‘Chungnam Regional Rehabilitation Hospital’ Groundbreaking in March Next Year... 7 Years After Selection Through Public Contest

[Asia Economy (Hongseong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Chungnam Regional Rehabilitation Hospital will begin construction in March next year. It has been 7 years since it was selected in the 2017 public contest, and construction is underway with the goal of opening in October 2025.

According to Chungnam Province on the 21st, the Chungnam Regional Rehabilitation Hospital will be built on a 14,000㎡ site in Yonghwa-dong, Asan City, with a total project cost of 49.5 billion KRW (9.5 billion KRW from the national government, 28 billion KRW from the provincial government, and 12 billion KRW from Asan City). The hospital will have one basement floor and four above-ground floors, with a capacity of 150 beds.

The hospital facilities include ▲ on the basement floor: hydrotherapy room, prosthetics and orthotics room, auditorium, and cafeteria ▲ on the first floor: six outpatient clinics, pediatric rehabilitation treatment room, speech therapy room, urodynamic therapy room, genetic developmental examination room, dysphagia examination room, and C-ARM examination room ▲ on the second floor: exercise and occupational therapy rooms, ADL therapy room, cognitive therapy room, musculoskeletal rehabilitation therapy room, respiratory and cardiac rehabilitation therapy room, and robot therapy room ▲ on the third and fourth floors: patient rooms, conference rooms, and day rooms.

After opening, the Chungnam Regional Rehabilitation Hospital plans to provide comprehensive rehabilitation services including stroke rehabilitation, brain injury rehabilitation, spinal cord injury rehabilitation, musculoskeletal rehabilitation, pediatric rehabilitation, and sports rehabilitation.

The Chungnam Regional Rehabilitation Hospital was promoted for construction after being selected in the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s public contest in 2017. However, after the project cost increased from 27 billion KRW to 49.5 billion KRW, securing the budget became an issue, and the project once faced the risk of being stalled.

The hospital construction gained momentum again due to the re-promotion will of Governor Kim Tae-heum of Chungnam Province. Governor Kim emphasized the necessity of establishing specialized regional public rehabilitation medical services to resolve rehabilitation medical imbalances and facilitate early social reintegration of rehabilitation patients, leading to the approval of the central-local fiscal investment review by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety in October.

Also, by completing administrative procedures for construction within six months, including approval of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s project plan change and the Public Procurement Service’s design adequacy review this month, the construction of the Chungnam Regional Rehabilitation Hospital has become tangible.

Kim Seok-pil, Director of the Low Birthrate, Health and Welfare Office of Chungnam Province, said, “The Chungnam Regional Rehabilitation Hospital is an essential project as it provides specialized rehabilitation programs to patients who require rehabilitation treatment,” and added, “The establishment of the Chungnam Regional Rehabilitation Hospital is expected to contribute to advancing the timing of daily life reintegration for local disabled persons and rehabilitation patients.”

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