Health ministry launches inspections of psychiatric hospitals, starting with Incheon clinic

The health ministry said Monday it will begin a rolling series of joint on-site inspections of psychiatric hospitals, starting with Incheon Woon Hospital, after a string of inpatient deaths and a state human rights investigation found serious failures in care at the facility.

The inspections, which run through the end of the year, will verify whether patients are receiving proper treatment and whether their safety and rights are being protected. The Incheon hospital drew scrutiny after several inpatients died in the first half of this year, and the National Human Rights Commission's own-initiative probe cited a lack of medical staff and unjustified seclusion and restraint.

A team from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Incheon Metropolitan City health promotion division, the Michuhol District health center and the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service will inspect the Incheon hospital from Monday through Friday, focusing on compliance with the Mental Health Welfare Act, the Medical Service Act and the National Health Insurance Act.

The checks will cover staffing and emergency response systems on nights and holidays, legal facility and staffing standards, external locking devices and unjustified seclusion or restraint, admission and discharge procedures and continued-stay reviews, whether earlier corrective orders have been carried out, and whether the medical staff actually on duty match the insurance claims filed.

Where violations are found, the ministry will pursue criminal complaints, fines and administrative penalties according to the severity of the breach. Improper insurance claims will trigger recovery of the payments, and hospitals that ignore local government corrective orders or repeat the same violation will face a review of possible further legal action, with follow-up checks until problems are fixed.

"The government views situations in which patients' lives and safety are threatened at psychiatric institutions as extremely serious, and we will thoroughly verify through this joint inspection whether any illegal acts have occurred," said Lee Sun-young, director-general of the ministry's mental health policy bureau. "We will take strict action on legal violations and prepare necessary improvements for institutional shortcomings identified in the field."

After the Incheon inspection, the ministry plans further on-site checks through the end of the year at institutions flagged by human rights commission recommendations, complaints or reports of rights abuses, or suspicions of improper insurance billing. It will also weigh whether to inspect facilities housing large numbers of people with developmental disabilities where rights concerns have been raised.