[2026 National Assembly Audit] "Refer Them, Then Wash Their Hands"... Only 19% of 510,000 Patients Referred by Tertiary Hospitals Confirmed to Have Received Care at Partner Hospitals

Four in 10 patients return to tertiary general hospitals within 30 days
HIRA does not track reasons for return or treatment progress

Of the 510,000 patients referred by tertiary general hospitals to other hospitals, only 19% were confirmed to have received care at a partner hospital. Four out of 10 referred patients returned to a tertiary general hospital within a month, but the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA) was not separately tracking the reasons for their return or their subsequent treatment progress.

According to data submitted by HIRA to Rep. So Byeonghun of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee, 509,822 patients were referred to other hospitals by 47 tertiary general hospitals nationwide from October 2024 through April 2026. Of these, 98,632 patients (19.3%) were confirmed to have received care at a partner hospital.

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The rate of confirmed care was 11.5% from October to December 2024, 20.0% in 2025, and 18.6% from January to April 2026.

The government is pursuing reforms to the healthcare delivery system, under which tertiary general hospitals refer patients to regional and partner hospitals suited to their conditions, so that tertiary general hospitals can focus on treating critically ill patients.

However, a considerable number of patients returned to tertiary general hospitals after being referred. Of the 374,308 patients referred from October 2024 through January 2026, 150,149 (40.1%) returned to a tertiary general hospital within 30 days.

HIRA cannot determine whether patients returned because of the condition for which they were initially referred or because of a new condition, and it does not conduct separate follow-up analyses at the individual patient level. Even one visit to a partner hospital is counted toward the completion rate for specialized referrals.

Rep. So said, "The goal of restructuring tertiary general hospitals is not to send large numbers of patients to other hospitals, but to ensure that patients receive the necessary treatment without interruption at medical institutions suited to their conditions. We need to verify whether patients actually receive care after referral and whether their treatment is continuous, and establish a patient-centered follow-up care system."

So Byung-hoon, a lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Korea. [Photo by his office]

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