Practice%20of%20Critical%20Care%20in%20South%20Korea

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Practice of Critical Care in South Korea

• Gee Young Suh, MD
• Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care
  Medicine
• Samsung Medical Center
• SungKyunKwan University School of Medicine
• Seoul, Korea

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Types of ICU

• Open vs closed
• Many hospitals employ open system
• Some hospitals employ closed system in selected
  ICUs

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Training of ICU Physicians

• No formal training in critical care medicine
• Chief of ICU
• Surgical or multidisciplinary ICU many
  anesthesiologist, surgeons
• Medical ICU pulmonologist, cardiologist
• Coronary care unit cardiologist

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Formal Training

• Just few hours of clinical clerkship for medical
  students at most universities
• Residents
• No formal guideline for training residents in
  critical care
• In 2001, working group to form a formal guideline
  was established by Korean Society of Critical
  Care Medicine
• Fellows
• No formal guideline
• Different levels of training in different
  hospitals

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Key Clinical Decision Makers

• Intensivist
• Ventilator and hemodynamic decision making
• Admission and discharge decisions
• Attending physician
• Family counseling
• Treatment of specific diseases
• Fellow/House residents
• Day-to-day care of patients

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Problems Hindering Development of Critical Care
in Korea

• Low cost of critical care
• Most hospitals private
• Medical costs set and controlled by the
  government
• Administrators see ICUs as money-losing
  department
• Few true intensivists
• Even active interested doctors cannot devote full
  time to the ICU
• No formal training or guideline in critical care

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Pressing Educational Needs

• More physicians devoted to critical care medicine
  are needed
• Teach physicians and administrators why
  intensivist-directed ICUs are important and
  necessary
• Educate physicians interested in critical care
  medicine the basic skills necessary to become
  intensivists

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