By Lee Bo-hyoung
Babies are born and blessed into the world. The scene of sleeping newborn babies is also like seeing angels. Alas, these angels died at a tertiary general hospital, Ewha Womans University Medical Center in Mok-dong, Seoul. Was it an act of a devil or one who has a devil's heart?
According to recent forensic results, however, the beginning of this unfortunate event was rather trivial. A trivial practice was lurking at the bottom of these deaths.
In 1993, when the hospital opened, only two vials of nutritional supplements were covered under the National Health Insurance per week per newborn baby.
However, since certain babies needed nutritional supplements every day, medical staff began considering the financial burden of patients, and they began the practice of sharing a vial of nutritional supplements prescribed to other babies.
Even though the National Health Insurance system was later changed to allow one vial of nutritional supplements per child per day, the practice of sharing a vial of nutritional supplements that had been developed previously continued, eventually leading to this tragic event.
The consequences of this tragedy were not only the sacrifice of the babies, but they also dealt the hospital a significant blow, suffering financial loss and damage to its trust. The representative of the hospital resigned, and the hospital eventually lost is status as a tertiary general hospital.
Look back on this case from a communication perspective, there are two drawbacks on the part of the hospital.
First, the monitoring system with respect to health insurance policies was found not to be working in the hospital.
The policies related to health insurance had been improved to ensure the safety of patients, but these policies were not being practiced properly in the hospital. If the hospital had been more attentive to the shift in the policies and responded actively to change its existing practice, it could have prevented the incident.
Since people witnessed the collapse of Sampoong Department Store and the Seongsu Bridge in the 1990s, growth had been given place to safety in the people's minds to match the country's status in the world. The recent incidents of the ferry Sewol disaster and toxic disinfectants of humidifiers have revealed people's expectations and sensitivity to safety.
While the level of awareness of safety is already at the level of developed countries, if the practices in the field still stay as they were in the 1990s, conflicts and sacrifices will arise from such social delays. If a business relies on existing practices, it would have difficulties in understanding why events become social issues and would not feel the need to change existing practices at all.
People's perceptions and expectations are always ahead of current systems and practices. Yesterday's practice cannot be a defense to today's changed reality.
Next, apparently there were not enough activities to persuade key stakeholders to prevent the crisis from spreading after the incident occurred in the hospital. In a case such as this, the victims and their families are the biggest stakeholders.
Without adequate communication or agreement with, fundamental challenges will be faced during investigative procedures by government and law enforcement authorities.
Above all, considering the fact that the constant exposure of appearances and the remarks of the victims' families in the media could have expanded and greatly publicized the risks, the hospital should have been more inclined to explain the details of the incident to the victims' families.
As the functions of the National Assembly have been strengthened for the last 20 years, many practices of our society and discretionary handling of matters have been limited by legislations.
During the 20th session of the National Assembly alone, which started in 2016, a total of 12,847 bills were reviewed, with 3,543 of them being approved into law. As the legislative activities have been strengthened and diversified, numerous bills affecting various organizations including enterprises are pouring out of the National Assembly.
Literally we are living in a rain of laws. In this situation, actively monitoring policy changes and related regulations has become an essential part of doing business.
Furthermore, formal legal practices, even if formed and existing under the legal system, should be reviewed in the context of evolving social perceptions and expectations. Practices are comfortable, but they cause risks in times of change.
Lee Bo-hyoung(bohyoung.lee@macoll.com) is CEO of Macoll Consulting Group.
 |
According to recent forensic results, however, the beginning of this unfortunate event was rather trivial. A trivial practice was lurking at the bottom of these deaths.
In 1993, when the hospital opened, only two vials of nutritional supplements were covered under the National Health Insurance per week per newborn baby.
However, since certain babies needed nutritional supplements every day, medical staff began considering the financial burden of patients, and they began the practice of sharing a vial of nutritional supplements prescribed to other babies.
Even though the National Health Insurance system was later changed to allow one vial of nutritional supplements per child per day, the practice of sharing a vial of nutritional supplements that had been developed previously continued, eventually leading to this tragic event.
The consequences of this tragedy were not only the sacrifice of the babies, but they also dealt the hospital a significant blow, suffering financial loss and damage to its trust. The representative of the hospital resigned, and the hospital eventually lost is status as a tertiary general hospital.
Look back on this case from a communication perspective, there are two drawbacks on the part of the hospital.
First, the monitoring system with respect to health insurance policies was found not to be working in the hospital.
The policies related to health insurance had been improved to ensure the safety of patients, but these policies were not being practiced properly in the hospital. If the hospital had been more attentive to the shift in the policies and responded actively to change its existing practice, it could have prevented the incident.
Since people witnessed the collapse of Sampoong Department Store and the Seongsu Bridge in the 1990s, growth had been given place to safety in the people's minds to match the country's status in the world. The recent incidents of the ferry Sewol disaster and toxic disinfectants of humidifiers have revealed people's expectations and sensitivity to safety.
While the level of awareness of safety is already at the level of developed countries, if the practices in the field still stay as they were in the 1990s, conflicts and sacrifices will arise from such social delays. If a business relies on existing practices, it would have difficulties in understanding why events become social issues and would not feel the need to change existing practices at all.
People's perceptions and expectations are always ahead of current systems and practices. Yesterday's practice cannot be a defense to today's changed reality.
Next, apparently there were not enough activities to persuade key stakeholders to prevent the crisis from spreading after the incident occurred in the hospital. In a case such as this, the victims and their families are the biggest stakeholders.
Without adequate communication or agreement with, fundamental challenges will be faced during investigative procedures by government and law enforcement authorities.
Above all, considering the fact that the constant exposure of appearances and the remarks of the victims' families in the media could have expanded and greatly publicized the risks, the hospital should have been more inclined to explain the details of the incident to the victims' families.
As the functions of the National Assembly have been strengthened for the last 20 years, many practices of our society and discretionary handling of matters have been limited by legislations.
During the 20th session of the National Assembly alone, which started in 2016, a total of 12,847 bills were reviewed, with 3,543 of them being approved into law. As the legislative activities have been strengthened and diversified, numerous bills affecting various organizations including enterprises are pouring out of the National Assembly.
Literally we are living in a rain of laws. In this situation, actively monitoring policy changes and related regulations has become an essential part of doing business.
Furthermore, formal legal practices, even if formed and existing under the legal system, should be reviewed in the context of evolving social perceptions and expectations. Practices are comfortable, but they cause risks in times of change.
Lee Bo-hyoung(bohyoung.lee@macoll.com) is CEO of Macoll Consulting Group.
![[INTERVIEW] Production company AStory expects great success with 'Extraordinary Attorney Woo' franchise](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/06bfe09b25694aafbd347202cbad4257.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
