Hallym University Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital

Hallym University Medical Center(HUMC) was designated on January 7, 2010, as a Project Management Consultant(PMC) for a project to establish a general hospital in Paraguay by the Korea International Cooperation Agency(KOICA).

The $4-billion project, 'The Establishment of San Pedro General Hospital in Paraguay,' one of the Korean government agency's Official Development Assistant(ODA) projects, aims at building the hospital by May, 2011. The project is designed to enhance the medical quality and set up a local health care system in San Pedro State, which has marked the highest mortality rate of newborns and mothers in the South American country.

For the success of the project, Hallym plans to make a listing of medical equipment and facilities, and to organize ways to deliver hospital management skills. It would also dispatch medical experts for doing a baseline survey, making administration manuals, training hospital employees through workshops and lectures. Three months before the opening, Hallym will invite leadership of the hospital to Korea to showcase its advanced hospital management system.

Professor Seok Woo Kim, Director of the PMC, said, "I believe this project will be contributory to encouraging maternal healthcare, decreasing a child mortality rate, and controlling diseases in Paraguay. It is also expected that another on-going Paraguayan project of Hallym in Asuncion will create synergetic effects including saving its budget."

By Jonghun Im, Int'l Operations Team, HUMC (imjonghun@hallym.or.kr)