Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) said it will provide faster emergency care by having professors and other specialists directly seeing patients in the emergency room from September.

Previously, patients who visited the emergency room were first examined by interns or residents, who then have to consult the specialist. After consulting with other doctors relevant to the patient’s case, the patient could finally receive treatment.

With the overcrowded emergency room, Seoul National University Hospital will implement a system where a team of six doctors will reside in the emergency room at all times to directly treat patients.

A team of six doctors from the departments of Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, Surgery, Neurosurgery, and Neurology, has been hired to stay in the emergency room at all times. SNUH said it is the first hospital where a professor other than an emergency medicine professor resides in the emergency room.

The hospital has the most crowded emergency room in Korea last year, ranking first in the occupancy rate with 182 percent, followed by Chonbuk National University Hospital with 140 percent and Kyungpook National University Hospital with 132 percent.

The index exceeding 100 percent means patients have to wait on the bed, the chair, or the floor.

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