What’s the difference between a Hospital and a Clinic?
What seems to be the same is not the same at all
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Hi there! In today’s post, we are going to continue providing interesting and useful pieces of educational content that are helpful if you reside in South Korea. We hope that this post will be beneficial for you, and you will be able to gain some knowledge by reading this article. In this post, we will define the difference between a hospital and a clinic, and check out the fundamental distinctions between the two different organizations.
Hospitals & Clinics
In our daily lives, it might be easy to confuse clinics and hospitals, but they actually have many differences.
According to Medical Law (provided by the MIHWAF), medical institutions are largely divided into the clinical level (medical clinics, dental clinics, eastern medicine clinics, and nursing clinics) and the hospital level (medical hospitals, dental hospitals, eastern medicine hospitals, and nursing hospitals). One simple distinction is the number of beds in the building. If the institution has more than 30 beds to hospitalize patients, it is considered to be a hospital, and if there are fewer, it is considered to be a clinic. If there are more than 100 beds, it’s called a “General Hospital.”
Medical Law also mentions two other groups: “Superior General Hospitals’” and “Professional Hospitals.” Both hospitals are designated by the Minister of Health, Welfare, and Family Affairs. A Senior General Hospital is a general hospital specializing in highly difficult medical activities for severe diseases. Currently, 45 hospitals are designated as Senior General Hospitals in 11 regions throughout Korea, including Gangbuk Samsung Hospital and Konkuk University Hospital. A specialized hospital is a hospital-level medical institution that is recognized as a place where medical activities are highly difficult for certain diseases and specific medical practices.
Therefore, most of the “hospitals” that we see in our neighborhood actually turn out to be simple “clinics.” In addition to clinics and hospitals, there is also a difference between “professional” and “general” doctors. Let’s look at the differences between “professional” and “general” doctors.
Doctors are also divided into “professional” and “general” doctors. If you graduate from medical school or a medical department and pass the national medical examination to obtain your doctor’s license, you will be considered a “general doctor.” If you continue to work through professional medical courses, take additional training courses, and do several internships on your way, you will be considered a “professional doctor.”
