A hospital escort decision is more than an hourly-rate comparison
A recurring Korean outpatient visit can occupy much more family time than the consultation itself. The realistic window may include travel to meet the patient, the trip to and from the hospital, check-in, testing, waiting, consultation, payment and a pharmacy stop. A service quote can also include a minimum booking period, started overtime blocks, a call-out charge, transport, parking, membership fees and cancellation charges.
This calculator places two actual written service quotes and family accompaniment on the same monthly visit plan. It separates immediate cash spending from the economic value of family time, reports the time recovered by using a service and calculates three break-even measures. It does not invent a nationwide Korean market price, rate a provider or decide whether a public program will accept a booking.
Korea-based planning scope
All actual price fields intentionally start at KRW 0. The explicit synthetic-example button demonstrates the arithmetic only and is not a quote or a market-rate claim. Use the current provider contract, municipal-program confirmation, appointment timeline, payroll record and workplace leave policy as the controlling inputs.
Why the calculator separates cash cost and economic cost
Family cash cost
Cash cost includes transport, parking, meals and other direct visit spending. It also includes pay actually lost during unpaid-work minutes. Paid leave does not reduce that day’s pay, so it does not enter the cash result.
Family economic cost
Economic cost adds the value of every family escort hour to direct spending. Unpaid-work loss is already represented inside that total time value, so the model does not add it a second time. Paid leave and personal time receive the same user-entered hourly value.
Neither view is the only correct view. A household with a tight monthly cash budget may focus first on cash spending. A household trying to preserve leave, avoid work disruption or distribute care fairly may give more weight to economic cost and recovered hours. The hourly value is a decision input, not a statutory Korean wage, legal damage amount or guaranteed value of unused leave.
Build one matched appointment scope before entering prices
Input groups and primary evidence for the Korea hospital escort comparison| Input group | What to enter | Primary evidence | Common omission |
|---|
| Monthly plan | Completed and cancelled bookings | Hospital messages and testing schedule | Follow-up and prescription visits |
| Shared time | One-way travel and hospital stay | Recent actual departure and return times | Payment, pharmacy and testing-room moves |
| Service quote | Base, included, overtime, other, monthly and cancellation fees | Written quote and service agreement | Started-block rounding and transport responsibility |
| Family cash | Transport, parking, other spending and unpaid time | Receipts, payroll and attendance records | Extra travel from work or home to the patient |
| Family time value | Decision value for every escort hour | Pay records and value of displaced work or personal time | Treating paid leave as valueless |
The meeting point matters
A service may bill from the time its escort reaches the agreed meeting point. A family member may first travel from work to the patient, then follow the same patient itinerary. The calculator therefore uses one shared patient itinerary and a separate family extra round trip. Do not put the same family travel minutes into both fields.
Service-fee and family-cost formulas
Service path
- Scheduled minutes equal two one-way trips plus the hospital stay.
- Overtime minutes equal scheduled minutes minus included minutes, with a floor of zero.
- Overtime blocks round a started block upward with the ceiling function.
- Per-visit cost equals base fee, overtime fee and visit-specific other cost.
- Monthly cost adds completed visits, the monthly fixed fee and cancelled-booking charges.
Family path
- Total minutes add the family extra round trip to the shared patient itinerary.
- Direct cost adds transport, parking, meals and other visit spending.
- Cash cost adds unpaid-work loss to direct cost.
- Economic cost adds the value of all family minutes to direct cost.
- Annual figures multiply the current monthly scenario by twelve without forecasting price changes.
Overtime block boundaries
If a 180-minute appointment is fully included, the number of overtime blocks is zero. If only 179 minutes are included and the block size is 30 minutes, one overtime block begins. If 149 minutes are included, the 31 overtime minutes become two blocks. If the provider bills exact minutes, enter a one-minute block and the confirmed per-minute charge.
Worked synthetic example with identical Korean and English results
The demonstration uses four completed visits and one cancelled booking per month. One-way patient travel is 25 minutes, the hospital stay is 130 minutes and the family member has an additional 40-minute round trip. The service itinerary is therefore 180 minutes and total family time is 220 minutes per visit.
Synthetic Service A
The base fee is KRW 30,000 with 120 minutes included. Each started 30-minute overtime block is KRW 7,000, visit-specific other cost is KRW 12,000, the monthly fee is KRW 5,000 and one cancellation is KRW 10,000. Two overtime blocks produce KRW 56,000 per visit and KRW 239,000 per month.
Synthetic Service B
The base fee is KRW 40,000 with 180 minutes included. There is no visit-specific or monthly fee, and one cancellation is KRW 20,000. There is no overtime block, so the result is KRW 40,000 per visit and KRW 180,000 per month.
Family direct spending is KRW 12,000 transport, KRW 5,000 parking and KRW 3,000 other cost per visit. The hourly time value is KRW 30,000, with 60 unpaid-work minutes and 90 paid-leave minutes per visit. Monthly direct spending is KRW 80,000, unpaid-work loss is KRW 120,000 and the value of all 14 hours 40 minutes is KRW 440,000.
Synthetic Korean hospital escort and family cost comparison| Option | Per visit | Monthly cash | Monthly economic | Annual comparison |
|---|
| Service A | KRW 56,000 | KRW 239,000 | KRW 239,000 | KRW 2,868,000 |
| ★ Service B | KRW 40,000 | KRW 180,000 | KRW 180,000 | KRW 2,160,000 |
| Family accompaniment | KRW 130,000 | KRW 200,000 | KRW 520,000 | KRW 6,240,000 |
How to read the example
Service B is KRW 20,000 below family cash cost and KRW 340,000 below family economic cost per month. It recovers 14 hours 40 minutes of family time and six paid-leave hours per month. The break-even family hourly value is approximately KRW 6,818.18, and at the entered KRW 30,000 hourly value the break-even total family time is 50 minutes per visit. These are model outputs for the synthetic inputs, not provider prices.
The three break-even results answer different questions
Hourly time value
This is the family hourly value at which the lowest confirmed service and family economic cost are equal. It helps test whether the decision depends on a very high or very low valuation of time.
Minutes per visit
At the current hourly value and number of visits, this is the total family time per visit at which the paths tie. Compare it with the realistic patient itinerary plus the family extra trip.
Visits per month
This shows how many completed visits are needed for per-visit savings to absorb monthly and entered cancellation charges. It assumes the current quote and cancellation scenario remain unchanged.
A result can be unavailable when there is no confirmed quote, no visit time, no hourly value or no per-visit service advantage. Unavailable is more honest than dividing by zero or manufacturing a recommendation from incomplete inputs.
Municipal and private service terms are not interchangeable
Korean local-government programs demonstrate why the calculator has no universal default. The Seoul Metropolitan Government policy archive describes a KRW 5,000 hourly program, a monthly ten-use and annual 200-hour framework introduced in 2025, and up to 48 free uses for a confirmed income group. A 2026 Seoul notice recruits an operator under the renamed one-person-household accompaniment service. Current reservation rules must still be checked directly.
The current Gyeonggi Province page describes KRW 5,000 for three hours for an in-jurisdiction resident, KRW 5,000 for one hour for an out-of-jurisdiction resident and KRW 2,500 after an extra 30 minutes. It also states that the user pays transport. Participating cities, practical one-person-household equivalents, operating hours and application channels are separate conditions.
When a confirmed zero-price service is valid
If the municipality has confirmed the patient’s eligibility, remaining free uses, booking availability and all separate costs, a quote can be marked confirmed with KRW 0 price fields. If eligibility or the booking is still pending, leave the confirmation box clear. The calculation accepts a confirmed free option but does not make the eligibility decision.
Contract, replacement and accident questions belong in the comparison
Match the service scope
- State the exact meeting and end points.
- List check-in, test-room movement, consultation attendance, payment and pharmacy tasks.
- Confirm whether a vehicle is supplied and who pays fares, tolls and parking.
- Ask how partial overtime blocks and maximum waiting time are handled.
Check failure scenarios
- Separate hospital schedule changes from user cancellations.
- Confirm replacement staff and the latest delay-notification time.
- Read liability cover, exclusions, limits and claim evidence.
- Write the emergency contact order and hospital escalation process.
The roadmap’s separate accident-and-coverage-gap idea is intentionally merged into this checklist instead of creating a competing calculator. A checked box records that the question was reviewed. It does not certify the provider, guarantee recovery or calculate a legal compensation amount.
Medical-act and health-information boundaries under Korean law
Medical Service Act Article 27
The Korean National Law Information Center OPEN API was checked on September 1, 2026. Medical Service Act ID 001788, current MST 285327, effective April 7, 2026, Article 27 restricts unlicensed medical acts. Escort, mobility assistance, check-in and payment are not a blank authorization to administer medication, perform a procedure or make a clinical decision. Confirm each requested task with the hospital and provider. An urgent or unstable condition calls for medical staff and 119, not a cost calculation.
Personal Information Protection Act Articles 15 and 23
Personal Information Protection Act ID 011357, current MST 270351, effective October 2, 2025, Article 15 addresses collection and use grounds and notice items. Article 23 restricts processing of sensitive information, including health information. Ask what information is collected, why it is needed, who receives it, how long it is retained, how deletion works and whether substitute staff or partners receive it. The calculator does not decide a provider’s legal compliance.
Paid leave and unpaid time for a working family member
Labor Standards Act ID 001872, current MST 283457, effective August 20, 2026, Article 60 governs annual paid leave. This calculator does not determine leave entitlement, approval, timing changes, ordinary or average wage, unused-leave payment, family-care leave or a workplace’s half-day and hourly-leave rules. Enter only the minutes supported by the actual payroll and attendance treatment.
Paid-leave minutes do not enter cash loss because pay is not reduced for those minutes. They remain part of total time value because using leave now can displace rest, another appointment or future family time. Unpaid minutes enter cash loss and are also part of total time, but economic cost counts the underlying time only once.
Allocation safeguard
If unpaid and paid-leave minutes together exceed total family time, the model applies unpaid minutes first and limits paid leave to the remaining time. This is a mathematical safeguard, not an employment-law priority rule. Correct the inputs when the warning appears.
Practical decision scenarios
Visits rise from once to four times a month
A service with a monthly fee can look expensive at one visit, while repeated family time can dominate at four visits. Change the visit count without changing the matched scope, then review the visit-count break-even and recovered hours.
Siblings share money but not time equally
The equal-share result is only a discussion reference. Start with total household cost, then create a separate agreement for who accompanies the patient, who pays transport and whether a family member contributing more time pays less cash.
Testing makes waiting time volatile
Run a short-day and long-day scenario rather than trusting one average. Overtime blocks can create a step change in service price, while every additional minute changes family time continuously.
A municipal free-service decision is pending
Leave the KRW 0 quote unconfirmed and compare the private quotes with family accompaniment first. After eligibility and booking are confirmed, mark the municipal option confirmed and rerun the same appointment scope.
Step-by-step use
- List completed visits and realistically cancellable bookings for one month.
- Use recent records for one-way patient travel, hospital stay and family extra travel.
- Enter the same base, included, overtime, visit-specific, monthly and cancellation fields for Services A and B.
- Mark a service confirmed only after receiving the price and scope in writing.
- Enter family transport, parking, other spending, hourly value, unpaid minutes and paid-leave minutes.
- Compare monthly cash cost with economic cost before reading the winner statement.
- Review the hourly, duration and visit-count break-even values and recovered family hours.
- Resolve every missing scope, cancellation, replacement, accident, privacy and non-medical task check before booking.
Limits and cautions
- The calculator does not rate provider qualifications, escort experience, quality, availability or patient suitability.
- It does not decide medical acts, medical agency, emergency severity or safe discharge.
- It does not predict accidents, compensation, insurance proceeds, refund rights or dispute outcomes.
- Family hourly value is a scenario, not statutory pay, work-loss damages or a tax amount.
- Municipal eligibility, price, free-use count and operating hours must be rechecked for the place and booking date.
- The annual result is the current month multiplied by twelve, without forecasting price increases, hospital closures or schedule changes.
- Hospital instructions and patient safety override the financial result whenever accompaniment or post-test supervision is medically required.
Frequently asked questions
Can a confirmed service cost KRW 0
Yes, after the public program confirms eligibility, remaining free uses, booking availability and every separate charge. Do not confirm an expected free service while review or booking is pending.
Why does paid leave still have an economic value
Paid leave does not reduce the day’s cash pay, but using it for a hospital visit can displace rest, another appointment or later family time. The model therefore excludes it from cash loss and includes it in total time value.
Should remote-work accompaniment use a zero hourly value
Unpaid minutes may be zero if pay is not reduced. The hourly time value can still represent work that must be completed later, lost concentration or personal time. Use zero only when that is the household’s intended decision assumption.
What if Services A and B include different tasks
Do not rank them yet. Send both providers the same meeting point, end point, check-in, consultation, payment, pharmacy, transport and overtime description. Treat the result as preliminary until matched scope is confirmed.
Does the equal family share settle the real contribution
No. It is total cost divided by the selected number of people. Actual shares may differ when one person contributes more time, another pays transport or the family agrees on a different arrangement.
Can the escort relay consultation details to family
Confirm patient consent, hospital policy and the provider’s health-data terms. The calculator does not grant authority, decide what may be disclosed or turn relaying information into a clinical interpretation service.
Official evidence and update boundary
- Korean National Law Information Center OPEN API: Medical Service Act ID 001788, current MST 285327, Article 27, effective April 7, 2026.
- Personal Information Protection Act ID 011357, current MST 270351, Articles 15 and 23, effective October 2, 2025.
- Labor Standards Act ID 001872, current MST 283457, Article 60, effective August 20, 2026.
- Seoul Metropolitan Government hospital safe-accompaniment policy archive and its 2026 one-person-household accompaniment operator notice.
- Gyeonggi Province current one-person-household hospital safe-accompaniment program page.
- Korea Consumer Agency material for contract, cancellation, additional-charge and evidence questions.
- NIST Handbook 135e2025 for the discipline of comparing initial, recurring and indirect cost categories on a matched scope.
The statutes define caution boundaries rather than price formulas. Municipal and private prices can change, so recheck the official program page and the written service contract at every booking. The calculator was verified for these source boundaries on September 1, 2026.
Start with one real month of appointments and two written quotes
A recent departure and return record, the next appointment plan and matched written quotes are enough to begin. Save more than the lowest number: review recovered family hours, break-even values and every unresolved contract question. Patient safety and hospital instructions come first, while this result supports the family’s budgeting and booking conversation.