Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital

Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital has been designated as one of 45 tertiary general hospitals for the fourth period (2021-2023) by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) of Korea.

A tertiary general hospital is a top-notch hospital that provides advanced medical service to critically ill patients, and it is designated by the MOHW every three years for each of 11 separated regions across the country based on the comprehensive assessments on the medical personnel, facilities, equipment, medical service, and education programs. In particularly, the assessment for this designation of the fourth period from 2021 to 2023 included the reinforced and newly adopted criteria such as the severely ill patient ratio, training and education environment for residents, intensive care units, and patient experience, according to ‘the Improvement Plan of Healthcare Delivery System,’ which was announced in September last year.

As the only university hospital in the region of Anyang, Gunpo, Uiwang, and Gwacheon in Gyeonggi-do, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital keeps its status as a tertiary general hospital in southern Gyeonggi-do for fifteen consecutive years from 2009 to 2023.

The hospital is recognized as the leading medical institution in ECMO treatment by treating a COVID-19 patient with the ECMO for the world’s longest 112 days. It also has established the ‘Hallym Saver (Brain Saver)’ system which enables doctors communicate with acute stroke patient’s caregivers in the ambulance. In addition, the TAVI team cares patients with aortic valve stenosis, the rapidly increasing disease in the elderly, for 24 hours, and the nation’s only professor who is officially of echocardiogram (ICE)

The patient-centered AI solutions are also the core competency of this hospital. The AI-led program for patient bed assignment enables the hospital to admit patients in a right place at the right moment by analyzing the expected discharges of current inpatients and the waiting status of new patients. Hallym is leading the digitalized smart healthcare innovation by establishing a non-contact medical service.

“The continuous designation as a tertiary hospital is attributable to our differentiated medical services for critical patients and strict management on quality and safety,” said Director Kyung-Ho Yu of the Hallym hospital. He added, “As a part of our efforts to become one of the top-class medical systems, we have improved our critical care service and adopted various smart hospital systems. As the control tower for the healthcare of this region, we will double our efforts to save more critical patients by closely working with university hospitals, private clinics, and public medical institutions.”

By Jonghun Im, Int’l Cooperation Team, HUMC (imjonghun@hallym.or.kr)