Samsung Seoul Hospital, First General Hospital to Win ESG Award at Sustainability Competition

Sustainability Index General Hospital Sector 1st Place
"Establishing ESG Sharing Model... Leading ESG Expansion in Healthcare"

Samsung Medical Center announced on the 27th that it won two awards, the 'Korea Sustainability Index (KSI)' and the 'Sustainability Report Award (KRCA),' at the '2023 Korea Sustainability Conference' held at Lotte Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 24th. This is the first time a general hospital has received such recognition.

Samsung Seoul Hospital announced that it won two awards, the "Korea Sustainability Index (KSI)" and the "Sustainability Report Award (KRCA)," becoming the first general hospital to receive these honors at the "2023 Korea Sustainability Conference." Lee Hyung-bae, Executive Vice President of Samsung Seoul Hospital (left), is taking a commemorative photo at the awards ceremony.
[Photo by Samsung Seoul Hospital]

The Korea Sustainability Conference is an event organized by the Korea Standards Association, an affiliate of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, to honor outstanding companies in sustainability. The conference has been held 16 times since 2008 and is regarded as a highly credible event for awarding corporate sustainability, according to the hospital.

KSI measures corporate sustainability activities based on the international standard ISO26000. The Korea Standards Association evaluated 214 companies and institutions across 50 domestic industries. More than 27,000 stakeholders, including experts in various fields, consumers, partners, local communities, investors, and employees, participated in the evaluation.

KRCA is a model for stakeholders to evaluate ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) reports of domestic companies based on the global ESG disclosure guideline, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). This year, over 4,500 experts and stakeholders participated, evaluating a total of 362 reports.

In this conference, a general hospital participated in ESG evaluation for the first time, which had previously been focused on manufacturing and financial industries, and won awards in two categories.

Park Seung-woo, President of Samsung Medical Center, stated in the ESG report published in July, "The hospital industry, which is on the front lines protecting the lives of the people against diseases, is inherently very closely related to ESG management," adding, "Hospitals can practice ESG through sustainable growth by overcoming incurable and difficult diseases, improving patients' quality of life, creating safer working environments, and respecting the values of various stakeholders."

Samsung Medical Center established an ESG committee in 2021 and has been practicing ESG management. The hospital concretized the goals and values it should pursue in each ESG field and built an internal promotion system for implementation, publishing the report in July. The hospital presented ▲Eco-friendly Hospital ▲Safe Hospital ▲Fair Hospital as its ESG vision in the report. It also expressed its ambition to become a trusted and fair hospital by minimizing pollutant emissions during medical processes, providing a safe working environment for hospital staff, and offering a treatment environment where patients can receive care with peace of mind.

In practice, the hospital began separating medical waste and general waste in the ward nurses' stations, introduced flexible working hours for nurses, logistics automation, and non-face-to-face rounds. Additionally, it accelerated its transition to a digital hospital by becoming the first in the world to receive the highest level 7 certification in three categories of HIMSS (Healthcare Information & Management System Society) IT infrastructure. To promote co-evolution of the medical ecosystem and enhance the clinical capabilities of partner hospitals, it provides the latest medical knowledge to medical staff at partner hospitals and has established a clinical cooperation system for treating critically ill patients.

Meanwhile, Samsung Medical Center plans to take the lead in spreading and expanding ESG in the hospital industry by developing and sharing leading cases and indicators.