Ye Kim

Samsung Medical Center

The Samsung Medical Center consists of a hospital and a cancer center. SMC is a tertiary hospital manned by approximately 7,400 staff including over 1,200 doctors and 2,300 nurses. Since its foundation, the Samsung Medical Center has successfully incorporated and developed an advanced model with the motto of becoming a "patient-centered hospital," a new concept in Korea. Equipped with advanced medical service infrastructure including outstanding medical staff, order communication system (OCS), picture archiving communication system (PACS), clinical pathology automation system, and logistics automation system, SMC is defining a new hospital culture in Korea by being the best hospital in terms of hi-tech medical services and through the provision of genuine patient-centered medical services (shortest waiting time, hospital that does not require guardians). Since March 1997 when it was established to train the students of Sungkyunkwan University's school of medicine, the Samsung Medical Center has admitted 40 of the nation's top students each year to prepare for a bright future at the center. As such, the Samsung Medical Center as a medical institute leading the medical community has become Korea's best hospital in terms of care, research, and education. The Samsung Medical Center considers the next 10 years to be crucial in its bid to become a world-class medical institute and makes all-out efforts and investment in ensuring that it is prepared for the future. To ensure its further growth, the Samsung Medical Center opened the Samsung Cancer Center and Samsung Cancer Lab in 2008 and 2009, respectively; it is set to open the Samsung International Medical Center in 2015.