Ewha Mokdong, Gangneung Asan, Ulsan University, and Samsung Changwon Hospitals Designated as Tertiary General Hospitals

Ministry of Health and Welfare Designates 4th Phase Tertiary Hospitals
"Expected to Play Role in Treating Severe COVID-19 Patients"

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on the 29th that it has designated 45 tertiary general hospitals for the 4th term, which will be applied for three years starting next year.

Tertiary general hospitals are "general hospitals that specialize in performing highly complex medical procedures for severe diseases." The country is divided into 11 medical service areas, and hospitals are designated every three years based on evaluations of personnel, facilities, equipment, medical treatment, and education. For this 4th term, in accordance with the medical delivery system improvement plan announced in September last year, a higher proportion of severe patient treatment rates was emphasized. In addition to reflecting the evaluation results of resident training environments, intensive care unit and patient experience evaluation items were added to consider the level of medical services.

The newly designated hospitals this year are Gangneung Asan Hospital, Samsung Changwon Hospital, Ulsan University Hospital, and Ewha Mokdong Hospital. Based on last year's health insurance treatment performance, the required number of beds for tertiary general hospitals was calculated for each of the 11 regions. A total of 46,414 beds were needed, including 13,350 beds in the Seoul area. Hospitals that applied were assigned and designated in order of their scores. Once designated as a tertiary general hospital, a 30% additional rate is applied to the health insurance fee schedule.

Oh Chang-hyun, Director of the Medical Institution Policy Division at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said, "In the future, we plan to further improve the designation criteria for the 5th term so that tertiary general hospitals can actively participate in infectious disease response along with their primary function of providing medical services for severe diseases." He added, "We expect tertiary general hospitals to play a significant role in treating severe COVID-19 patients."

Jo Ja-sook, Head of the Resource Evaluation Office at the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, stated, "From January next year, the period for the 5th term evaluation will begin. To strengthen severe disease treatment and effectively respond to national disasters such as COVID-19, four additional evaluation items will be added: referral performance of mild outpatient cases, deployment level of dedicated inpatient specialists, intensive care unit bed occupancy rate, and negative pressure isolation room availability."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.