castro in San Francisco called California Pacific Medical Center

Davies, but it was once simply known as the German Hospital.

Bay curious listener Ken Katz learned this a few years back,

and I got him thinking about something else he's noticed.

I work at Kaiser P permanente in San Francisco and

one of our campuses is the French campus and the reason it's called the French

campus is it's the site of the former French hospital. Mount Zion was originally funded by the Jewish community,

and the Chinese hospital still operates independently.

I'm wondering, when did this pattern of ethnic hospitals in San Francisco begin?

What was the impetus for it?

And when did they start losing their ethnic orientation

or maybe some of them like the Chinese hospital

haven't yet.

Today on Bicurious we're hitting the books to learn why so many of San Francisco's early hospitals

were started by ethnic or religious groups.

I'm Olivia Ellen Price, stay with us. Support for Bay Curious is brought to you by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, still family owned, operated and argued over.

Explore their brews wherever fine beverages are sold. and find your new favorite beer today.

Many of San Francisco's early hospitals were founded by religious orders or ethnic groups to take care of their own. Bicurious producer Katrina Schwartz dug into why and what changed.

The story of San Francisco's hospitals can't be separated from the story of the mass migration

of people from all over the world during the gold rush.

Back then, doctors weren't especially reputable.

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