Why Medical Korea? > Advanced Infrastructure

Why Medical Korea? > Advanced Infrastructure

To improve and promote the quality of medical services provided by healthcare providers, the government since 2004 has been implementing the Hospital Evaluation Program based on the Medical Service Act.

Through this program, general hospitals and other hospitals with more than 300 beds have been mandatorily assessed every three years. The assessment of a hospital has been conducted by means of written questionnaires, onsite inspection, or telephone surveys on the clinical quality indicators, hospital management, patient satisfaction and others. Since then, the need for a special unit in charge of healthcare provider assessment was raised, which prompted an introduction of the healthcare facility assessment and accreditation system.

The medical institution assessment & accreditation system, which is to be implemented in 2011 by the Korea Institute for Healthcare Accreditation (KOIHA), will be first applied to the hospitals with 30 or more beds.

The tracer methodology will be used in order to check whether medical services are provided according to the assessment criteria and treatment process that are newly developed by the special assessment committee in order to enhance the medical service quality and the safety level of patients, and to verify the service details.

The assessment criteria, mainly for treatment functions and processes, have been developed by integrating the current assessment criteria and other advanced countries' assessment criteria to be in line with the international assessment level, consisting of 4 areas, 13 chapters, 41 categories, 83 criteria, and 404 assessment items.

A certification is effective for four years, a certified healthcare institution receives the privilege of use of the accreditation mark and some other incentives.

Korea makes its best efforts to offer high-quality medical services to all patients through this medical institution assessment & accreditation system.

l Background and Purpose

An institutional system was introduced in order to prevent confusion in the domestic medical market arising from indiscreet foreign patients attraction and to maintain the market under stability. The system requires healthcare providers or facilitators pursuing potential foreign patients to register and comply with certain requirements (Article 27.2 of the Medical Service Act).

The registration system intends to prevent the quality of public medical services from declining due to excessive competition in attracting foreign patients, as well as the reputation of Korea's medical services that can be caused by the emergence of many unqualified healthcare providers or facilitators.

To register for foreign patient attraction, healthcare provider's each department is required to have at least one medical specialist to ensure the quality of medical services. A facilitator in business of attracting foreign patients is required to subscribe to guarantee insurance that guarantees its responsibility of compensation for any losses foreign patients that were caused deliberately or by mistake in the process of attracting the patients.

l Electronic Medical System

Korea's medical information system is highly advanced thus, all procedures including appointment for diagnostic procedures or treatment, examination, and prescription are computerized. Since the patient's records of diagnosis, treatment or examination are computerized, his/her information can be shared by doctors anytime, anywhere; treatment can be administered based on doctors' understanding of the patient. High-definition medical imaging can be used in querying EMR (outpatient records, operation records and discharge summary, etc.) as well as Web-PACS-based images.

Foreign patients can receive prior consultation by sending their medical records, CT, and MRI images before undergoing diagnosis and treatment in Korea. After the patient is discharged from a healthcare provider in Korea, the diagnosis & treatment details can be forwarded to his/her own doctor in his/her home country so he/she can receive follow-up medical services. l Cutting Edge Medical Devices

The registered healthcare providers offer top-quality medical services and take full advantage of cutting edge medical devices.

According to the OECD Health Data 2011, the number of CT scanners per 1 million people was 34.5 in Korea as of 2010. Korea is indeed ranked third in this aspect among OECD countries, following 97.3 in Japan and 37.1 in the Australia. Most OECD countries including France (11.1), and the U.K. (7.4) posted lower figures compared to Korea.

The number of MRI scanners per 1 million people in Korea was 19.5 as of 2010, following 43.1 in Japan and 25.9 in the US. Most OECD countries had much lower rate for MRI scanners compared to Korea, with 6.4 in France, and 5.6 in the UK.