Getting To Know Our Providers - Dr. John Kim
Meet Dr. Yoon Hang "John" Kim, Chief Wellness Officer at Memorial Hospital!
Featured Speaker:
Yoon Hang “John” Kim, MD
Yoon Hang “John” Kim, MD is a Chief Wellness Officer. Transcription:
Getting To Know Our Providers - Dr. John Kim
Dr. Yoon Hang Kim: Hi. My name is Yoon Hang Kim. I'm a physician and I work for Memorial Hospital in Carthage, Illinois. My title is Chief Wellness Officer, but I am in the beginnings of launching integrative medicine, functional medicine and medical acupuncture programs at Memorial Hospital.
I've always wanted to pursue an integration of eastern and western medicine. And even when I was about seven, browsing my dad's medical texts, I saw a chapter saying that how wonderful would it be if we could combine the strength of Korean medicine and Western medicine. So, that kind of made an impact. And then, I had a martial arts teacher who used to say that our muscles don't have Korean, American, Eastern, Western, so that integration of fighting system in his opinion would come. And of course, that did happen in the form of Ultimate Fighting Championship for those people who follow these things. And that means that you have very little rules and you figure out what works, what doesn't work in the safety of the ring.
Now in medicine, we had a parallel development, a little bit trailing that my mentor, Dr. Andrew, Weil, came up with the idea of integrative medicine and that was the same idea that why don't we combine the strength of the Eastern and other ways of healing with strength of western medicine. And I got attracted by it and I was very fortunate to be able to study with Dr. Andrew Weil in person for two years in Tucson at the University of Arizona Hospital.
I was faded to go there because I found out about Memorial when I was looking for my next position from the last position. And then at that time, it just didn't sound as appealing. And I did end up in Champaign area and then I saw the listing again. I said, "Oh, Quincy's not that far from Champaign. I can get there in three hours." And so, I contacted Ada, the president, and we were going back and forth an email. And I just really loved the CEO's, Ms. Ada's, philosophy. Her way of operating is very similar to how I would operate before as a leader, which is more of a servant leadership where the leader is focusing on how to make it easier, how can the leaders remove the obstacles or how can the leaders moderate the fact that we are working for an organization and have people inspired and have the providers feel like we're working for a system that cares for us. The team provides the care, not just me. And it begins with working for the best system where the leader is in touch and practicing servant leadership and inspiring the team. So, it begins there, because medicine is not a one-person sport. It's really a team sport.
The biggest thing about integrative medicine is that I can't do all the work. I can't just write a prescription and say, "Here, take it." A study showed that even, in that case, patients listen to doctors maybe about 50% of the time. So in integrative medicine, functional medicine, doing medical acupuncture, it really requires patients to participate. So, I say the big difference is that in conventional medicine, you can work with conscripts. Integrative medicine has to work with volunteers who want to get better, so that we can form a healing partnership.
The community really is very, very impressive because Carthage is situated on the Chicago, Kansas City Expressway. And so, it's not just Carthage, but you can reach out to Hamilton across the state from Keokuk, as well as McComb, as well as South Quincy. So, it's really an amazing community. And I'm getting to know the community better. I'm looking forward to being invited to the civic organizations and also attending the community theater, so that I will get to know more people.
You know, most of my time is spent actually studying. I'm either researching on patients that I don't have the time to research during clinic time or I read a lot. So, I read about current events, macroeconomics and how all those things fit into each other. My spouse and I are each other's best friends. I think she has six pets, so we also spend a lot of time with our pets. And I also have friends who are very close to me and I try to check in with them on a daily basis, as well as my son who's 21 and in Air Force RTC, but he doesn't need me as much, which I think is good at 21.
So, I think that the biggest thing, again, is the culture that the CEO of Memorial Carthage Hospital, Ada, has been able to implement and it's really amazing. People are really amazing. The fact that we are small, I think, makes it that we are more responsive. I'm seeing the benefits of being smaller and being more nimble as an organization and as a community.
Getting To Know Our Providers - Dr. John Kim
Dr. Yoon Hang Kim: Hi. My name is Yoon Hang Kim. I'm a physician and I work for Memorial Hospital in Carthage, Illinois. My title is Chief Wellness Officer, but I am in the beginnings of launching integrative medicine, functional medicine and medical acupuncture programs at Memorial Hospital.
I've always wanted to pursue an integration of eastern and western medicine. And even when I was about seven, browsing my dad's medical texts, I saw a chapter saying that how wonderful would it be if we could combine the strength of Korean medicine and Western medicine. So, that kind of made an impact. And then, I had a martial arts teacher who used to say that our muscles don't have Korean, American, Eastern, Western, so that integration of fighting system in his opinion would come. And of course, that did happen in the form of Ultimate Fighting Championship for those people who follow these things. And that means that you have very little rules and you figure out what works, what doesn't work in the safety of the ring.
Now in medicine, we had a parallel development, a little bit trailing that my mentor, Dr. Andrew, Weil, came up with the idea of integrative medicine and that was the same idea that why don't we combine the strength of the Eastern and other ways of healing with strength of western medicine. And I got attracted by it and I was very fortunate to be able to study with Dr. Andrew Weil in person for two years in Tucson at the University of Arizona Hospital.
I was faded to go there because I found out about Memorial when I was looking for my next position from the last position. And then at that time, it just didn't sound as appealing. And I did end up in Champaign area and then I saw the listing again. I said, "Oh, Quincy's not that far from Champaign. I can get there in three hours." And so, I contacted Ada, the president, and we were going back and forth an email. And I just really loved the CEO's, Ms. Ada's, philosophy. Her way of operating is very similar to how I would operate before as a leader, which is more of a servant leadership where the leader is focusing on how to make it easier, how can the leaders remove the obstacles or how can the leaders moderate the fact that we are working for an organization and have people inspired and have the providers feel like we're working for a system that cares for us. The team provides the care, not just me. And it begins with working for the best system where the leader is in touch and practicing servant leadership and inspiring the team. So, it begins there, because medicine is not a one-person sport. It's really a team sport.
The biggest thing about integrative medicine is that I can't do all the work. I can't just write a prescription and say, "Here, take it." A study showed that even, in that case, patients listen to doctors maybe about 50% of the time. So in integrative medicine, functional medicine, doing medical acupuncture, it really requires patients to participate. So, I say the big difference is that in conventional medicine, you can work with conscripts. Integrative medicine has to work with volunteers who want to get better, so that we can form a healing partnership.
The community really is very, very impressive because Carthage is situated on the Chicago, Kansas City Expressway. And so, it's not just Carthage, but you can reach out to Hamilton across the state from Keokuk, as well as McComb, as well as South Quincy. So, it's really an amazing community. And I'm getting to know the community better. I'm looking forward to being invited to the civic organizations and also attending the community theater, so that I will get to know more people.
You know, most of my time is spent actually studying. I'm either researching on patients that I don't have the time to research during clinic time or I read a lot. So, I read about current events, macroeconomics and how all those things fit into each other. My spouse and I are each other's best friends. I think she has six pets, so we also spend a lot of time with our pets. And I also have friends who are very close to me and I try to check in with them on a daily basis, as well as my son who's 21 and in Air Force RTC, but he doesn't need me as much, which I think is good at 21.
So, I think that the biggest thing, again, is the culture that the CEO of Memorial Carthage Hospital, Ada, has been able to implement and it's really amazing. People are really amazing. The fact that we are small, I think, makes it that we are more responsive. I'm seeing the benefits of being smaller and being more nimble as an organization and as a community.