Special culture checks for hospitals

The labor ministry said Thursday that special organizational-culture assessments will be introduced for hospitals. A 2024 survey found that 25 percent of workers in health and welfare services had experienced workplace bullying, the highest rate among industries. The workplace-bullying report receipt rate for the sector was 16 percent in 2025, also the highest among industries.

The Labor Foundation and the Korean Hospital Association signed an agreement to provide hospital-specific workplace innovation consulting. Hospitals recommended by the association will bypass separate screening and receive immediate support, but must undergo organizational-culture improvement consulting. The foundation will waive participating hospitals' cost sharing for organizational-culture improvement projects.

The foundation said it began offering the medical-institution-specific consulting program on Aug. 3, adapting its existing service to the characteristics of medical workplaces.

The assessments will examine mutual respect and psychological safety among nurses and other workers, workplace-bullying risks including taeum, reporting-and-protection systems, preceptor programs and shift work. Results will be used to provide support based on each hospital's risk level, including organizational-culture improvement, worker-protection systems and labor-management partnerships. High-risk medical institutions will receive priority access to organizational-culture improvement consulting, while those that reject improvement tasks will be barred from consulting support and linked to labor inspections.

The two organizations also agreed to cooperate on hospital-tailored education and the sharing of policies and best practices. The foundation plans to post health-sector training videos and produce a manual for hospitals pursuing organizational-culture improvements on their own.

"It must never be the case that workers who save patients are bullied at work and left unprotected," Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon said.

"Because medical institutions are responsible for patients' lives and safety, a culture in which members respect and trust one another is more important than anything else," Park Jong-pil, secretary general of the Labor Foundation, said.