Severance Hospital – Gold Award Winner of the Dr Kwang Tae Kim Grand Hospital Award 2022
As Korea’s first Western-style medical institution, Severance Hospital has a long and proud history of providing state of-the-art care to its patients across the country. Established in 1885, Severance Hospital played a large role in the development of modern medicine in Korea, and it continues to be a pioneer of new treatments and methods of providing healthcare.
Severance Hospital was the first Korean healthcare institution to receive accreditation from the Joint Commission International (JCI). It has since been re-certified by the JCI five times in a row, a testament to the high quality of care that the hospital provides. For 11 consecutive years, Severance Hospital also ranked first in Korea’s National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI), and in 2021, it also ranked first in all surveyed companies and institutions.
To maintain its position as Korea’s leading healthcare institution, Severance Hospital has rolled out several initiatives to improve healthcare delivery, patient experience, and staff wellbeing. For instance, it is the first hospital in Korea to establish a medical evaluation committee, which was inaugurated in 1981. It was also the first to establish a dedicated Division of Quality Improvement, which was transformed into the Innovation Center in 2019. Through this department, Severance Hospital was able to establish a professional healthcare quality management system, which has been internationally recognized through its various accreditations.
Apart from providing groundbreaking healthcare solutions, Severance Hospital is also committed to ensuring a seamless healthcare experience for its patients. The hospital has recently established the Office of Patient Experience, which studied and addressed any issues which may impact a patient’s healthcare journey. To improve patient access, the hospital has introduced the My Severance application, which offers a range of services, from setting medical appointments to settling insurance claims. Patients can also access a copy of their medical records through the hospital’s website and mobile.
Conscious of its outsized role in the country’s healthcare system, Severance Hospital also strives to fulfill its social responsibilities. In 2021, when the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Korea increased, Severance Hospital operated a residential treatment center to cooperate with the government guidelines to treat 3,200 patients and provided vaccinations to about 15,000 people, including essential social workers.
In terms of staff well-being, Severance Hospital established the Division of Human Resources Development and Management for person-centered management in 2021. In addition, the hospital is conducting a pilot project to enhance the nurse shift system in inpatient wards to improve working conditions for nurses and a newly established reward system that is also in operation for medical staff who achieve outstanding results.
At present, Severance Hospital operates Asia’s largest robotic surgery education center. It adopted the DaVinci surgical system as early as 2005, and has since become the world’s first healthcare institution to have performed over 30,000 robotic-assisted surgeries. Severance Hospital’s Robot & Minimally Invasive Surgery Center, established in 2008 for the first time in Korea, is leading the field of robotic surgery by training 2,169 medical staff from 38 countries.
The hospital is also a leader in innovative cancer treatments. It will open the Yonsei Heavy Ion Therapy Center in 2022. The center will offer heavy ion therapy, a novel cancer treatment that is only offered in about ten institutions across the world.
Moving forward, Severance Hospital’s vision is to remain as a hospital that people trust and visit because of its superior medical service in treating intractable diseases and leading high-level surgery. It also seeks to be a data based hospital, or one that makes rational decisions based on data in clinical and management fields. Lastly, the institution aims to be a proud hospital: A hospital where both patients and employees are cared for and respected.
