Hospitals tighten their belts due to COVID-19

Hospital operation rate fell from 90% to 40%, and the recruitment of new nurses was also suspended

Shorter outpatient care time due to fewer patients, sometimes, no contract with physician any more

#In the metropolitan area, Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital A operates from 9 am to 1 pm as gynecological and internal outpatients dropped sharply due to prolonged COVID-19 crisis.

 

The small and medium 200 beds hospital, in the Seoul metropolitan area, has withheld a contract for one of five pediatricians.

 

As usual, the hospital would have re-signed, but it was unreasonable to keep five pediatricians when the number of pediatric patients dropped sharply due to the recent COVID-19 crisis.

 

#With the spread of COVID-19, first-line regional hospitals are tightening their belts due to fewer patients.

 

In particular, since the situation may not improve, they are striving to minimize expenses such as labor costs.

 

In fact, the bed operation rate of small hospital B is 40%.

 

It's been down by more than half, considering that it's near 90% and full operation.

 

The director of small hospital said that the number of patients declined so much that recruitment of nurses for March was withheld.

 

In addition, the existing nursing staff also need to schedule the paid leave, so he is not even thinking about hiring a new nurse.

 

With this situation, front-line small and medium-sized hospitals are in high demand for government-level support measures for hospital management damages caused by fewer patients.

 

In particular, many small- and medium-sized hospitals whose patients have dropped sharply act as base hospitals in the region and most of the time, they set up screening clinics and operate relief care hospitals In fact, the leaders of Small & Medium Hospital who attended the COVID-19 emergency meeting hosted by the Korea Small & Medium Hospital Association (the KSMHA) presented difficulties in management.

 

#Director of small and medium-sized hospital A said, "If the confirmed patient visits during the operation of the screening hospital, the local government will disclose the name of the specific hospital on the confirmation line, which will increase the difficulty due to the decrease in the number of hospital patients".

 

Another small and mid-sized hospital director said, "Employment adjustment is inevitable due to the closure of wards or reduced sales, but paid leave is expected to make hospitals more difficult”.

 

Young-ho Chung, chairman of the KSMHA, said, “Fortunately, Reimbursement will be preemptively paid, but there is a need for improvements to postpone loan repayment or loan credit guarantee funds at low interest rates and to increase the medical loan cap”.

 

He added, “There is also a need to increase of benefits for outpatients and inpatients other than the respiratory patients who visited the screening clinics and relief care hospitals, in this case, however, reimbursement concentration phenomenon may occur to the advanced general hospital, which requires correction”.

 

#As the management concerns of hospitals have risen, the Korea Hospital Association has introduced a policy to support overtime work as well as employment retention support policies.

 

Medical institutions that suffered from management difficulties due to the reduction of patients were required to apply for employment maintenance support fund, and they were asked to use special extended working systems for more than 52 hours a week for medical institutions lacking medical personnel due to the recent surge in confirmed patients.

 

Employment maintenance support fund is a system that supports a part of the labor cost when a business owner, whose employment adjustment is inevitable due to temporary management difficulties, takes measures to maintain employment such as temporary closure or leave of absence.

 

The Ministry of Employment and Labor intends to apply this to medical institutions that are expected to experience difficulties due to COVID-19.

 

Eligible employees are required to take 2/3 or 1/2 of their usual labor costs (₩60,000 per day, up to 180 days a year) if the hospital is closed for more than 20% of their working hours or leave of absence for more than one month.

 

On the other hand, medical institutions that have no choice but to increase the working hours of medical staff due to the successive check-ups of Daegu and Gyeongbuk can use a special extended work permit system.

 

As of March 2018, the 52-hour workweek was implemented from 68 hours per week, so the working hours of employees in frontline medical institutions were set to 52 hours per week.

 

The Ministry of Employment and Labor permits extended hours of work up to 12 hours per week, in order to deal with temporary and unusual situations, such as natural disasters such as infectious diseases and disasters.

 

In response to this, the officials of the Korea Medical Association said, "The long-term COVID-19 crisis is causing difficulties for front-line medical institutions.

 

Therefore, we hope to minimize the damage by appropriately using the government system according to the situation".