Ongjin-gun County (Governor Jang Jung-min) has moved in earnest to address elderly care in its island communities, where concerns have long been raised that the period after leaving the hospital is the most dangerous. The Incheon county announced on the 20th that it will fully launch the ‘Short-Term Intensive Care Service for Discharged Patients,’ a component of the Customized Care Service for Older Adults, to help seniors discharged from hospitals return stably to daily life without being readmitted.
 [The Korean Today] Ongjin-gun County’s Short-Term Intensive Customized Care Service for discharged seniors © Reporter Kim Mi-hee |
The recovery period immediately after discharge is when care gaps are most likely to occur if family members or neighbors are not on hand to help. Given the county’s island geography, physically removed from medical institutions, seniors living alone often struggle to manage meals, housework and return hospital visits on their own after discharge. The county designed the program to concentrate needed services during this period, speeding up recovery and enabling seniors to continue living in their own communities.
The program targets basic pension recipients aged 65 or older who have been discharged from hospital-level or higher medical institutions. It will initially operate in four townships — Bukdo-myeon, Baengnyeong-myeon, Deokjeok-myeon and Yeongheung-myeon — serving a total of 17 people this year. Support amounts to a maximum of 840,000 won per person per month, at no cost to the recipients.
The services fall into three broad categories: nutrition support, which supplies balanced nutritional meals such as NuCare to maintain nutrition during recovery; housekeeping support, which helps with meal preparation, cleaning and laundry; and accompaniment support, which assists with outings to hospitals, pharmacies and government offices. Rather than offering uniform assistance, the county says it will provide customized combinations of services based on each senior’s health condition and stage of recovery.
The county has also put in place the staffing system that will determine how quickly services are delivered. It has assembled a separate dedicated care team of seven workers — five for housekeeping support and two for accompaniment support — drawn mainly from certified care workers and those with experience as senior life support workers. The rapid-response system connects discharged patients with customized care immediately, reflecting the county’s commitment to ensuring care gaps do not last even a single day longer.
Governor Jang Jung-min said, “The period immediately after discharge is the most critical time for seniors’ health recovery and stable return to daily life,” adding, “We will continue to strengthen the Customized Care Service for Older Adults and steadily expand customized welfare services so that seniors in need of care can lead healthy and safe lives in the places they have always lived.”
In Ongjin-gun County, which has a high proportion of elderly residents and relatively low access to medical care, the program is significant as an attempt to connect the post-hospital care chain. As reducing readmissions is directly linked not only to seniors’ quality of life but also to the efficient use of local medical and welfare resources, the program’s performance in the four initial townships is expected to serve as a benchmark for deciding on future expansion.
[ Reporter Kim Mi-hee: incheonsouth@thekoreantoday.com ]
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