Eight places, including Yonsei Severance, were selected for the first round of restructuring of high-level general hospitals.

Eight places, including Yonsei University's Severance Hospital, were first selected for the "High-Level General Hospital Restructuring Support Project," which focuses on severe and emergency patients and pays additional fees.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced today that eight organizations, including Yonsei Severance, Kyung Hee University Hospital, Anam, Ansan, and Guro hospitals of Korea University, Chonbuk National University Hospital, and Chung-Ang University Hospital, were selected as the first institutions for the restructuring of high-level general hospitals.

In addition, it has been confirmed that 10 advanced general hospitals, including one so-called Big 5 hospital, have submitted applications.

The government plans to receive applications by the end of the year so that hospitals that need time to restructure can be fully prepared for the situation.

The restructuring of high-level general hospitals is a project in which participating hospitals are subject to increased fees by focusing on treatment of severe, emergency, and rare diseases, and receive additional incentives by reducing treatment of mild patients.

For a stable structural transformation, the government has decided to prepare a new classification system for severe patients by reflecting patient conditions such as age and underlying diseases.

Park Min-soo, the second vice minister of Health and Welfare, explained at a plenary session held today that higher general hospitals will be able to reduce mild patients and use them to respond to emergency patients, which will help solve the problem of not using emergency rooms.