This hospital was one of the first private initiatives to provide healthcare for the Indonesian people. The hospital was one of the first that took as its objective to train qualified nurses. The initiative was supported by the “Vereeniging voor ziekenverpleging in Nederlandsch-Indie”(Nursing Association of the Netherlands Indies)

The Diaconessenhuis was a charity institution based on Christian principles and provided care for people of all nationalities and all ranks. The hospital charged fees, but its services were free of charge for poor patients.

The hospital itself was founded in 1896 as the ‘Diaconessenhuis’ Batavia. Mrs. A.J. de Graaf-Kooiman, wife of a Dutch missionary, pioneered the hospital at Batavia. She collected funds in the Netherlands and bought the mansion of Raden Saleh (a Javanese Painter) in the Tjikini suburb of Batavia. She received a donation of          ƒ 100,000 from Queen Emma, reason to call the hospital: Queen Emma Hospital. In fact, the hospital was known by three names: Diaconessenhuis, Queen Emma hospital or Tjikini hospital.

Nursing regulations of the hospital stated that nursing had to be carried out by resident nurses, preferably deaconesses, under supervision of a female director. 
In 1897, the Association had four qualified nurses. The responsibilities of these nurses included bedside nursing and outreaching patient care.
In 1910, the hospital trained 11 European nurses and 11 Indonesian nurses. A subsidy by the Queen Emma Fund facilitated this training. The work of the hospital was successful. Especially its outpatient department was very popular, as demonstrated by the number of patients: in 1910 the number of 1,450 outpatients was seen in 11,378 consultations. The number of inpatients that year was 758 with a total of 15,525 nursing days. There were 244 operations performed in 1910. 
Due to the heavy demand for bedside nursing, outreaching services would soon become less available.

Nowadays (2018) the hospital still exists under the name Rumah Sakit Protestant Gereja Indonesia Cikini.  The hospital is classified as a category B hospital (reg.code 31730622) and has a bedcapacity of some 300 beds.
It is situated on the Jalan Raden Saleh Raya no. 40 at Jakarta (Geographic coordinates: Latitude: -6,19 and Longitude: 106,84).

The website of the hospital is http://www.rscikini.com.