Myongji Hospital, which has emerged as the “icon of medical innovation,” is seeking another reform. Next month, it will introduce “Smart ICU,” the next-generation intensive care unit as seen in advanced countries.

The Smart ICU is composed of isolated single rooms to cope with another MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) breakup and minimizes infectious factors by installing wires of medical equipment in ceilings and walls. Five of the total 13 rooms are negative pressure isolation rooms and other rooms also have electronic blocking doors to isolate all the negative pressure isolation rooms in case of the outbreak of infectious diseases.

The hospital in Goyang, north of Seoul, installed elevators exclusively for the negative pressure isolation room zone to quickly transfer patients from emergency rooms, and the rooms also have space where doctors and nurses can change to anti-contamination clothes.

Also, it eliminated curtains from all rooms and automatically adjusted the transparency of windows to protect patients’ privacy.

“The MERS incident has long been over, but some suspicious cases are visiting our hospital every week,” said Lee Wang-jun이왕준, chairman of the hospital’s board of directors. “Smart ICU is the product of our best efforts to create an ICU of advanced countries focusing on the perfect blocking of infection.

Myongji Hospital is running Smart ICU, which has minimized infectious factors by installing wires of medical equipment in ceilings and walls.

Myongji Hospital명지병원 has also upgraded its VIP rooms, which will allow it to surmount the limitation of a late starter. The room size itself is unusual. The hospital has put only 14 beds in a space that might accommodate up to 90 beds, and each room has a separate garden and terrace.

The interiors are styled after Jun Itami, a famous naturalist architect, and arranged with Nakashima George, a U.S. wooden furniture designer to elevate its luxury to a higher level. It took three years to complete the VIP rooms, which also have an Ireland style kitchen, a grand piano, and an open-air bath.

Behind the continuous changes and reforms of Myongji Hospital is a unique management philosophy: providing values that other hospitals can’t provide, and offering care and design based on patient experience. Attempts to create a patient-oriented hospital are not aimed to maximize short-term investment returns but to give trust to residents and patients and win their persistent recognition.

“Most second movers invest in hardware, such as facilities and equipment while recruiting good medical staffs to pull themselves up,” Chairman Lee said. “These are not enough, however. If we are to overcome our limit as a late starter, we need an extraordinary move, and that plus alpha is the patient-oriented service.”

“As the result of continuous changes and reforms, our profit from the medical operation, which stood at only 70 billion won ($62 million) when we took it over, has more than doubled to 170 billion won last year,” Lee went on to say. “I expect we will be able to take the lead in creating new hospital culture by minimizing infection with Smart ICU and lift our reputation further through upgraded VIP rooms.”

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