The South Korean government is relaxing regulations that required healthcare facilities to establish separate "telemedicine rooms" for remote medical consultations. The move aims to reduce facility burdens on medical institutions by allowing telemedicine services in regular outpatient consultation rooms equipped with internet-connected PCs.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced Thursday that it has prepared a partial amendment to the Enforcement Rules of the Medical Service Act. The revision will take effect immediately upon promulgation without requiring separate budget allocation.
Under the current Medical Service Act Article 34 and Enforcement Rules Article 29, medical institutions providing or receiving telemedicine services must establish separate telemedicine rooms in physically partitioned spaces.
The amendment introduces a new provision (Article 29, Paragraph 2) allowing heads of medical institutions to utilize their existing outpatient consultation rooms as telemedicine rooms. Regular consultation rooms equipped with internet-connected PCs and other necessary telemedicine equipment can now conduct remote medical services without dedicated separate spaces.
Primary care facilities and clinic-level medical institutions have long complained that space constraints made it burdensome to establish separate telemedicine rooms. For small and mid-sized clinics with limited consultation rooms, the requirement for dedicated spaces has been cited as a barrier to telemedicine participation.
The ministry expects the revision to ease facility investment burdens and expand telemedicine participation among clinic-level institutions. "This measure relaxes the legal restrictions on telemedicine rooms to promote the activation of telemedicine services," the ministry said.