Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (SNUBH) said that it has become the first local hospital to receive a certification from the Global Health Accreditation (GHA).
GHA is the world's leading medical travel and medical tourism accreditation for hospitals and clinics worldwide. It is an organization of advisors from the Joint Commission International (JCI), which works to improve patient safety and quality of health care in the international community by offering education, publications, and other supports.
It conducts systematic and reliable verification of the world's leading medical institutions that have played a leading role in international care, contributing to the standardization of international care and the improvement of medical quality.
GHA carried out its certification appraisal here from Sep. 30 to Oct. 2. The assessment looked at 56 evaluation items based on 14 criteria. This review comprehensively assessed the appropriateness of all medical, safety, and medical quality management guidelines relating to medical services for foreign patients, as well as the suitability of flight, accommodation, transportation, translation, religious, and cultural support.
Based on the assessment, the GHA organization officially certified the SNUBH's International Medical Center as having an international standard medical system.
The GHA evaluation team highly praised the advanced medical information system of SNUBH, which aimed to improve the safety and efficiency of foreign patient care, and the dedicated patient-specific care system of hospital staff to improve the medical performance of international patients.
The hospital's International Medical Center divided the process from the initial referral of foreign patients to follow-up care after returning home into nine stages to receive the GHA certification for the past two years.
"The need for international certification through objective verification has been raised recently to provide better quality medical services to foreign patients," International Medical Center Director Cho Joong-hang said. "The GHA certification is a valuable result of continuous efforts to improve the medical treatment process of foreign patients and to form a consensus among the hospital staff to improve international medical care."
SNUBH President and CEO Baek Rong-min also said, "As the hospital was the first medical institution to receive the certification in Korea, it proved that our hospital maintains a world-class safe international medical care environment."
In the future, the hospital will do its best to improve patient understanding, medical service, and therapeutic environment so that foreign patients with various ethnic and cultural backgrounds can visit the hospital with confidence, Baek added.