Big 5 hospitals focus on shifting to tertiary care while speeding up building branch hospitals

In the Year of the Blue Snake, symbolizing “maturity” and “leapfrogging,” the nation's five largest hospitals emphasized strengthening their capabilities to treat severe and challenging diseases and accelerating the establishment of branch hospitals.

“Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) is the oldest teaching hospital in Korea with the longest history and tradition,” said Kim Young-tae, president of Seoul National University Hospital, in his New Year's Day message on Thursday. “We will continue developing this year by upholding our visionary values in five areas -- education, research, treatment, public healthcare, and organizational culture.”

Citing education as the first value, Kim said, “We will prioritize strengthening our ability to serve as a teaching hospital to train the best medical professionals, which is also our mission. To this end, we will focus on improving the training environment for trainee doctors by diversifying the roles of medical support staff to strengthen their capabilities and recruiting specialists.”

“We will strengthen our global research network to become a world-class research center,” Kim said. “We will establish an independent research institute to focus on core research areas and create research results and support industrialization by establishing an AI healthcare research institute to drive the development of the national digital bio-health industry.”

Asan Medical Center (AMC) President Park Seung-il said that the pilot project to restructure tertiary general hospitals will create opportunities for further growth.

“This is an area where Asan Medical Center, with its high proportion of critically ill patients, can do best,” Park said. “We will take the lead in change and make it an opportunity for growth.”

In his New Year's message, Park said, “The pilot project to restructure tertiary hospitals is a highly uncertain project the government and hospitals are implementing for the first time. As the hospital with the highest proportion of critically ill patients, we have excellent medical staff and the highest medical standards. We are confident that the current crisis will become another opportunity for growth if we take the lead in this transformation.”

“By converting six-bedded rooms to four-bedded rooms using the reduced number of beds, we will be able to improve the safety and comfort of patient care and train professional support staff to operate in a way conducive to patient care,” Park said.

It will also be an opportunity to provide high-quality medical services by securing dedicated specialists, he added.

“We will also be able to improve the quality of training by reorganizing the work of specialists and improving the treatment process,” Park said. “We will also accelerate research on developing big data and artificial intelligence to help treat patients.”

Park emphasized that Asan Medical Center would also focus on strengthening its infrastructure to increase its capacity to treat critically ill patients.

“We will start building a dedicated building for the heavy particle therapy machine, which will improve the efficiency and competitiveness of cancer patient treatment this year,” he said. “We plan to complete the remodeling of the intensive care unit and proceed with the remodeling of the operating room gradually.”

Samsung Medical Center, Severance Hospital focus on tertiary restructuring projects

Samsung Medical Center also focuses on strengthening its competitiveness in treating patients with severe diseases. It aims to make this year “a year to confirm its position in the field of severe disease and challenging treatment.”

“We will reorganize our strategies and resources to strengthen our competitiveness in treating severe diseases by redefining our treatment portfolio with the direction of future development in conjunction with the restructuring of tertiary general hospitals,” Samsung Medical Center President Park Seung-woo said in his New Year's speech. “We will lay the foundation for a sustainable and solid leading hospital in treating severe diseases and challenging medical care.”

“We will create a year of leapfrogging based on new development strategies in the field of cancer, as well as cardiovascular diseases and other serious diseases,” Park said. “We will strengthen challenging innovative research in conjunction with severe and challenging medical care to consolidate our research capabilities in personalized treatment using next-generation advanced medical technologies and play a central role in the bio-healthcare ecosystem.”

Samsung Medical Center will also perform remodeling with the tertiary general hospital restructuring support project.

“In conjunction with the restructuring and remodeling of the tertiary general hospitals, we will strive to realize the best treatment environment by reflecting the strategy of strengthening treatment centered on severe, urgent, and rare diseases in the spatial configuration,” Park said.

Severance Hospital President Keum Ki-chang said, “We will focus on system transformation to treat ultra-high-difficulty diseases. To do this, we will realize specialist-centered care, improve the efficiency of human resources operations, and resolve the human resource shortage by introducing IT technology. We will also focus on improving our human resources system to ensure the right people are at the right place.”

“Above all, we will proactively introduce new medical technologies, lead global clinical trials, contribute to developing new drugs, and realize precision medicine,” Keum said. “We will strengthen R&D support and solidify R&D revenue structures, such as patents and technology transfers.”

Yoon Seung-kew, president of the Catholic University of Korea Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, said, “It will be a year when the medical community has been strongly asked to change and innovate. We must focus more on treating severe and rare diseases with fewer general beds as we participate in the pilot project for restructuring senior general hospitals. We must establish ourselves as a specialist-oriented hospital that responds to the shortage of trainee doctors.”

“In this environment where the external environment and policies are changing rapidly, responding quickly and proactively internally is the way to reduce external shocks,” Yoon said. “It will be a year that will require a lot from us internally and externally, but let's believe that it is a valuable opportunity for everyone's growth, just like our management policy of expectation, courage, challenge, and growth.”

Hospitals expand externally, at home and abroad

The nation’s five largest hospitals that were slow to expand overseas, such as establishing branches last year due to deteriorating management, will speed up expansion in the new year.

Seoul National University Hospital will establish general hospitals in Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates and open Seoul National University Baegot Hospital in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province.

“In the new year, we will pursue a project to establish and operate a 250-bed general hospital in Abu Dhabi, UAE,” SNUH President Kim said. “We plan to accelerate the opening of Seoul National University Baegot Hospital and focus all our efforts on the successful opening of the Gijang Severe Particle Treatment Center and the National Fire Hospital.”

After completing the building permit, Asan Medical Center will also begin civil works for Cheongna Asan Medical Center. It will also accelerate overseas expansion, including expanding a digestive hospital in the United Arab Emirates.

Severance Hospital will complete the Qingdao Severance Rehabilitation Hospital in China late this year.

“Cheongna Asan Medical Center will complete the building permit and start civil construction,” AMC President Park said. “We will continue our overseas business, including the UAE Digestive Hospital and the consulting business in Qatar, enhancing the global brand value of Asan Medical Center.”

Severance Hospital President Keum said, “The (tentatively named) Qingdao Severance Rehabilitation Hospital will be completed this year. We are also preparing for the Bangladesh Medical Cluster, which is being jointly promoted with Youngone Corp. With a 100-bed pilot hospital, a 400-bed general hospital, a medical school, and a nursing school, we will realize ‘Global Severance’ by successfully implementing these overseas projects.”