Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital

Hallym Hosts 'Creative Idea Contest'

Hallym University Medical Center(HUMC) held a 'Creative Idea Contest' at the Hanmaeum Hall in Hallym Sacred Heart Hospital on November 29, 2008. The contest was attended by about 240 participants including directors and managers of affiliated hospitals.

The contest was designed to seek creative ideas and apply them to work places to secure Hallym's distinguished competence and continuous development under aggravating business conditions such as a worldwide economic depression, a national policy of lowering medical insurance fees, and facility expansion of Hallym's competitors. At the contest, twelve teams from six affiliated hospitals including Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital, Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital, Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital, Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital and Hallym Dental Hospital, presented innovative ideas on ways to promote customer satisfaction, generate profits, reduce costs, and improve work processes.

At the opening ceremony, Dr. Hae-Ran Lee, president of HUMC, expressed her appreciation to the speakers and organizers of the event, saying, "Hallym has worked hard under the slogan of 'Mighty Hallym' for a change and innovation since 2002. I should point out that any good process without tangible results means almost nothing. However wonderful an idea may be, our efforts would end up simply being futile without having specific ways to bring about results. Taking this opportunity, I would like to ask you to keep applying your great, brilliant ideas to your daily routine, and evaluating the process to come up with satisfactory outcomes."

Twelve teams, which passed the preliminary contest among six affiliated hospitals, competed with each other at the contest. The first prize was awarded to the Internet Broadcasting Team of Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital, which presented 'Kangnam e-TV, a New Paradigm of Hospital Marketing.' The second prize was given to Dae-Sung Shin, assistant manager of general affairs team in Hallym Dental Hospital, who presented on a way for cost reduction through an integrated dental material purchase. The third prized was shared by Dr. So-Yun Lee, professor of the department of pediatrics at Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital, and the team of the department of radiology at Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital. Dr. Lee proposed for open education and open hospital for pediatric patients, and the radiology team introduced their process improvement activities for reducing the waiting time of patients before medical examinations.

Dr. Hyoun-Chan Cho, vice president of HUMC, said, "The various ideas presented today were really creative and cost-effective which would be applicable to management improvement. We screened on creativity, feasibility and effects." He concluded by stressing the practical aspects of the ideas.
Hallym University Medical Center has gathered creative ideas from employees who have presented at the video conferences in every Tuesday, regular contests and other annual conferences, and applied them to hospital management.

By Jonghun Im, Int'l Operations Team, HUMC