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Cross also has aided hundreds of sick people over the yearsa inemergency rooms, physician offices and Dayton-are a manufacturing plants. Her patients, though, all have one thing in common: They are Japanesre expatriates whooften can't speak English or don't know enough of the languagde to talk about medica matters. Cross is Good Samaritan Hospital's Japanese relationas coordinator, a job that entails a littlew bitof marketing, translating and diplomacy. The 65-year-olxd Tokyo native is on call 24 hours for most of the year and constantlyy on the move to help a foreigner in distress.
On a typica day, Cross might help a newly arrived Japanesre executive at find a family doctofr or make a marketing presentation ofGood Sam' s health services to engineerws at American Matsushita Electronics Co. On the same day she also might call on an expectant mother who wants to have an ultrasounfd and help a physician explain complex medical procedures toa patient. "jI have such a tremendous sense of fulfillment," Cross said recently from her office at Good Sam.
"o feel so good when I know I did a good deed Cross becameGood Sam's Japanese coordinator in after convincing the hospital's executives there was money to be made from an influzx of Japanese companies opening plants in the region. She had workex at the hospital since five years after immigratingg to the United States with herfirst husband, an Americabn serviceman. In addition to Cross' regional chambers of commerce also encouraged Good Sam to creatwe a health care prograj targetingJapanese people, said Joseph Brywczynski, the hospital's head of strategifc planning and business development.
Chamber officialss thought availability of good health care servicesz would attract more foreign investors tothe region, Brywcynski In fact, Good Sam hired a consultant who did a stud that concluded the hospital coulx create a niche by serving Japanesr companies located along Interstates 75 and 70. Cross' which started out servin a handful ofbig corporations, includin Honda and Matsushita, now serves about 60 other companies in the region. Most of those corporations are Japanese owned or have partnerships with corporatione based in theAsiann country. Last year, for Isuzu Motor America Inc. formed a partnership with General Motors and createdDMAX Ltd.
, a compan that manufactures diesel engines. Isuz brought in several Japanese engineers to install assembly line equipment train local employeeszat DMAX' s plant in Moraine. The company is one of clients. "We didn't have any Japanesre people here when I started doing Cross said. "It was slow in the beginning, but now I am so I have 200 regular patients." Cross helps her regular patients make physicianb appointments and acts astheir interpreter. She has, on occasion, had to accompangy expectant mothers to delivery rooms and guide them throughy Lamaze birthing proceduresin Japanese.
Accordinyg to Cross, Good Samaritan made aboutt $400,000 in revenue last year from her Inrecent years, the hospital and its other affiliateds operated by parent organization Premier Health Partners also have becom e the health providers of choicwe for Japanese employees and their families in the region. Those affiliates includ e the Samaritan North Medical Centetr and MiamiValley Hospital. While the Ketterinhg Medical Center, Premier's biggest rival, has programs and interpretersw that help patientswho don't speaj English, Tomiko's program is the only health care program in the regiomn tailored to serve Japanese expatriates and their families.
For Cross, helpinh Japanese expatriates is more than justa job. Croszs said her earlier experiencein America, after her first husbanx left her only two years afterd arriving in the country, showed her the difficultieds a foreigner might have in accessing health especially if they don'tr know English. "When I moved to this country I didn't know anybody," Cross said. "It was very While Cross has attracted a numbe rof clients, Good Sam has not been able to capitaliz on its unique program as it wouldr have liked, Brywczynski Initially, hospital officials had hoped they woulsd get more patients from large companiesd such as Honda by using the Japanese program s as a stepping But that plan has not workee very well, because most of the decisione about employees' health plans are made he said.
"We ran into problems because a lot of the healt insurance negation and decisiond are not made bylocalp executives," Brywczynski said. Despite its failur e to land the big healty coverage accounts atthe Japanese-owned companies, Cross has helped Good Sam get its foot in the It is only a matter of time beforse the hospital reaps bigger rewards from her efforts, he