Korea opens first medical-intensive care home for disabled people in Daejeon

South Korea's health ministry said Tuesday it opened the country's first medical-intensive residential facility for people with severe disabilities, converting an existing care home in Daejeon into a site that provides professional nursing and round-the-clock medical services.

The facility, named Rodem and located in Daejeon's Daedeok district, will serve people with severe disabilities who need intensive medical support around the clock. The Ministry of Health and Welfare selected it as the first pilot site under a program it has been preparing since announcing plans in March 2023, when it laid out a goal of introducing medical-intensive service providers under the sixth comprehensive disability policy plan covering 2023 through 2027. The ministry later chose Rodem in Daejeon for 2025 and the Youngnak Aenias House in Seoul for 2026.

The pilot is intended to strengthen health care for residents of care homes and narrow gaps in medical coverage. Doctors and nurses will be stationed at the facility to provide 24-hour medical care, backed by additional nursing and daily-living support staff. Services will include suctioning, blood-oxygen monitoring and oxygen administration, tube feeding and gastrostomy tube management, individualized medication management and wound dressing.

The building has been renovated and equipped with medical beds, lifts, oxygen concentrators, oxygen saturation monitors, suction devices, automatic infusion pumps, patient monitoring systems and medical oxygen generators.

The government allocated 558 million won ($416,107) in state funds, covering half the project cost, for the extra nursing and care staff and for the renovation and medical equipment.

Rodem houses 30 or fewer residents, most of whom have severe disabilities that make medical care a pressing need.

"Starting with the medical-intensive residential facility pilot, we plan to continue improving the medical and care services that residents with severe disabilities need," said Cha Jeon-kyung, director general of the ministry's disability policy bureau, after touring the renovated living spaces and newly installed medical equipment.