South Korea Medical Tourism Diary. Part 7: Good Gang-An Hospital
Continued from Part 6: Hanyang University Hospital and trip to Busan
November 29, 2007
Just like the Shilla in Seoul, the Westin in Busan has a large pool that opens by 6 am. I had a good swim there and then had breakfast overlooking the water. I noticed some objects in the water, which at first I assumed to be debris or some kind of animals. As I watched some more it turned out to be swimmers. I counted about a dozen people swimming to shore --not sure where they started from. Some were wearing wet suits, others just regular bathing suits. The air temperature was about 45 or 50 degrees Fahrenheit and I have no idea about the water temp. Before trying this swim yourself you might want to check out whether it's safe. As Stephanie Sulger wandered around town sussing out the local environment she heard from an expat that there were some issues with pollution.
Our first stop in Busan was the Good Gang-An Hospital, a 400 bed general hospital that's less than three years old. They handle more or less everything, but vascular surgery seems to be an area of particular strength. Good Gang-An is part of a six hospital group, and we were told by the head of the International Medical Center, Woo Young Seo, MD, PhD that the hospitals are doing well economically despite a generally poor outlook for hospitals in the region. The building is very nice and has a sweeping view of Busan, including a new 7.4 km bridge, which we were told is the longest in Korea.
This hospital had a different feel from the ones we visited in Seoul. There was more overt politeness --with lots of people bowing to one another and to us-- and overall there was a particularly quiet, calm feel. (This is not to say that Seoul hospitals were rude or frenzied.) I really liked the calm feeling, which has to be better for patients than the noisy wards I've been on in the US and elsewhere. The staff seemed very devoted --hustling quickly to a patient's bed when it looked like they needed something. The word I wrote in my notebook to sum it up was "humane."
The overall level of English was also lower: fewer staff spoke English well, all the brochures were in Korean only, and the promotional video was narrated in Korean (although with English subtitles). The Busan area is host to a number of expats working for some of the companies in the area, so they are used to serving foreign patients. Kathy Park, who speaks fluent English, takes responsibility for guiding English speaking patients around the hospital.
In general the hospital is just beginning to think about the medical tourism market and will need to make some upgrades in its communications infrastructure to be successful.
See Part 8: Parkside Rehabilitation Hospital and return to Seoul