South Korea

Why South Korea for Medical Tourism?

South Korea is among the G-20 major economies, is fully democratic, is considered a developed country, as the USA and Canada, and is Asia’s 4th biggest economy. Seoul is the capital of the country and the 2nd biggest metropolitan city in the world.

South Korea is filled with first-class private hospitals and clinics, which are 93% of all existing medical institutions. In order to improve its healthcare area, the South Korean state revised its Medical Act to facilitate the use of electronic order communications and electronic medical records by physicians, therefore growing the efficiency of hospital information systems.
Most of the country’s top hospitals have started to attract foreign tourists with specific international health facilities. The hospitals assure patients from developing Asian countries they will benefit from the best treatments offered by other developed countries at a significantly cheaper cost. Also, at Incheon International Airport, there is a special information bureau for medical tourists.

This year South Korea’s government published plans to further develop medical tourism, including via a help center offering legal assistance to foreign patients afflicted with their treatment, and easy visa conditions for medical tourists. The Korea Tourism Organisation is making aspiring predictions for the sector: it estimates that the annual number of medical tourists will grow from 399,000 in 2018 to 998,000 in 2020.

Hospital Accreditation in South Korea

One is accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI), it’s based in the capital, Seoul, which has remarkable facilities, VIP rooms, and physicians who speak fluent English, Japanese, Korean, French, and Chinese. At the same time, many private institutions have international departments focused on foreign patients’ needs.

All medical institutions are accredited by the government, this way guaranteeing the quality of medical care in the whole country. The government also operates a Hospital Evaluation Program following the Korean Medical Act to assess the quality of services given by clinics.
South Korean medical tourism program involves hospitals that gained international and national accreditations. The Health Ministry of South Korea has also launched the Korean Institute for Healthcare Accreditation (KOIHA). Obtaining this accreditation will mean that the hospitals are giving health care standards of the international level.

The doctors who are members of KMA (Korean Medical Association) are obliged to complete 12 credits of instructing every year to maintain their accreditation.