Japanese Tour Santa Ana Med Center With Eye on Long-Term Health Care : MEDICAL

United Western Medical Center in Santa Ana served duck, rice and considerable information about long-term skilled nursing this week to a group of 31 Japanese business people who were eager to learn all they could about how Americans care for the elderly.

Patrick Lash, United Western Medical Center’s corporate vice president, said a Japanese tour group that visited the hospital Monday showed particular interest in American long-term health care as a growth industry to which they might provide loans.

The Japanese visitors observed that as society changes in Japan, young families there are becoming less willing to nurse aging parents, Lash said, adding that Japan lacks a system of commercial nursing homes to shoulder the responsibility.

Lash said the Japanese toured Western Medical Center-Bartlett, a skilled nursing home on Washington Street in Santa Ana.

The Japanese group, including representatives of Japanese hospitals, hospital construction and engineering companies, and a pharmaceutical firm, was organized by the Longterm Credit Bank of Japan Ltd., which is a major lender to United Western Medical Center. The group also visited medical centers and health care organizations in Washington, New York, Boston and Chicago.