• Health Policy and Management
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.28-47
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to assess the user's satisfaction of health care service in public health centers in Busan. The study respondents were 212, those who visited health centers for health care service. Data were collected in July 2002 by using SERVQUAL(comprehensive service quality measurement scale) and 3 open questions for more details about service satisfaction and the needs for health care service. SERVQUAL has 5 dimensions； tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The results were as follows ： 1. The users reported more satisfaction at 'just service cost', 'convenient service procedure' and 'clean physical environment' at SERVQUAL. Among them the highest rated item was 'service cost'. And the less satisfaction items were 'understanding and individual concerns about service users', 'medical equipment' and 'health center facilities'. 2. There were no statistical differences by general characteristics except for the kind of services rendered. Those who visited for physical examinations and laboratory tests reported lower satisfaction than any other groups. 3. At the open questions, the respondents expressed that they were satisfied with the low service cost, kindness of employee and clean environment. But they criticized the old facilities and worn medical equipment, in addition to the less than kind attitudes. These strengths and weaknesses of health center's service could be applied for planning of customer­centered health care service.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.31-53
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• 2007

The purpose of a national health care system is to improve health care outcome among population. The objective of the study was to explore the determinants of health outcome in the 24 OECD countries between two health care financing systems. The study employed the pooled time series and cross-sectional analysis with tax-funded and social insurance-funded countries over the period of 1980 to 1999 using OECD Health Data 2002. The study revealed that health expenditure per capita, physicians per 1,000 of the population and calorie intake were positively significantly associated, smoking rate was negatively associated with health outcome while controlling all variables in the tax-funded countries. But in the insurance-funded countries, health expenditure per capita and the number of physicians were not statistically significant factors explaining health outcome. Only the calorie intake was positively associated with, and smoking rate, alcohol consumption per capita, and total nitrogen oxide emission per capita were negatively significantly associated with health outcome. In conclusion, healthy life style factors were much more important to improve health outcome in the both systems.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.226-232
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• 2018

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the current state of governance structure and management of the health system to achieve the goals of the health system in South Korea, and to propose reform plan. This study drew implications from the governance of United Kingdom, Germany, and Netherlands, based on the principle of health system proposed by World Health Organization. The presidency and the health ministry should make macroscopic decision-making. The government has to decentralize the enforcement by municipality to operate public health and national health insurance (NHI), and to distribute the centralized NHI fund by municipality. The front line health centers and community centers should provide integrated health and social services. The government has to establish diversified regulatory bodies to enhance both the patient-centered care and the efficiency and equity of health care, and to provide mechanisms for ensuring autonomy of providers. The governance of the health system should be composed of the centralization of macro decision-making, the decentralization of implementation by municipality, the integration of health and social services on the front line, and the well-balanced regulation and autonomy on both consumers and suppliers.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.288-293
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• 2018

In 1994 Korea government began to develop the healthcare industry, since then the government has tried to create opportunities to promote the industry through various political efforts and policies. The biggest achievement was attracting foreign patients from 2009 to 2016 with a cumulative 1.56 million and total revenue of 3 trillion won. But Korea still loses the opportunity to become a global leader in the health care industry due to regulations and various ideological disputes. Accordingly, it is necessary to facilitate policy understanding and present a practical road map so that Korea's healthcare industry become a new growth engine that will lead the trend of global market in the future. It also suggests a national economic development paradigm, the health economy as health and economic value are rotated through a shift in view of health care. At this point, 20 years after the beginning of the healthcare industry development, it is necessary to evaluate the related policies and discuss effective future directions. In this sense, the purpose of this study is to examine the policies and limitations of the healthcare industry by each government division, and based on it, to propose political tasks for the future.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.15-25
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• 2020

While healthcare data sets include extensive information about patients, many researchers have limitations in analyzing them due to their intrinsic characteristics such as heterogeneity, longitudinal irregularity, and noise. In particular, since the majority of medical history information is recorded in text codes, the use of such information has been limited due to the high dimensionality of explanatory variables. To address this problem, recent studies applied word embedding techniques, originally developed for natural language processing, and derived positive results in terms of dimensional reduction and accuracy of the prediction model. This paper reviews the deep learning-based natural language processing techniques (word embedding) and summarizes research cases that have used those techniques in the health care field. Then we finally propose a research framework for applying deep learning-based natural language process in the analysis of domestic health insurance data.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.131-138
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to compare the health status of South Korea with those of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries and examine the trends. Position vAlue for Relative Comparison (PARC) was used as a gauge for comparison, and five sectors of the health care system were measured: demand, supply, accessibility, quality, and cost. The Mann-Kendall test was used as a statistical analysis method to examine trend of PARC values obtained from 2000 to recent years. According to the results, the demand, supply, accessibility, and quality sectors were higher than the OECD average, while the cost was lower than the average. However, there is a recent trend of sharp increases in health care costs. Some indicators: health employment, quality of primary care and mental health care were lower than the OECD average, and health determinants showed a worsening trend. Therefore, policy-makers need to take this into account and make efforts for sustainable health care.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.80-89
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• 2015

Background: This study aims to identify the monthly average medical expenses of public pension recipients, and analyze the determinants of total health and medical expenses and Western and Oriental medicine expenses, medical service expenses, and medical supplies expenses. Methods: This study used the fifth year data of 2013 out of the raw data of the Korean Retirement and Income Study collected by the National Pension Research Institute. This study conducted t-test, analysis of variance, and linear regression to verify publicly the relevance between pension recipients' general characteristics and health and medical expenses status using IBM SPSS ver. 21.0 for data analysis. Results: It was analyzed that there is a difference in the spending of expenditure and health care costs according to public pension recipients. Medical expenses of the national pensioners was higher compared to the special corporate pensioners. The national pensioner is related expenditure size, education level, family members living together, residential areas, status of spouse, number of chronic illness, and status of limitation in daily life with psychological health status. Conclusion: Therefore, fairness does not occur fire to the medical use between the special corporate pensioners and national pensioners, aggressive of government such as health policy and financial support for the retiree pension policy that reflects the reality intervention would be required.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.26-49
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to analyze the equity of health care utilization by income groups in terms of both quantity and quality of care, which is measured by expenditure, type of care, and type of health care institutions. Equity in health care utilization is measured by HIwv index, based on the survey of 1,480 Gwangju-Jeonnam residents. Health care utilization in terms of the probability and quantity of outpatient and inpatient care show equitable or pro-poor inequitable distribution, whereas the distribution of health care expenditure, which can account for the quality of care, is pro-rich inequitable, implying that the better off tend to use more expensive medical care. In terms of the types of care, simple visits for basic care show equitable distribution, whereas the distribution of the utilization of traditional tonic medicine, comprehensive health examination, CT, MRI, and ultrasound is pro-rich inequitable. Utilization of general hospitals and traditional health institutions show pro-rich inequitable distribution, hospitals and dental care institutions equitable, and physician clinics and public health centers pro-poor inequitable.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.98-103
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• 2018

This study aims to evaluate the status of Korean healthcare among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries and to monitor the trend of health care status since 2000. The position value for relative comparison (PARC) index was selected to gauge the level of healthcare status in demand, supply, accessibility, quality, and cost as per healthcare policy aspects. The Mann-Kendall test was conducted to allocate healthcare status of Korea since 2000. The PARC values indicate strength and weakness of Korean healthcare system by the mathematical comparisons. Korea positioned higher in demand, supply, accessibility, and quality. Yet, there are shortages in human resources and primary care. In conclusion, we suggest utilizing this study provides evidence to prioritize health care problems that can lead to establishing healthcare policy.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.328-334
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• 2021

Background: This study was conducted to investigate factors related to unmet medical needs of medical care in adult diabetes patients and to suggest factors related to unmet medical in Korea. Methods: This study used data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHNES) 2014-2017. The subjects of the study were conducted on patients with unmet medical needs experience among the patients and analyzed using the IBM SPSS ver. 25.0 program (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Results: Overall, 10.9% of patients had unmet medical needs. Being female, less educated, and lower medical aid were related to unmet medical needs. And subjects with poor subjective health and higher stress level were more likely to report unmet medical needs. Conclusion: Although comprehensive health insurance coverage, 10.9% of people with diabetes experienced unmet healthcare needs. The results of this study suggest that socioeconomic factors such as low education and medical aid were associated with unmet medical needs.