Andong City Links Visiting Nursing and Exercise to Home-Based Integrated Care

Collaboration Between Korean Medicine Association and Nursing Organizations
Expanded Health Management Scope to Include Non-qualified and Recently Discharged Patients

Andong City in North Gyeongsang Province is launching a home-based integrated care service that combines visiting nursing and exercise for residents who have difficulty using long-term care services and for patients discharged from hospitals.

On September 3, the city signed a business agreement with the Andong Korean Medicine Association and the Sowon Daycare Center to implement the “Integrated Care Visiting Nursing and Exercise Project,” a locally specialized initiative for medical and nursing care integrated services.

Kikchang Kwon, Mayor of Andong City (fourth from the left), is posing for a commemorative photo for the business agreement ceremony of the integrated care "Visiting Nursing Movement" project.
[Photo by Andong City]

The beneficiaries of the project include those who are not classified as eligible for long-term care, people with chronic diseases, and residents who require ongoing health management after being discharged from the hospital and returning home.

Under the agreement, Andong City will be responsible for selecting beneficiaries, linking them with necessary services, providing financial support for the project, and overseeing project operation and evaluation.

The Andong Korean Medicine Association will check the health condition of the beneficiaries in cooperation with local clinics and issue home nursing instructions, which the Sowon Daycare Center will use to dispatch nurses to each household.

The visiting nurses will assess the beneficiaries' health status and provide services tailored to individual needs, such as pressure ulcer management, wound disinfection, contracture-reducing exercises, and health education.

The key aspect of this project is that it expands the scope of home health management to include those who were previously unable to use care services because they did not qualify for a long-term care rating.

The focus is on reducing gaps in health management by linking residents who need consistent care after being discharged from the hospital to the local medical and care network.

This agreement is not about expanding facilities but is designed to connect existing human resources and functions of Andong City, the regional Korean Medicine Association, and nursing organizations to extend medical and care services to beneficiaries' homes.

In particular, by including those not covered by long-term care ratings and recently discharged patients as beneficiaries, the project aims to address gaps in home health management that can occur between institutional care services, which is expected to be a major challenge going forward.

Andong City plans to support continuous home health management to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions or institutionalization due to deteriorating health and to help beneficiaries continue living in their existing homes.

Kikang Kwon, Mayor of Andong, stated, "We will expand cooperation with the region’s healthcare and care resources to reduce blind spots in care and support citizens to live safely and healthily where they have always lived."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.