• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.196-205
• /
• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the current status of hospice palliative care facilities, and to identify problems and improve hospice palliative care in Korea. Methods: The questionnaire survey was implemented from October to December, 2007. It was consisted of general characteristics of organization, health manpower, facilities & equipments, service programs, and so on. Sixty two (79.5%) out of 78 hospice palliative care facilities returned the questionnaires. Results: They were 42 hospital-based hospice palliative care hospitals and 9 clinics, and most of them are located at central metropolitan areas (Seoul and Gyeonggi Province). more than 80% of hospitals met with the requirements (one doctor per 10 patients and one nurse per 1.5 patients), whereas 42.9% of clinics met the requirements. Approximately 22% of them met the requirement of sick room (4 patients for 1 room). Most of them provided various hospice palliative care programs. The proportion of giving regular education programs to hospice palliative care personnels were about half (41.9%). Thirty two (51.6%) facilities provided home visiting hospice palliative care service. Conclusion: There were lack of enough health manpower, rooms, and programmes and they varied among facilities. It is necessary to increase the number of hospice palliative care facilities with consideration of regional fair distribution and standardization of programmes.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.145-155
• /
• 2019

Purpose: Amendment to the Act on Decisions on Life-sustaining Treatment was recently enacted to designate long-term care hospitals as providers of hospice and palliative care. Despite its benefit of providing improved accessibility to end-of-life care, the amendment has raised concerns about its effect on quality of service. This study aimed to use information obtained from an expert group interview and previous studies to compare how cancer patients, family caregivers, physicians, and the general Korean population perceive the potential benefits and risks of this amendment. Methods: We conducted a multicenter cross-sectional study from July to October 2016. The included participants answered a structured questionnaire regarding the extent to which they agree or disagree with the questionnaire items indicating the potential benefits and risks of the amendment. Chi-square tests and univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: Compared with the general population, physicians agreed more that long-term care hospitals are currently not adequately equipped to provide quality hospice and palliative care. Family caregivers found improved access to long-term care hospitals more favorable but were more likely to agree that these hospitals might prioritize profits, thereby threatening the philosophy of hospice care, and that families might cease to fulfill filial responsibilities. Compared with the general population, cancer patients were more concerned about the potentially decreased service quality in this setting. Conclusion: Although potential service beneficiaries and providers expected improved accessibility of hospice and palliative care services, they were also concerned whether the system can provide adequate quality of end-of-life care.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.119-126
• /
• 2016

Purpose: This study analyzed the difference in survival time of patients with delirium according to sedative medication. Methods: From January 2012 through December 2013, a retrospective cohort study was performed using the electronic medical records (EMR) of Pusan National University Hospital. Among 900 patients who died from cancer, we selected 240 who suffered delirium based on the EMR. The Nu-DESC delirium screening test was used to diagnose delirium. Results: The median length of delirium period was five days. Delirium characteristics were dominated by inappropriate behaviors (35.0%). Sedatives were administered in 72.1% of the cases. The most frequently used sedative was haloperidol which was used in 59.6% of cases. The delirium period significantly differed by patients' age (F=3.96, P=0.021), cancer type (F=3.31, P=0.010), chemotherapy (t=-3.44 P=0.001). The average survival time was 16.85 days for the sedative medication group and 9.37 days for the non-medication group, which, however, was not significant (t=1.766, P=0.079). Conclusion: In this study, the use of sedatives did not affect patients' survival time. Thus, appropriate sedative medication can be positively recommended to comfort terminal cancer patients and their families.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.91-100
• /
• 1999

Purpose : This study was performed to investigate the satisfaction in the hospice services provided for inpatient families and bereaved families whose members had been admitted to the hospice unit at Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital to improve the quality of care for the terminally ill patients and their families. Methods : This sample consisted of 33 families of hospice patients during the period of April to lune, 1998 and 30 bereaved families whose patients had died from March, 1993 to March, 1998. The data were collected through a self-report questionnaire and analyzed using t-test and ANOVA. Results : 1) The satisfaction level of inpatient families and bereaved families showed the mean value of 3.5 where the highest value is 5.0. 2) According to age, the level of satisfaction of inpatient families had significant differences in the fields of hospice philosophy, support for the family, medical management and nursing management(P=0.0001). The level of satisfaction of bereaved families showed significant differences in the field of support for the family, medical management, nursing management, and facilities of the hospice unit(P=0.0001). 3) By family relationship, the level of satisfaction of inpatient families had significant differences in the fields of hospice philosophy, support for the family, medical management and nursing management (P=0.0001). 4) According to religion, the level of satisfaction of inpatient families had significant differences in the fields of hospice philosophy, support for the family and nursing management (P=0.0001), but there was no significant difference for the bereaved families. Conclusions : The findings of this study showed that hospice services had positive influence on families with terminal disease such as cancer. To improve the level of satisfaction in the hospice services for families with hospice patients, we need to provide care by an interdisciplinary hospice team approach, and to assess needs of the families according to their socio-psychological characteristics. Further studies need to be conducted with large samples.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.31-42
• /
• 2002

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to evaluate the present status of hospice palliative care programs in Korea as a basic database for standardization of hospice palliative care. Method : The data was collected from July to October, 2001. The instrument used for this study was the questionnaires which was consisted of the general characteristics of organization, recipient of service, manpower, contents of service, financial conditions and facilities. Sixty-four hospice palliative care programs answered the questionnaires, confirmed by telephone. Results : They were 40 hospital-based hospice palliative care programs and 24 nonmedical hospice palliative care programs. 11 Hospital-based hospice palliative programs have isolated unit or hospital affiliated free standing hospice. 6 Non-hospital hospice palliative programs have a free standing hospice. Major subjects of hospice palliative program were terminal cancer patients but patients with non-terminal illness were also included. Only 24 of 64 hospice palliative programs had all of the essential professionals : physicians, nurses, social workers, and clergies. Home hospice palliative care programs have a referral system in hospital based (89.7%) and nonmedical programs (73.7%). 24hr hospice are were provided in 26 hospital-based (65.0%) and 9nonmedical programs (37.5%). There were rooms for family in half of hospital-based programs. 73.9% of hospice palliative care programs have financial problems. 62.0% of Hospice palliative care programs need financial support from government. Conclusion : 64 Hospice palliative care programs provided hospice palliative services but had many problems in manpower, quality of care and facility. For improving the quality of terminal patients' life and promoting the cost effectiveness of health care resources, it is necessary to consider the standardization and institutionalization of hospice palliative care.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.152-162
• /
• 2011

Purpose: This study was conducted to analyze a trend in studies of hospice care in Korea and to suggest future research directions. Methods: This study analyzed a total of 183 studies related to hospice care which were found at http://www.riss.kr. Results: Of the 183 studies, 62 (33.9%) were for thesis studies for a degree, 121 (66.1%) for academic journals. There were 159 (87.8%) quantitative studies, 18 (8.9%) qualitative studies, and 6 (3.3%) Q-Method studies. The most frequently used study design was a descriptive study. The majority of study participants were terminal cancer patients, patients' family members and health care personnel. The thesis articles were searched by using key words as follows: health, nursing, environment, children's hospice, and others. Conclusion: The number of studies of hospice care has increased, and research key words varied. Furthermore, more experimental research is needed on nursing intervention such as pain relief, alternative therapies and hospice care for children.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.576-592
• /
• 2007

We, in this study, tried to examine the influence of business environment, organization structure and information technology characteristics used on the performance of the information systems in Information and Communications Industries. The result shows that frequency of system usage and users' satisfaction are positively affected by the factors of business environment, organizational structure and information-technology. The user satisfaction of the system is affected by the frequency of system usage. Both financial performance and non-financial performance are affected by the frequency of the systems usage and user satisfaction of the system. With path analysis, we verified the overall model goodness-of-fit verified for the research model. The result shows that organization structureand technological factors are positively related to the frequency of usage and user satisfaction of the system, while the environmental factors are not. The frequency of system usage is not linked to both financial and non-financial performance. The user satisfaction of the system does not affected to the financial performance. In conclusion, the usage frequency and user satisfaction of the system are the moderating variables affecting business performances. These two variables are affected by the environment, organization structure and information technology. The Path analysis also supports the relationships among these variables.