Hallym University Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital

Hallym University Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital was officially reported as the hospital that provides diagnosis and treatment for emergency patients most rapidly among all hospitals in Korea, while retaining its rank among the top ten in the annual number of patients with about 80,000 people visiting the hospital.

According to the national assessment of emergency medical facilities in 2018 and 2019 by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the average length of stay of critical patients in the emergency room (ER) at Hallym University Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital was the shortest in the country at 2.58 hours.

It means that critical patients who visit the emergency room of Dongtan hospital can be hospitalized or go back home after getting diagnosed and treated within just about two and a half hours. This result was based on critical cases, but if we include mild cases, the time gets even shorter.

The recent month-long analysis also showed that the average length of stay of all ER patients was only 1 hour and 36 minutes. In nine out of ten cases, from the moment the doctors on duty were paged, the time it took for them to see the patients did not exceed 15 minutes.

In addition, Hallym University Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital ranked first in the national assessment of emergency medical facilities in 2019 by the Ministry of Health and Welfare under five out of six categories: safety, patient-centeredness, timeliness, functionality, and public efficiency.

The hospital’s capability of providing quick diagnosis and treatment is highly attributable to the treatment system centered around specialists who provide medical services 24/7 at the hospital. There are 15 specialists in the ER: 10 professors of Emergency Medicine, 2 professors of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, and 3 professors of Internal Medicine.

Meanwhile, the hospital also established a system to cope with the outbreak of novel infectious diseases. It has three negative pressure isolation rooms that prevent cross-contamination in the ER. The hospital, which is highly experienced in operating triage clinics, classifying patients by severity of illness, and carrying out infection prevention practices regularly, has also been successful in preventing hospital-acquired infections (HAI) such as avian influenza viruses, novel H1N1 influenza, and measles.

By Chul Kwon, Int’l Cooperation Team, HUMC (chris@hallym.or.kr)