Gwangjin-gu Reduces Medication Delivery Time for Home Treatment Patients to Within 2 Hours

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[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Gwangjin-gu (District Mayor Kim Seon-gap) has improved the pharmaceutical delivery system to enhance the efficiency of managing home treatment patients and to enable them to receive medicines quickly.

The existing pharmaceutical delivery system involved collecting 30 to 40 prescriptions per center from partner hospitals and delivering them to designated pharmacies, with the prescription list forwarded to the home treatment support team. Then, the home treatment support team would visit the designated pharmacies in person to collect the prescribed medicines, compare and verify the prescription list, and coordinate with the courier service.

This process had issues because partner hospitals sent 30 to 40 prescriptions at once, causing pharmacies to take a long time to prepare the medicines, and the dedicated team experienced long waiting times to collect the medicines. Additionally, with an average of about 120 cases per day handled by three dedicated home treatment support team members, the process took between 4 to 15 hours.

Therefore, the district improved the system to allow direct delivery from designated pharmacies to support the rapid recovery of home treatment patients.

The improved delivery system sends each prescription immediately from partner hospitals to pharmacies, where the medicines are prepared while confirming the address and directly linked to the courier service. Without going through the home treatment support team, each case is handled immediately at the pharmacy, enabling home treatment patients to receive prescribed medicines within 2 to 3 hours. The personnel previously dedicated to medicine delivery have been reassigned to the Home Treatment Administrative Guidance Center (call center) to focus on resolving citizen inconveniences.

Kim Seon-gap, Mayor of Gwangjin-gu, said, “By improving the work process so that home treatment patients can receive medicines quickly, we aim to enhance the efficiency of managing home treatment patients and do our best to support patient recovery.”

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Dongjak-gu (District Mayor Lee Chang-woo) is making every effort, including extending the application period for support funds and quarantine supplies, to assist small business owners struggling due to strengthened COVID-19 quarantine measures.

The district supports ▲Tenant Small Business Owner Support Fund (hereafter Support Fund) ▲Quarantine Supplies Support for Small Business Owners Subject to Mandatory Quarantine Pass (hereafter Quarantine Supplies) ▲Yellow Umbrella Mutual Aid Hope Incentive ▲Disaster Relief Fund for Small Business Owners in Closed or Restricted Business Sectors. It has also provided loans totaling 3 billion KRW from the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund.

In particular, to ease the rent burden on small business owners with significantly reduced sales, the application deadlines have been extended to ▲Support Fund until the 13th ▲Quarantine Supplies until the 25th.

The Support Fund provides 1 million KRW per business. Eligible recipients are small business owners operating in rented business locations within Dongjak-gu, with annual sales under 200 million KRW in 2020 or 2021, and who opened before December 31, 2021.

The Quarantine Supplies support targets 16 types of facilities subject to the quarantine pass (vaccination completed or PCR negative). The support amount is up to 100,000 KRW per business.

Additionally, the ‘Yellow Umbrella Mutual Aid Hope Incentive’ allows small business owners in Dongjak-gu with annual sales under 200 million KRW who newly join the Yellow Umbrella Mutual Aid and pay monthly contributions to receive an additional 10,000 KRW per month for up to 12 months as a hope incentive.

Up to 5 million KRW annually can be deducted from income tax, and new members joining after January 1 are eligible for retroactive support. Applications must be submitted within 30 days of joining the Yellow Umbrella Mutual Aid.

Online applications can be made on the dedicated website.

Furthermore, a disaster relief fund of 500,000 KRW per business is provided for small business owners who closed businesses in sectors subject to gathering bans or business restrictions.

Eligible applicants are small business owners who reported closure to the National Tax Service after March 22, 2020, in the restricted sectors and operated for at least 90 days before closure. Those who received Dongjak-gu closure support funds in 2021 are excluded.

Applications require submission of a closure certificate and small business verification documents at the Economic Promotion Division Civil Service Office (9th floor, 74 Noryangjin-ro), where eligibility will be confirmed and payments made within 10 days. However, early closure of applications may occur if the budget is exhausted.

Additionally, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups provides ▲customized loss compensation for small business owners severely affected by the 4th quarter quarantine measures last year ▲second round quarantine support funds of 3 million KRW. For details, contact the call centers (Loss Compensation ☎1533-3300, Quarantine Support Fund ☎1533-0100).

Yang Hye-young, Director of the Economic Promotion Division, emphasized, “We will continue to do our best to prepare various support measures to help small business owners facing economic difficulties due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.”

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Gangdong-gu (District Mayor Lee Jeong-hoon) is launching the ‘2022 Substitute Workforce Support Project’ as a treatment improvement initiative to protect workplaces.

The ‘Substitute Workforce Support Project’ provides substitute workers to social welfare facility employees in small-scale facilities with 10 or fewer staff during absences caused by education, leave, or family events. This year, 403 employees at 93 social welfare facilities in the district are eligible.

This support project is conducted through an agreement between Gangdong-gu and the Seoul Metropolitan Association of Social Workers (President Shim Jeong-won), which has about 10,000 social worker members.

Each person can receive substitute worker support once for up to 5 days annually, with plans to flexibly extend the support period based on usage performance.

Additionally, substitute workers are provided when employees who have worked at facilities in Gangdong-gu for more than 3 years take sabbatical leave.

The support period runs from March to December, and applications can be made on the dedicated website of the ‘Seoul Metropolitan Association of Social Workers Substitute Workforce Support Project.’ Applications must be submitted between the 1st and 20th of the month preceding the leave month, and the program may end early if the budget is exhausted.

Previously, employees at small social welfare facilities with 10 or fewer staff faced difficulties using leave, education, or attending family events due to the burden of work gaps, and remaining staff had to endure sharply increased workloads during absences.

Gangdong-gu aims to improve the poor working conditions of such small facilities through this project, ultimately enhancing job satisfaction and reducing turnover rates.

Lee Jeong-hoon, Mayor of Gangdong-gu, said, “We will continue to discover various projects to improve workers’ working conditions and treatment so that all workers in Gangdong-gu can work in stable and happy workplaces.”

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Seocho-gu operates emergency first aid training online to enable quick response even in emergencies such as cardiac arrest.

The emergency first aid training is held every Saturday for 2 hours each session until June 25, totaling 25 sessions, conducted via the non-face-to-face video program ZOOM in accordance with COVID-19 conditions.

To help trainees learn accurate first aid methods and apply them immediately in daily life, more sophisticated CPR practice mannequins and educational tools, materials, and quarantine kits are delivered to and collected from trainees’ homes, enhancing the experiential learning effect.

The training covers ▲causes of acute cardiac arrest and the necessity of CPR ▲CPR practice using mannequins ▲guidance on using automated external defibrillators (AED) ▲first aid methods in daily life, combining theory and practice.

Additionally, professional paramedics with diverse emergency first aid experience from medical institutions serve as instructors, communicating with trainees in real time to correct posture and teach accurate responses to emergencies in daily life.

The training accepts 40 participants on a first-come, first-served basis, and applications can be made on the website of the Central Emergency First Aid Training Center, the training institution.

Last year’s non-face-to-face emergency first aid training in Seocho-gu saw high participation with 304 residents. A post-training survey showed an overall satisfaction rate of 86.4%, with feedback such as “It was beneficial to learn realistic CPR with the provided actual mannequin rather than a pillow or balloon at home, together with family.”

Kim Hye-jung, Director of the Health Management Division, said, “We hope that the non-face-to-face emergency first aid training will help improve residents’ ability to respond to emergencies and serve as an opportunity to save precious lives of family and neighbors within the golden time known as the ‘4-minute miracle.’”

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