The Ministry of Health and Welfare has announced that E-Da Hospital in Kaohsiung’s Yanchao District (燕巢) is the fourth medical center — the top-level medical institution in the healthcare system — for the Kaohsiung-Pingtung region.
E-Da Hospital has for seven years been accredited as a “quasi-medical center” — a quality regional hospital being reviewed for the potential to become a medical center, Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源) said last week.
Promoting it to a medical center is expected to improve healthcare services in Kaohsiung’s mountainous areas, and in Pingtung and Penghu counties, places that are “relatively disadvantaged in medical resources,” Chiu said.
Photo: CNA
The accreditation system can help improve the quality of medical service providers and ensure the reasonable allocation of medical resources across different regions, he added.
E-Da Hospital met the standard required to become the nation’s 23rd medical center during a review conducted last year of medical centers and regional hospitals in central, southern and eastern Taiwan.
The hospital joined Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital and Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital to become the fourth medical center in the region.
However, with the new status patients would have to pay more for clinic visits and emergency services at E-Da Hospital from March 1.
A clinic visit is to cost NT$420 for people without referrals from a regional hospital or a clinic, and NT$170 for those with a referral, compared with the NT$240 and NT$100 E-Da Hospital currently charges respectively, National Health Insurance Administration Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said.
The cost of a visit to the emergency room would increase from NT$400 to NT$750, he added.
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