Changwon’s first brain-cardiovascular “hybrid operating room”
High-pressure oxygen therapy room for a quick response to explosions
We have ambitiously launched article series of "Local Hospitals as Good as Seoul Hospitals" to revitalize local medical care. This time, the focus is Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital, a local hospital that was launched as obstetrics and gynecology in 1994. It has been operating for nearly 30 years. Compared to 2001, when there had been 250 beds, it became a large hospital with 1,008 beds this March. To be responsible for the health of the Gyeongnam community, the hospital plans to specialize in ▲brain ▲intestines ▲major trauma ▲cancer ▲mother’s health. <Editor’s note>
Last year when the whole nation was suffering from COVID-19, Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital received nationwide attention for its “cohort quarantine,” which quarantines the entire hospital due to a potential infection of the hospital staff. It caused a huge financial loss to the hospital and severely damaged its reputation, but the hospital was able to prevent further transmission of COVID-19.
Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital is respected by the local people for its continuous donation and contribution to the needy and community in Changwon and several other regions in Gyeongnam. Despite the difficult situation due to COVID-19, we visited the hospital 15th after hearing that it constructed a new building.
"We first launched as an obstetrics and gynecology clinic, but we made investment in the fields of brain, cardiovascular, severe trauma, and cancer that the Gyeongnam community is in need of the most. We would like to provide more clinical opportunities to the local people through these efforts.”
Dr. Park In Seong spoke in confidence and determination. Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital, which has four basement floors and ten floors above the ground with 1008 beds, is located at the heart of Changwon in which the major government agencies, commercial, and infrastructures are concentrated within 2 kilometers from the hospital. Dr. Park guided us through the hospital.
■Hospital with treatment and healing
“병원 배경이 그림이네요.” 창밖으로 보이는 병원의 자연경관은 마치 붓으로 선명하게 그려놓은 그림 같았다. 창원한마음병원은 600m 길이의 둘레길로 조성된 ‘물향기공원’이라는 인공호수를 비롯해 총 3개의 공원으로 둘러싸여 있었다.
“The hospital has a beautiful background.” The natural scenery of the hospital seemed like an art piece with clear brush strokes. Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital is surrounded by three parks including an artificial lake dubbed “Mulhyanggi park” that consists of a 600m long walkway.
The hospital was designed, considering the physical treatment and psychological healing of patients and their caregivers, and created Chi·Hue (short for the Korean words meaning healing and resting) garden, sky garden, sensibility garden, and sculpture park inside. We passed by the patients taking rest in the garden and headed into the hospital.
■Brain center·Cardiovascular center, 30 medical staff standby for 24 hours
We first looked around the Brain center and Cardiovascular center that the hospital emphasizes as its advantages. For the first time in Changwon, the Brain center and Cardiovascular center have hybrid operating rooms that can operate cerebral cardiovascular intervention and surgery simultaneously. 30 medical staff including 7 professors whose specialties are in brain·cardiovascular standby for 24 hours to serve emergent patients from all over Gyeongnam. An average of 10 patients was transported to Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital each night through 119 for treatment.
From the earliest stage, the hospital was designed to concentrate on the center system so that patients don’t need to move around in the building for basic testing. The major testing rooms and doctor’s offices were located adjacent to each other. “Stroke Intensive Care Unit” allowed a timely treatment and minimized the disability to increase the recovery rate, explained Dr. Park In Seong. cardiovascular intervention at Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital is well known for its quality among patients.
■From detection to treatment, “Cancer center∙Radiation tumor center”
We then visited the Cancer Center. Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital is currently operating the Cancer center and Radiation tumor center and is one of the hospitals in Changwon that detects and treats cancer at its earlier stage through national health checkups. In the Cancer Center, 7 professors dedicated to ▲surgery ▲hemato-oncology ▲thoracic cardiovascular surgery residing in the hospital are conducting a multidisciplinary treatment with support from 27 departments.
In the Radiation tumor center, 2 professors specialized in radiation oncology and nuclear medicine are responsible for chemotherapy required after cancer treatment and radiation therapy. Equipment in use in the center is PET-CT, which can tell the exact location and size of cancer before and after the surgery, and the state-of-the-art radiation tumor treatment devices for radiation therapy.
The field of gynecological cancer also has an excellent medical staff. Dr. Lee Yoon Soon, who was listed in “Top 30 Most Skilled Doctor in Robotic Surgery in Korea” and served as a president of the Women’s cancer center at Kyungpook National University Hospital, has operated on more than 1450 robotic surgery cases so far. “We will provide faster and more accurate cancer therapy opportunities for the local people including the robotic surgeries,” said President Dr. Park In Seong. He emphasized that “it will soon become nonsense for Gyeongnam people to move to another region for cancer therapy.”
■ An emergency medical center that is capable of responding to major disasters
The hospital expanded the scale of the regional emergency medical center through this relocation. An average of 36,000 patients visit the emergency room for 11 years, and almost 400,000 patients have visited the emergency room so far. The emergency medical center at Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital is always on standby to serve brain and cardiovascular patients as well as severe trauma patients within the Gyeongnam area.
To respond to all types of infectious diseases including COVID-19, the center has 4 quarantine rooms including a negative pressure room and 5 isolation wards. President Dr. Park In Seong aims to prevent patients from visiting multiple hospitals because of their suspicious symptoms.
Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital has an advanced hyperbaric oxygen therapy room that can take in a maximum of 12 patients simultaneously to quickly respond to and treat massive explosion, fire, and gas poisoning accidents in the region.
The hospital is also capable of integrated treatment after cardiac arrest, which is one of the most important functions of an emergency room. In the case of a heart attack patient, it is especially important to conduct integrated treatment from the brain to lower extremity blood vessels and keep monitoring the process. Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital is capable of both hypothermia treatment, a treatment that inhibits the production of harmful substances in the body by lowering body temperature, and ECMO therapy that maintains heart and lung function by supplying high concentrations of oxygen in the blood.
In addition, a dedicated team of medical staff resides in the emergency medical center and intensive care units to operate the center 24 hours. The faces of the medical staff at the busy and tense emergency medical center were full of pride in saving lives.
■“We are the hospital that knows the Gyeongnam people the best.”
At the largest health promotion center in Gyeongnam that we visited after the hospital tour was over, we asked the president about the mid-and long-term goals of the hospital.
“Now Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital is large, which is not easily achievable in private hospitals. Also, we are the hospital that knows the Gyeongnam people the best. We have infrastructure suitable for a high-tech hospital in the 4th industrial era and have accumulated more than 1 million medical data. We will provide an optimal medical environment for Gyeongnam people by checking which diseases increase or decrease and proactively strengthening the infrastructure based on this big data. We will put our best effort to reinvest this infrastructure and big data to collect more know-hows and make our hospital the local hospital that knows Gyeongnam the best.”
Changwon has been able to receive medical services from the metropolitan area since the opening of KTX, but unlike the initial concerns, fewer than 5% of the patients left for the metropolitan area. President Dr. Park In Seong said, “I am confident that if a KTX line through Changwon Central Station, Namhae Expressway, and Busan-Masan metropolitan subway opens, we will become a hospital that covers all parts of Gyeongnam."
“Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital will be a hospital looking 100 years ahead. We will show a case that a community-friendly hospital can succeed,” said President Dr. Park. “To do so, our 1000 employees will put our best efforts to grow into a medical hub of Gyeongnam Province and a hospital that Korea is proud of." He ended the interview by saying “please show continuous love and support to Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital, which has grown with the love of residents.”
