The number of babies born in 2025 rose for a second consecutive year, climbing 6.8% from the previous year to 254,500. Conversely, the proportion of births to mothers aged 35 and older reached 37.3%, the highest since relevant statistics were first compiled in 1981. Because advanced maternal age increases the risk of premature birth and low birth weight, the quality of care in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) remains a critical issue.
Against this backdrop, CHA Medical Group announced on July 6 that three of its institutions—CHA Gangnam Medical Center, CHA Bundang Medical Center, and CHA Ilsan Medical Center, all affiliated with CHA University—received the highest rating of Grade 1 in the 2025 (fourth) neonatal intensive care unit adequacy assessment. Conducted by the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA), which released the results on June 30, the evaluation covered 83 institutions nationwide, including 46 tertiary general hospitals and 37 general hospitals that billed for NICU inpatient fees between January and June of last year. The overall average composite score stood at 89.87 points, with 60 institutions (72.3%) achieving Grade 1.
Assessment Based on Eight Performance Indicators
The assessment evaluated hospitals across eight performance indicators. These included three structural measures (the number of NICU patients per dedicated specialist and per nurse, the availability of required cooperative clinical departments, and the securing of a minimum number of beds), four process measures (the implementation rate of severity assessments, the proportion of hospitals operating a nutrition support team, the completion rate of neonatal resuscitation training, and the implementation rate of surveillance cultures for outborn newborns), and one outcome measure (the NICU readmission rate within 48 hours).
In their promotional materials, the three CHA hospitals highlighted five clinical process items: severity assessments, total parenteral nutrition (TPN) collaborative care, NICU rounding rates, neonatal resuscitation training, and surveillance cultures. However, HIRA’s official process metrics total four; the TPN collaboration rate and NICU rounding rate are actually evaluated as sub-items under the "proportion operating a nutrition support team" category.
Notably, all three CHA institutions posted a perfect 0% for their 48-hour NICU readmission rate. HIRA confirmed that across all 83 evaluated institutions nationwide, the total number of readmissions during this fourth assessment round was zero.
According to hospital data, CHA Gangnam Medical Center maintained 3.09 patients per dedicated neonatal subspecialist, safely below the national average of 7.68 patients. Its score for required cooperative clinical departments stood at 50.0%, outperforming the 31.1% average for its hospital category. CHA Bundang Medical Center recorded a perfect 100% for both its severity assessment implementation rate and its cooperative clinical departments indicator, which covers specialized fields like pediatric surgery and pediatric cardiology. Meanwhile, CHA Ilsan Medical Center achieved 100% scores across three categories: severity assessment implementation, neonatal resuscitation training completion, and surveillance culture implementation for outborn newborns.
Sixty of 83 Evaluated Institutions Achieve Grade 1
With these results, CHA Gangnam Medical Center and CHA Bundang Medical Center have maintained their Grade 1 status for four consecutive rounds since the assessment's inception in 2018. CHA Ilsan Medical Center, which opened its doors in 2020, has secured Grade 1 for three consecutive rounds, representing every assessment period since its establishment.
Out of the 83 institutions evaluated, 60 earned Grade 1. Grade 2 was awarded to 16 institutions, Grade 3 to three, Grade 4 to one, and Grade 5 to three hospitals. The names of institutions rated Grade 2 or lower can be reviewed by facility on HIRA’s official hospital evaluation information website.
While Grade 1 institutions were represented across all regions nationwide, a significant concentration was observed in the capital region, with 41 top-tier facilities located in greater Seoul (23 in Seoul and 18 in Gyeonggi Province). All 83 institutions included in this assessment received a finalized grade.
The HIRA report also highlighted significant nationwide improvements in medical staffing. When calculated based on the number of beds to allow for historical comparison, the number of NICU beds per dedicated specialist dropped significantly to 6.77 in this fourth assessment, down from 14.91 during the inaugural 2018 review. Over the same period, the number of beds per nurse also improved, declining from 0.83 to 0.59, signaling a stronger nationwide infrastructure for vulnerable newborns.
