Low Participation in Non-Face-to-Face Medical Institutions... Daily Phone Checks Required for Home Treatment Patients

[Tested Home Treatment①]
168,020 Home Treatment Patients
Expected to Approach 1 Million Early Next Month
76.5% of Confirmed Cases in General Management Group
Non-Face-to-Face Treatment Starts Tomorrow

As of Last December, Non-Face-to-Face Medical Institutions
Only 3,000 Sites, 4% of All Medical Institutions
Low Participation Raises Concerns Over Insufficient Management

Authorities Announced Guidance System Plan
But On Site, "No Policy Received"

[Asia Economy Reporters Ki Ha-young and Kim Young-won] As the Omicron variant spreads and COVID-19 cases surge, home treatment for general patients who are not in high-risk groups is being criticized as "neglect at home." Starting from the 10th, home treatment patients in the "general management group," excluding the "intensive management group" such as those aged 60 and over and those in their 50s with underlying conditions, can receive non-face-to-face medical consultations on their own if symptoms worsen without regular monitoring. However, due to insufficient preparation for non-face-to-face consultations, confusion is increasing across medical sites.

Only 4% of Medical Institutions Provide Non-Face-to-Face Consultations

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters on the 9th, as of midnight, there were 168,020 patients under home treatment. This is about 92% of the maximum capacity of 183,000 patients that 601 medical institutions responsible for home treatment can manage. The number of home treatment patients first exceeded 10,000 on December 1 last year, with 10,174 patients, and has been rapidly increasing as Omicron became the dominant strain. It surpassed 50,000 on the 28th of last month and broke through 100,000 just one week later. The surge in confirmed cases due to the spread of the Omicron variant has brought the medical system to the brink of overload. Jung Eun-kyung, Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, predicted that the number of home treatment patients could approach one million by early March.

Accordingly, from the 10th, the general management group, which accounts for 76.5% of all COVID-19 confirmed cases, will receive non-face-to-face consultations at general clinics and hospitals. The government plans to have patients receive consultations at the hospitals they have been visiting. However, concerns have been raised that the absolute number of medical institutions participating in non-face-to-face consultations is too small to handle all the general management group patients, who make up a large proportion of confirmed cases.

Since February 2020, a total of 13,252 medical institutions have conducted temporary non-face-to-face consultations at least once. In December last year, about 3,000 institutions provided non-face-to-face consultations. This accounts for only 4% of the total 70,457 medical institutions as of the second quarter of last year. Not all of these institutions provide COVID-19 non-face-to-face consultations, and only participating institutions offer such services, highlighting the shortage in absolute numbers.

Experts pointed out that non-face-to-face consultations for home treatment patients will not overcome their limitations. Professor Baek Soon-young of the Catholic University Department of Family Medicine said, "I doubt that local clinics, which see patients all day, can even spare 2 to 3 minutes for a phone call," adding, "Diagnosing without information such as oxygen saturation and body temperature via non-face-to-face consultations risks missing severe patients." Professor Baek added, "The fundamental solution is to activate outpatient consultations where confirmed patients can receive face-to-face treatment, not just non-face-to-face consultations."

Individual Phone Inquiries... Confusion on the Ground

For home treatment patients in the general management group, the authorities do not designate hospitals but require patients to inquire about consultations by phone individually. Even before the changed home treatment system started on the 8th, online posts appeared asking about places offering non-face-to-face consultations, with some hospitals stating that in-person visits were necessary for consultations. Such inquiries may continue after the 10th.

The authorities announced plans to operate a non-face-to-face guidance system that provides information at screening clinics where PCR tests are conducted and on the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service website, but delays in releasing the list cannot be ruled out. On the 3rd, when respiratory treatment designated medical institutions were officially launched, the scheduled release of hospital lists was delayed in the morning, causing confusion at medical sites.

On that morning, respiratory clinics and designated medical institutions often had difficulty connecting by phone, and the government's non-face-to-face consultation policy was not communicated on site. A representative of a clinic in Seocho-gu, Seoul, providing non-face-to-face consultations said, "Non-face-to-face consultations are not widely known yet, so there is no backlog, but regarding the free non-face-to-face consultations for confirmed patients starting on the 10th, we have not yet received any instructions."

Participation by general local clinics remains low. So far, the only encouragement method has been requesting cooperation through the Korean Medical Association. Yeom Ho-gi, Chair of the Korean Medical Association COVID-19 Countermeasures Committee, said, "Since many hospitals are in difficult situations, improving the fees for non-face-to-face consultations is a good measure," adding, "Although phone consultations will increase workload, medical staff are willing to sacrifice and serve."

Ryu Geun-hyuk, the first chief coordinator of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, stated at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting that day, "The principle that all COVID-19 patients are safely managed by the state will be maintained," and added, "We will ensure thorough health management services not only for the intensive management group but also for the entire group of confirmed patients, including the general management group."

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