Objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of inpatients who were admitted to Korean medicine hospital due to shoulder pain. Methods Characteristics of four hundred ten shoulder pain inpatients of single institution from 2011 to 2013 were retrospectively reviewed through medical charts. Results Patients showed different characteristics in sex, age, motives, interval between onset and admission day, first occurrence or not, related medical history before admission, usage of west medication, admission days, treatment results, radiological examinations by shoulder pain disease groups. Accordingly, Korean medical treatment such as acupuncture, moxibustion, external treatment, cupping therapy, physiotherapy, herb-medication varied with the characteristics of shoulder pain disease groups. Conclusions Through retrospective medical charts review, characteristics of 410 single institution shoulder pain inpatients showed distinctive features and versatile Korean medicine treatments by disease groups. It is expected that this study would accelerate multi-institutional and large scale characteristic review of shoulder pain patients, which would raise reconsideration and expand boundary of Korean medicine. (J Korean Med Rehab 2015;25(2):155-173)