Youthful doctor forever, "Wang Jun Lee" - why

More innovatively and more devotedly...

A doctor who treats hospitals

Doctors of Our Time by Chul-jung Kim

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Youthful doctor forever,

the CEO & Chairman of Myong Ji Hospital

"Wang Jun Lee"

As soon as you enter Myong Ji Hospital affiliated with Kwandong University College of Medicine, in Goyang City, Gyeonggi Province, rather extraordinary scenes that cannot been seen at typical Korean hospitals will catch your eyes.

The pediatric ER looks like an amusement park and the psychiatric ward is surrounded by the green, which can be well viewed through big full-glass windows, just as in a luxurious resort. When a cancer patient enters into a radiation therapy room, the lighting changes into the color of his/her choice and the soothing pieces of Mozart music starts to play. To every cancer patient who comes to the chemotherapy room. IPad is provided and the patient can read health tips customized to him/her or spend the 2-3 hours of injection watching TV dramas or movies. Also while waiting time, patients may make use of the IPad to fill in the survey which checks for his/her mental distress, and if it shows high score, they will be refered to the psychiatric doctors automatically

The motto of this hospital is "Patient First-ism". It may sourd a little old-fashioned and too

y outright. However, it is a firm medical ideology which dictates to give patients all they want. The leader of this extraordinary hospital is the CEO& s Chairman, Wang Jun Lee, a 47-year-old youthful doctor.

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Red light is on in a radiation therapy room where cancer patients receive treatment. If a patient prefers the color blue, it turns into blue. When a patient touches his/her 'RFID card' on the sensor at the entrance of the room, lighting he/she chose in advance turns on. Music of his/her choice also runs for 30 minutes, during the treatment. on a monitor on the wall, pictures of his/her selection are showing. CEO & Chairman of Myong Ji Hospital, Wang Jun Lee, is sitting on the radiation therapy table. He introduced a holistic care environment individually customized to different needs of patients, for the first time in Korea.

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He has grown into a ‘hospital magnate’ in charge of a total of 1,500 beds in five hospitals including a university medical center, two community based general hospital in each metropolitan city and distant rural area, and two nursing homes, in only 13years of running hospitals career. He is creating a new wave and sensation in Korea's hospitals.

He became a publisher of medical newspaper "Korean doctors weekly at the age of 28, the youngest ever general hospital director in Korea at 34, and the youngest-even university hospital CEO & Chairman at 45 All his records and titles make him look like a No.l medical school graduate expert surgeon who has been on the up and up for all his life.

However, he had gone through rough and rugged paths of life, including imprisonment, and his outstanding career has been built up from scratch.

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SNU graduate surgeon Once imprisoned for leading

democratization student movement Onee jobless during the'98 Asian

financial crisis period

 

After taking over a debt-ridden hospital Working nighttime at ER for 100 days

Until the hospital got back on the track Was paid only $800 a month

In only 13 years of running hospitals Currently in charge of 5 hospitals and

1,500 beds Now known as a hospital magnate

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◆ A Golden Boy of the 1970s

He was born and grew up in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province. He was top in the Province in both the national high school entrance exam and the national college entrance exam. While overseas travel was banned in Korea, he was sent to Japan, as a Korean delegate in an international students' debate forum. He learned to play the violin from an early age and was already an excellent violinist in times when few Koreans were exposed to this instrument. His father was a private practice physician. Like other local clinics at that time, the third floor over the clinic was the family's home. Observing his father's life closely, he found the life of a doctor was 'imprisonmenť. When he was leaving home to go to school and coming back, his father was always there caring patients. Seeing his father, he naturally absorbed, from an early age, the patterns of hospital operation such as "As persimmons ripen red, face of doctors darken.", (meaning that when Thanksgiving Day approaches, there are few patients.) or "when it rains, there are few patients."

 

◆ Student Activist → Wanted Criminal → Imprisonment

The last challenge of the golden boy of the countryside seemed to be mingling well with Seoul native students after entering Seoul National University medical school.

However, the time he was living in, did not leave him only as an medical orchestra member. Korea was going through turbulence of pro-democratic movement. He joined a underground book club and was flooded with social science books. He volunteered to teach a night school for the poor, which led to greater thirst for social movement. At last, he went to an anti-capitalism student club to join but was rejected. The reason was simple. His father was a doctor, he was a well-off medical student, and his academic performance was too good. To overcome these three disadvantages', he rushed into the political and social activities even more enthusiastically. As a result, he became one of 'central figures' of the student movement organization in Seoul National University.

But, his political activity ended up in his imprisonment for violating the National Security Law. He caught tuberculosis on the run escape from the police search instruction, and the disease left a badge of the nadir experience on his chest. He says, only then, I could depart from the obsession with being No.l". "Through that experience I learned how to mingle and get along with people from various backgrounds.", he added. "By being involved in social activities of student movement, I learned how to manage an ors organization, how to plan well, and how to push forward against the obstacles.", says he.

 

◆ 'The Korean Doctors Weekly', Publishing Newspaper

 By the time he was about to graduate medical school after nine years of medical school life, he launched his own social movement, by issuing newspaper. As soon as grasping the medical license, he gathered 350 young doctors and medical students, and raised $50,000 for investment in launching the newspaper company, utilizing his experience as an organizing director of the student movement. Then, he published the first issue of the newspaper in 1992 under the motto "Reflection and Reform". While he was an intern and resident in training hospital, he spared sleep at nights to write and fill the space of the newspaper. He even participated in the production process of MBC s medical drama “General Hospital" . The main

character of the drama, a surgeon, was created based on him. Now, "The Korean Doctor's Weekly" is one of major professional newspapers in the medical fields, issuing 40pages every week. The founding members of the newspaper are now medical professors and practitioners, active leaders of Korea's medicine.

 

◆ An Expert Surgeon Becomes Jobless

 When he was a fourth-year resident, he got married. Current Mayor of Incheon Metropolitan City Young-gil Son, member of the parliament Hee-ryong Won, lawyer Jung-woo Lee, his fellow student movement activists back at college days, were best men at his wedding. After earning his certification as a surgical specialist in 1997, he became jobless. The hospital that he was supposed to work for fell in financial difficulties because of the '1997 Asia Financial Crisis' and eliminated the post as a chief surgeon. No hospital wanted him. Most hospitals thought he was too 'special' for them. He was a jobless medical specialist for months. one day it was my first daughter's birthday, and I had no money, I felt so sorry for myself as well as for my family. It was like the coldest winter of my life but my tears were burning." says he. But, there came an opportunity at the dead-end. He was offered to take over a bankrupt hospital. He, with no experience of running even a small clinic, challenged the adventure.

 

◆ Night Duty for 100 Days

The hospital he was to take over was fraught with troubles, including labor dispute incompetent medical staff, and huge number of debts. Since it was right after the 1997 financial crisis, economic status was terrible. He asked for financial support for the acquisition of the hospital to his father but his father rejected it, saying I am a breadwinner of my own family so I cannot take such a risk."

He took on the huge existing debt and got a bank loan using the hospital building as collateral to open the hospital. He was the youngest-ever general hospital CEO in Korea but the fame was built on a huge debt. He s named the hospital Incheon Sarang(Love) Hospital" and worked night duties for 100 days, eating and sleeping in an admission room. He really wanted to establish a hospital which puts patients first, even though he had nothing but enthusiasm. He took out patient program note', that he wrote down when he was a resident, dreaming of becoming a hospital CEO someday. He declared to work for minimum wage until the hospital normalizes. His monthly pay was only $800, the same with that of a cleaning staff. He persuaded competent young doctors to take part in "The Korean Doctor' s Weekly as founding members. He put in expensive high- tech medical equipment. Then, more patients came to his hospital and it began to stand on its own feet.

 

Setting up Special Unit for HINI Patients.. Brought a Nationwide Reputation

  

CEO & Chairman Wang Jun Lee is standing in "Hybrid Neurovascular Center where MRI imaging, interventional operation, and brain surgery units are conducted at one place. This is an unprecedented system in Asia. The natural scene behind him is called "Paradise" by an American photographer.

◆ A fatal CPR

As they say that the good comes with the bad, and just as the hospital started to revitalize, a labor strike took place. The lobby turned into a bedlam crowded with workers in red headbands and sound of gongs they made.

Patients left and the hospital went vacant. As a student, he proclaimed the power of workers' but now, he had to resolve things with the labors.

 

Amidst the turmoil, he got an emergency call of a patient with heart failure. He flew' up the stairs. The use of the defibrillator was fruitless. He tried the maximum voltage of the defibrillator but to no avail. He stopped CPR for a moment and looked up in the air. A scene of the patienť s family protesting next to the coffin overlapped on another scene of the workers on strike. It was obvious that a rumor will be spread so fast that his hospital killed a patient because of a labor dispute. "Is this the end of my endeavor…." He gripped the defibrillator paddle for the last time. When he pushed the button, a miracle occurred. The patient' s heart started to beat again. Getting out the CPR room, his face was glowing with enormous energy. His energy overpowered the labor union and brought them to the negotiating table. Finally, the strike came to an end. Incheon Sarang Hospital with 134Th beds in initial stage has now grown up to a decent general hospital with 400 patient beds and over $50 million annual revenue.

 

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Taking over a financially-strapped

university hospital

Making it grow by 22% within 2 years

Setting up cancer center emergency

medical center

 

President of Migeant Workers Health Association

Member of Rotary Club …

"Have interest in everything"

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◆ Becoming a Doctor Who Treats Hospitals

 

In 2009, he launched a new project. The financially-strapped Myong Ji Hospital was put on the market. Since it was a university hospital, big companies got interested in it.

But seeing no clear ways to solve the R financial difficulties, all of them turned back.

He, now confident in running a general hospital, came in. He did it in the Wang Jun Lee's' way, to take on a huge debt and hand over a hospital. He says "In name., I was the youngest-ever CEO of university hospital but in substance, if I failed to make the hospital get on the right track, I could have lost Incheon Sarang Hospital as well." For the first 100 days of newly opening MyongJi Hospital, he held a meeting at 7 o‘clock in the morning everyday and had a face-to-face talk with all the 1,000 staff members of the hospital. When he spotted a problem, he immediately enforced a resolution for it.

Then, the hospital started to revitalize. The revenue, $72 million before his taking over, soared to mark $88 million. It was 22% growth within just two years. All the profit was put into setting up the Cancer Center and the Emergency Medical Center. He took over another debt-stricken hospital in Jecheon, North Chunchung Province, and newly opened it as Jecheon Myong Ji Hospital with 200 beds, this year. Within only two months, all beds of the hospital got occupied. becoming a hot issue of the medical fields.

Usually, pediatric department is the weakest at hospitals outside the metropolitan area but he placed a large number of specialists at the pediatric department of Jecheon MyongJi Hospital and child patients and their parents crowd in the hospital.

 

◆ HIN1, Turning a Crisis into an Opportunity

 

Everyone cast doubt on this somewhat young doctor s leadership as a hospital CEO.

Peo talked in whispers that he bit off more as than he could chew, since he had been only a head of small hospital. Then, HINI started to spread. There were tons of fever and cough patients. However, hospitals were reluctant to treat those patients because if they were once recognized as a hospital for HINI treatment, the number of patients with other symptoms would decrease and it would cause harm to existing cancer patients. But he opened a HINI Confront-Treatment Center" and saw patients around the clock. Then, HINI patients gathered in flocks to MyongJi Hospital and they were recovered. This gave a nationwide reputation to MyongJi Hospital and the ranking of Kwandong University Medical School, which was 37th among 41medical schools in Korea, soared. Since then, the atmosphere of the hospital completely changed.

 

 

◆ From Migrant workers to Entrepreneur of Big Companies

Currently, he is the President of 'Korea Migrant Health Association. Its beginning was his experience of volunteer work at an migrant workers' medical office run by a church, when he was a trainee of general surgery. All they could do was to just give some pills for mild symptoms and say Please go to the bigger hospital for more serious symptoms. He felt helpless about the reality, so he imagined to organize a medical association with migrant workers' mutual aid union. It was a kind of private insurance system with micro premium. When a migrant worker get treatment at the hospital, the hospital allow some of the fee off, the mutual aid union bears part of the fee, and the worker himself pays the rest. He visited clinics and hospitals around Korea in person to persuade them to participate in the movement, so finally near 400 hospitals joined the association. In early 2000s, the membership card of this migrant worker s mutual medical aid union was the only ID card for unregistered migrant workers. Recently, he launched a project of building a charity hospital in Nepal and a project of bringing young doctors from underdeveloped countries and teaching them advanced medical techniques.

 

 

◆ Innovation and Devotion for Patients

Asked a motto, he answered "Getting newer everyday and moving forward every step." The same goes for his hospitals as well.

"Innovation is creative but not long-lasting and devotion is noble but stubborn some times. At first glance, those two look contradictory and impossible to stand together but, I believe that innovation and devotion must go together. To materialize the innovation, continuous devotion is necessary and to make the devotion worthwhile, the innovation is essential."

Hospital for patients!

ER like an amusement park, all the medical staff has to put themselves in patients' shoes

He has looked around 300 hospitals around the world, including Haevard affiliated Hospitals, Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland clinic in USA, Raffles Hospital in Singapore, and Kameda Hospital in Japan etc. In this process, his got new ideas, developed them and introduced a variety of programs customized to Korean hospitals

 

1. Patient Empathy Center & Innovation Office

The center changes the hospital into a place comfortable for patients, with patients themselves participation. In the course, the center introduced 'silent night' program which helps in-patients' good sleep. Under the motto of 'Pain is the 2nd Emergency', the center operates a special team to check and alleviate patients pain immediaterý.

 

 

2. Children ER, like an Amusement Park

The entrance to the ER looks like 'Alien E.T and the registration desk is an aquarium. When child patients enter the ER after registration, they lie on a bed decorated like houses in fairy tales. This makes child patients to think ER as a place to go to play, rather than as a scary place.

 

 

3. Psychiatric Ward like a Resort

Not all psychiatric wards are somber with barred windows. Psychiatric ward of MyongJi Hospital has comfortable sofas, a fireplace, and a green garden stretched out of a full-glass window. This is a careful concern for patients to have better treatment result and their families not to feel guilty about keeping patient back in closed psychiatric ward.

 

4. Integrative Cancer Healing Center for Holistic Care

The center provides all the service necessary for cancer patients, from diagnosis to completion of treatment.

Nutritional care, appearance management, psychological intervention, response to urgencies, and even spiritual support for cancer patients are all offered by the hospital. For this purpose, not only physicians and specialists but also art therapists, appearance coordinators, and social workers work together at the center.

 

5. "Patients' Shoes" Program, Where Doctors Put Themselves in Patients Shoes

In this program, doctors experience in m person all the processes that patients have to go through at the hospital, from registration, consultation, examination, payment, to admission. They take out blood and hold IV on them. The program was designed to find out what inconveniences patients face at the hospital and every medical staff member has to fulfill the program at least once.

 

6. Hospital Concert like the "Korea Singing Contesť

A concert where professional musicians play music and the audience just sits and listens is not welcomed here. Patients, their families, and local residents all come to the hospital and enjoy themselves singing and dancing. Singing contests have been held at the hospital and it is now a local festival with tons of applications for participation.

 

7. Changing the Treatment Environment for Each Patients

When a cancer patient lies on a radiation therapy table, the lighting turns into his/her favorite color and music of his/her choice starts to run. on a big monitor on the wall of the examination room, where the patient s gaze his directed to, the patient's family picture, which was uploaded beforchand, is on.

 

8. Creating PHR for Each Patient

A PHRI account of a cancer patient is created on-line and all the results of examinations and medical records are preserved here. When the patient puts in his/her personal preferences here, they are reflected in the treatment environment for him/her. When a patient does a self-check of his/her stress level and puts the result on-line, he/she can get a counseling based on it.

 

9. Hybrid Center for one-stop Diagnosis and Treatment of Brain Diseases

Usually, brain patients have to go around a MRI room, a cerebral angiography room, neurosurgeon' s office, and an operating room for intervention and surgery.

Depending on which doctor he meets, the method of treatment varies. Against this backdrop, Myong Ji Hospital created an integrated treatment system where patients go through MRI, neurointervention and neurovascular surgery at one place.

 

10. Multi-cultural Counseling Center Connecting Treatment and Tutoring

The center takes care of growth and health of children of migrant women and helps the children with their study. Children whose mothers are not fluent in Korean usually have problem with adapting to school life, which leads to academic n underachievement. Considering this MyungJi Hospital launched a counseling & tutoring program with a volunteer team of Sookmyung Women' s University.

 

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