• Health Policy and Management
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.183-202
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• 1998

This study is to investigate patient's choice of health care and the demand for Korean traditional medicine care in rural areas in 1995. It tried to evaluate the effect of out-of-pocket expenditure, travel time, and waiting time on improving care-seeking and substituting clinical medicine for pharmacy care and Korean traditional medicine care in rural areas. The statistical model of this study is conditional logit to estimate effects of choice-specific and individual-specific characteristics on the choice of type of services. This study used, as explanatory variables, average out-of-pocket payment, travel time, and waiting time of services required to use the services. The model was empirically tested using data from 1995 Korean National Health Survery. The results showed that rural Koreans responded to out-of pocket payment and travel time. Increases of out-of-pocket payment and travel time decreased the probability to choose care in rural Korea. Rural Koreans were more likely to seek care than others with low out-of-pocket payment and travel time. The probability of choosing Korean traditional medicine were higher among the members of the households with higher education level and older persons, while they were lower in the households with large family than others compared with the probabilities of choosing public health facilities. The result of this study implies that policy on use of health care in rural Korea can be focused in managing travel time and out-of-pocket payment.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.126-147
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• 2000

This paper empirically explores the nature of the medical service industry and its various propagation effects on the economy in the input-output model, as revealed by a comparative analysis between Korea and Japan. The main findings of the paper are as follows; First, the growth of medical industry induces above-average effect on employment. Second, the industry is of the characteristics of weak both backward and forward linkage effects implying a 'final demand dependency industry'. When compared with public service sectors, however, the medical services industry shows stronger backward linkage effect than those sectors. Furthermore, it has strong repercussion effects on the goods industries. Third, in order to produce per unit of services, the medical services industry of Korea uses relatively more drugs and medical devices than that of Japan. In general, it has been shown that production structure of medical service industry in Korea is 'hardware-oriented' one; on the other hand, 'software-oriented' in Japan which means that, as intermediate inputs, outsourcing and informatization has been used than those of Korea. From the findings of the paper it could be emphasized that the medical organizations in Korea should put more efforts on shifting the current hardware-oriented production structure to strengthen core competence by enhancing productivity and by outsourcing to improve efficiency of production process. However, the medical organizations in Korea would not have enough incentives for high value-added production structure because they enjoy high operating surplus. Therefore, it would be necessary that government policy should be taken into account of these environments.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.67-85
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• 2008

This study evaluated the specialization status of Korean hospitals by applying index measures that were developed to determine how hospitals are specialized. In addition, multivariate regression analysis was applied to assess how the measures responded to the internal and external factors of hospitals. National Health Insurance claims for 2004 were used to calculate the information theory index, internal Herfindahl index, number of distinct diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) treated, and percent of the five most common DRGs. Data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Korean Hospital Association were used to determine the size, ownership, teaching status, organization type, and location of the hospitals. The four indexes analyzed showed that there were significant differences in the specialization status of providers, depending on the provider size, organization type, and location. Hospitals that were smaller and located in metropolitan areas tended to provide specialized services; this is considered to constitute a competitive strategy for hospitals. It is expected that specialized hospitals will increase given the current market structure. Therefore, policy makers will need an index for measuring how hospital services are specialized. Information from such an index could provide a picture of how hospital services are mixed and change over time.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.293-303
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• 2000

This study was designed to acknowledge the satisfaction levels of patients who have been treated in the emergency center. Specifically, to acknowledge the factors influencing patient's satisfaction levels related in the usage of emergency centers. Data was collected through patients who have used anyone of four emergency centers of university hospitals holding over 550 hospital beds, and located in Seoul. Questionnaires consisted of 31 questions. Cronbach's alpha was 0.94. Data analysis was executed with the SAS program by t-test, ANOVA and stepwise multiple regression. The results were summarized as follows. (1) The total average score for the level of satisfaction was 3.3. Regarding the service of doctors and nurses, the score was high. While the score regarding reception process, payment and second hand environment were relatively low. (2) There was a differentiation in the level of satisfaction according to the type of injured. Patents of industrial calamities had the highest level of satisfaction while patient injured by traffic accidents had the lowest level of satisfaction. (3) The factors that affect the level of satisfaction were presence of medical insurance, lapse time until treatment and the education level of the patient. Based on this, we will provide the basic data of satisfaction levels according to the characteristics of patients and the types of injuries for improvement of emergency treatment centers.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.81-88
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• 2024

This study analyzed 2,794 elderly people aged 65 or older receiving public pensions using data from the 2022 Korean Welfare Panel in order to identify the factors affecting subjective well-being of the elderly receiving public pensions. For data analysis, descriptive statistics, correlations, and stepwise multiple regression analysis were used using IBM SPSS 29. As a result, the effects on subjective well-being of senior pensioners were in the order of self-esteem, family life satisfaction, leisure life satisfaction, family income satisfaction, depression, health status, social relationship satisfaction, and total annual pension. This model explained 34.6% of the total variation in subjective well-being of the elderly receiving pensions (F=168.15, p<.001). This study also attempted to examine the effect of pension on the subjective well-being of senior pensioners, but it was regarded that the effect would be relatively low due to the insufficient total pension amount. In order to improve the stable life and happiness of the elderly, it is necessary to supplement the pension system, develop programs in the community, make efforts to apply them practically, and carefully apply the government's medical and welfare services.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.55
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• pp.309-339
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• 2003

This study was made in order to evaluate the effectiveness on the activities of Community Welfare Association through the inter-agencies, carried out in 14 regions in our country as the examples. I'd like to emphasize the two main points in this study. One is whether the community practitioners have positive thoughts or not, about the evaluation on the activities through the inter-agencies. The other is how the receivers react to the inter-agency services. In order to find the solutions for two questions, the survey data of Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs were reanalyzed. First, the attitudes of the practitioners are as follows; that is, the directors of the organizations have negative opinions about the communication, while practitioners have positive evaluations. About the performance of its roles, 68.2 percent of practitioners showed positive reactions, and 77.8 percent answered it's necessary to manage the community association continuously. The receivers have positive evaluations in general about the inter-agency services. In the comparison of the community activities between before and after, domiciliary services were improved because there was a meaningful statistical difference, however, other services such as medical care service were not bettered. And there was no difference between before and after in the CSQ.

• Journal of the Health Care and Life Science
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.311-320
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• 2023

This study identified the relationship between empathy, tangibility, certainty, reliability, and educational satisfaction, which are sub-factors of educational service quality, and analyzed how educational service quality affects educational satisfaction through the moderating effect of mentoring. A total of 381 response samples were constructed for empirical analysis to analyze demographic characteristics, student use patterns, validity and reliability, correlation, and hypothesis verification, and a total of six hypotheses were established and verified using variables selected based on previous studies and preliminary surveys. First, as a result of the verification of Hypothesis 1, it was found that all constituent factors of education service quality had a positive (+) significant effect on education satisfaction. Second, as a result of the moderating effect of mentoring in Hypothesis 2, it was found that education satisfaction was increased in the confidence, reliability, and mentoring of education service quality. Therefore, empathy, tangibility, certainty, and reliability of education service quality are factors necessary to increase education satisfaction, and academy operators and managers are required to reflect this and operate strategies to increase the competitiveness of the academy.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.249-260
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• 2024

Background: The Republic of Korea's aging population escalates medical and long-term care costs. While prior research has suggested that long-term care might reduce these costs, these studies had limitations in their subjects and duration, making it difficult to generalize the results. This study aims to evaluate cost changes between the long-term care group and the general older adults group after addressing these limitations. Methods: A cohort was derived from the 2015 national population using stratified sampling. Subsequently, 15,114 individuals (7,557 in each group) were identified through 1:1 propensity score matching. The study employed a difference-in-differences analysis to explore variances in medical costs and long-term care benefits post-utilization of long-term care services. Results: Compared to the general older adults group, the long-term care group experienced a reduction in monthly per capita total medical costs by 56,459 Korean won (KRW). Although costs at tertiary and general hospitals increased, those related to long-term care hospitals decreased by 90,687 KRW. Including long-term care benefits, overall expenditures increased by 948,038 KRW. Conclusion: The analysis reveals that the long-term care group faces higher medical costs in acute care than the general older adults group, emphasizing a greater need for medical services within this group. To meet the increasing medical demands of the long-term care group, a collaborative strategy linking community resources, healthcare, and long-term care facilities is imperative. Additionally, developing and implementing preventive health habit management strategies for middle-aged and older adults is essential to diminish the future requirement for long-term care.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.95-100
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• 2020

The purpose of the Convergence study is to identify the factors of health-related quality of life for the elderly and provide the basic data needed to improve the quality of life for the elderly. The objects of the study were 1,367 people aged 65 or older living in Korea out of the original data for the 7th National Health and Nutrition Survey by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Year 2017). Multiple regression analyses was performed by using the SPSS/PC 21.0 statistical program for the purpose of the study. According to the study, mental health and then physical activity were the most influential factors in health-related quality of life. Based on these results, we found that health education is highly important to provide customized health care services and to build the correct lifestyle in order to improve the quality of health-related life. Therefore, follow-up research is needed to identify the effectiveness of developing and applying diverse programs to enhance mental health and physical activity of the elderly in the future.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.314-323
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to analyze the status of medical service use of foreigners living in Korea by their nationality and types of national health insurance. As of 2018, 1,058,886 people were extracted from the qualification DB, excluding people whose insurance premium is missing. The data analysis showed that nearly 78% of foreigners with national health insurance used medical services and the countries with the largest number of users were China, Vietnam, and the United States. The total cost of treatment per capita was highest in the United States regardless of hospitalization and outpatient. The number of medical treatments per person, and the medical expenses of outpatients & inpatients services were highest among the regionally-insured and the length of stay per person was highest among the workers' dependents. Lastly, it was found that Chinese and regionally-insured received much more benefits than other groups compared to the premium they pay. After July 2019, foreign nationals residing in Korea for six months or longer are obligated to enroll in the national health insurance program. Since the latest data was in 2018, the result did not properly reflect the current situation, but it is meaningful that it made basic data for future comparative analysis.