"Expansion of 'One-Stop Medical Institutions' for COVID Testing, Diagnosis, and Prescription of Therapeutics to 5,000 Locations"

Unified Medical Institutions for COVID-19 as 'Respiratory Patient Care Centers'
Mild Patients Allowed 'Voluntary Hospitalization' Through Local Clinics

On the afternoon of April 7, a citizen is receiving treatment at the COVID-19 outpatient clinic of Seoul Metropolitan Seobuk Hospital in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] More than 5,000 local clinics and hospitals responsible for COVID-19 testing, diagnosis, and prescription of treatments are expected to be expanded.

On the 10th, the government announced at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters meeting that it will promote a plan to establish at least 5,000 'one-stop medical institutions' capable of COVID-19 testing, treatment prescription, and both non-face-to-face and face-to-face consultations, and continuously secure more.

The new medical system will be operational starting July. First, COVID-19 related medical institutions, which were previously dispersed as respiratory clinics, designated respiratory medical institutions, and outpatient treatment centers, will be unified into 'Respiratory Patient Treatment Centers.'

Park Hyang, head of the Central Accident Response Headquarters' quarantine team, explained at the briefing that "there was inconvenience for patients having to visit multiple places because institutions responsible for testing, prescription, and treatment were different, and the varying names and functions of each institution caused difficulties for the public," clarifying the reason for unifying medical institutions.

Currently, about 10,449 designated respiratory clinics and designated respiratory medical institutions receive patients with respiratory symptoms who undergo COVID-19 testing, and if tested positive, receive prescriptions for treatments and then undergo home treatment. Some of these institutions provide non-face-to-face treatment for confirmed COVID-19 patients, but most do not offer face-to-face outpatient treatment.

On the other hand, institutions operating COVID-19 outpatient treatment centers mostly do not provide non-face-to-face consultations or rapid antigen testing, according to authorities.

Accordingly, the government plans to persuade these respiratory medical institutions to expand 'one-stop medical institutions' that support COVID-19 testing, face-to-face and non-face-to-face consultations, and treatment prescriptions all at once, and encourage participation from new medical institutions. Currently operating respiratory clinics will be automatically converted into one-stop medical institutions, while other institutions will be designated and managed by local government heads considering facility and personnel standards.

Respiratory Patient Treatment Centers that do not convert to one-stop medical institutions have different treatment types, so the government announced that starting from the fourth week of this month, information on each center will be provided through portal sites to prevent public confusion.

Meanwhile, the hospitalization system for COVID-19 patients will also become closer to the regular medical system. Going forward, mild patients will be able to be admitted autonomously to general isolation beds through the usual hospitalization referral system based on diagnoses by local clinic or hospital doctors. Previously, only mild patients who were ▲emergency room referrals ▲special patients at base dedicated hospitals ▲outpatient treatment center referrals could be admitted to beds.

The hospitalization system for severe patients will be maintained by admission to COVID-19 dedicated treatment beds according to procedures assigned by public health centers and local governments.

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