Patients from both home and abroad will now be able to select their Korean hospital or clinic more easily. The Ministry of Health and Welfare has announced that it will evaluate hospitals and medical institutions across the country, and publicly note with special logos those hospitals and clinics that meet certain standards.

Based on the "Support for the Overseas Expansion of the Healthcare System and the Attraction of International Patients” act, medical institutions will be evaluated based on 129 criteria. They cover how many international patients are treated there, the type of different medical departments, the number of professional personnel and the amount a clinic or hospital contributes to the development of the domestic medical services industry. The clinics and hospitals that satisfy the ministry's standards will then be allowed to use the logo in marketing material and elsewhere.

The Korea Institute for Healthcare Accreditation (KOIHA), the organization in charge of the evaluation process, will be accepting registrations from hospitals and medical institutions until the end of January. The assessment and accreditation process is set to be completed by August 2017. Only those clinics or centers that meet the requirements mentioned in Article 6 of the act and which register with the Minister of Health and Welfare can apply for an evaluation.

The approval lasts for two years and can to be earned again through reassessment. Even before it expires, the accreditation can be canceled if the institution fails to keep up with certain standards.

“The new system to assign logos to the qualified medical institutions with good services and reliability will be able to provide valuable information to non-Korean patients in search of trustworthy hospitals or clinics,” said an official from the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

By Kim Young Shin
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photo: Ministry of Health and Welfare
ysk1111@korea.kr