On January 4, 2013, Sahmyook Medical Center, Korea (SYMC) received “A Top Class Medical Service and Safety Management Accreditation” from the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare (KMHW).
From November 6 to 8 last year, SYMC had been inspected for safety by the Korea Institute for Healthcare Accreditation for three consecutive days. It was evaluated throughout four different fields: ‘‘Basic Value System” (to improve the patient’s quality of life), “Patient Treatment System”, “Administrative Management System” and “Performance Management System.” The evaluation team also examined all the survey documents, and conducted an on-site inspection. As expected, the results showed that SYMC is reliable in all aspects, such as patient safety, and the quality of medical service, which meant that they could receive accreditation from the Government. Besides receiving the high scored accreditation, SYMC was also given the right to use the accreditation mark authorized by the Government for four years.
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Healthcare Accreditation System (HAS) is a part of KMHW. It enables hospitals to provide quality service in health care and patient safety, through their continuous and maximal voluntary effort. KMHW has endowed the medical institutions, which attain a certain standard, to use a valid accreditation mark for four years. It is difficult to obtain the mark because it needs skilled manpower and material resources all at once. At the present time, there are only 59 institutions which have received the accreditation mark among the 270 general hospitals nationwide. With the use of this mark, its service as a medical center has emerged more strongly in the nation and it has become a major characteristic of the SYMC.
Dr. Myung Sup Choi, President of the Medical Center, expressed his feelings by saying, “I appreciate all the staff in our work place for their dedicated work, especially during this accreditation process. All of you worked day and night to give a good impression and to try to attain the high score accreditation. God prepared talented people for us and many church members also prayed on this matter. Sweat equity was required from each of us. I also thank the Steering Committee of the Korean Union Conference for approving a budget and encouraging our business. I consider this accreditation to be an important step forward. Let us make the hospital a place where people like to work and where the most patients like to come to be treated.”