At the end of this month, Gwangwon Province will implement a new integrated care service, called the 'Gwangwon-style Integrated Care System', aimed at providing direct support from hospitals to local municipalities for patients being discharged. On the 3rd, the provincial government signed a memorandum of understanding online with 18 city and county administrations and six comprehensive hospitals including Gangneung Goryeo Hospital and Gangneung Dongin Hospital. The core of this initiative is to establish a linkage system that allows patients to request integrated care directly to their local municipality upon discharge, facilitating their smooth transition back to community life after surgery or treatment.

The aim of the integrated care linkage project is to support discharged patients so that they can return to their homes and communities while maintaining a healthy lifestyle in their later years. Gwangwon Province expects that by having access to necessary care services from the point of discharge, patients will experience a decrease in readmission rates and an overall improvement in their quality of life. The service will enable elderly individuals and those with disabilities to receive a range of supportive services, such as medical consultations, meal delivery, and home improvement assistance, without the need for institutionalization.

Park Song-lim, the director of the Health and Welfare Bureau of Gwangwon Province, emphasized the significance of this agreement as a cooperative effort between local governments and medical institutions to support residents' healthy return to daily life. He stated that they will continue to strengthen the integrated care system to ensure that citizens can lead healthy and dignified lives in the areas where they were born and raised, fostering community engagement over institutional care.