Seoul City Provides Care Services Including Cleaning and Meal Delivery to Discharged Patients from 12 Hospitals

Starting August 1, 'Hospital Discharge Patient Care SOS Center Linkage Service' Implemented
Seoul City Fully Supports Costs for Those Below 100% Median Income Standard

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The Seoul Metropolitan Government is collaborating with 12 tertiary hospitals to provide customized care services such as cleaning, meal delivery, and accompaniment support to discharged patients who have difficulty moving, including elderly and disabled individuals.

On the 27th, Seoul announced that starting August 1, it will implement the 'Hospital Discharged Patient Care SOS Center Linkage Service' in 25 autonomous districts. The service will support five major care services?temporary home care, short-term facilities, accompaniment support, residential convenience, and meal support?as well as five linkage services including welfare checks, health support, care systems, case management, and emergency support for patients discharged or scheduled to be discharged from 12 hospitals.

The 'temporary home care' service involves care workers visiting the homes of discharged patients to provide assistance, 'accompaniment support' involves accompanying patients on essential outings, 'residential convenience' includes simple home repairs, maintenance, cleaning, and disinfection, and 'meal delivery' supports basic dietary needs.

Previously, the Care SOS Center services targeted citizens who had difficulty moving independently or living independently, but from August, the service will be expanded to discharged patients. The eligible recipients are middle-aged individuals aged 50 and above residing in Seoul, elderly aged 65 and above, and disabled persons aged 6 and above. If their income is below 100% of the median income (monthly income of 1,944,812 KRW for a single-person household), Seoul will cover the full cost; otherwise, users will bear the expenses.

The 12 tertiary hospitals participating in the project are Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Konkuk University Hospital, Kyung Hee University Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine Guro Hospital and Anam Hospital, Seoul National University Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine Severance Hospital and Gangnam Severance Hospital, Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital, Chung-Ang University Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, and Hanyang University Hospital.

To use the service, discharged patients or their attending medical staff can apply to the hospital’s medical social worker. The medical social worker then requests the service from the Care SOS Center staff at the local community service center. The Care SOS Center reviews the hospital referral form and provides customized care services to the patient through consultations before and after discharge.

Seoul introduced this service to address welfare blind spots as one-third of all discharged patients in Seoul are aged 50 or older, and the number of households requiring care after discharge, such as single-person or two-person elderly households, is rapidly increasing. Last year, among the total discharged patients (542,744) from 10 tertiary hospitals in Seoul, 36% (194,020) were residents of Seoul aged 50 or older. Of these, 52% (101,332) were male and 48% (92,688) were female.

Gu Jong-won, Seoul’s Welfare Planning Officer, said, "We will do our best to practice accompaniment with the vulnerable and eliminate care gaps through the discharged patient linkage service."

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