• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제52권5호
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• pp.316-322
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• 2019

Objectives: This study was conducted to assess the applicability of the Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol (AEP) for public hospitals in Korea. Methods: In May 2016, 1500 admission claims were collected from Korean public district hospitals using stratified random sampling. Of these claims, 560 admissions to 37 hospitals were retrieved for analysis. Medical records administrators determined the appropriateness of admission using the criteria detailed in the AEP, and a physician separately assessed the appropriateness of admission based on her clinical judgment. To examine the applicability of the AEP, the concordance of the decisions made between a pair of AEP reviewers and between an AEP reviewer and a physician reviewer was compared. Results: The results showed an almost perfect inter-rater agreement between the AEP reviewers and a moderate agreement between the AEP reviewers and the physician. The sensitivity and specificity of the AEP were calculated as 0.86 and 0.56, respectively. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the AEP could potentially be applied to Korean public hospitals as a reliable and valid instrument for assessing the appropriateness of admissions.

• 한국의료질향상학회지
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• 제1권1호
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• pp.96-108
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• 1994

Background: An appropriate use of hospital beds can improve productivity of hospital significantly. The authors' previous study revealed that approximately one third of Korean hospital bed days and one sixth of admissions were inappropriately used, when it was measured by Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol(AEP) and Delay Tool modified into Korean situation by the authors. This study aims to evaluate applicability of the instruments in a new hospital. More specifically the study aims to measure appropriateness of the instruments used by newly trained nurse reviewers at a new hospital setting. Methods: In order to evaluate applicability of these instruments, agreement rates of the scores recorded by newly trained nurse reviewers with by skilled nurse reviewer and also compared with the scores recorded by physician's implicit decision were assessed. Agreement rates were derived from concurrent application of AEP and Delay Tool to 52 admissions and 104 patient days from internal medicine, pediatrics, and general surgery of one university hospital. Overall agreement rate, specific nonacute agreement rate, and kappa statistics were used to indicate level of agreement. Results: Overall agreement rates on appropriateness between newly trained nurse reviewers and skilled nurse reviewer were 100% in admission and 98% in bed days. Overall agreement rates on reason for inappropriateness between newly trained nurse reviewers and skilled nurse reviewer were 96% in admission and 91% in bed days. Overall agreement rates between newly trained nurse reviewers and physician reviewer were 86% in admission and 87% in bed days. Conclusion: Results indicated that AEP and Delay Tool were applicable to a new hospital in detecting inappropriate utilization of beds and reasoning of the inappropriateness. These instruments could contribute to enhance efficiency of hospital use, through continuous monitoring of level of inappropriate hospital use at national or individual hospital level.

• 한국의료질향상학회지
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• 제2권1호
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• pp.58-67
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• 1995

이 연구는 3차 진료기관 응급실의 기능을 정상화하기 위한 기초 자료를 수집하기 위하여, 한 3차 진료기관 응급실을 방문한 환자를 대상으로, 입원 결정서 발부와 환자의 입원 결정 양상 및 이에 영향을 미치는 요인을 파악하였다. 또한 적절성 평가 지침을 이용하여 응급실을 통한 입원의 적절성을 평가하였고 입원의 적절성과 응급실 입원 대기시간의 적절성에 영향을 미치는 요인을 분석하였다. 입원 결정서 발부에 영향을 미치는 요인은 환자의 내 외과계 구분, 진료과수, 환자 상태, 방문 경로, 방문 시간과 방문 요일이었다. 입원 결정서 발부 후 환자의 입원 여부는 환자의 성, 환자 상태, 방문 경로, 방문 요일에 따라 달리 나타났다. 환자의 연령, 내 외과계 구분과 방문 요일에 따라 입원의 적절성에 차이를 보였다. 입원 대기시간은 환자의 연령이 증가할수록 적절성이 낮았다. 이 연구를 통하여 응급실을 통한 입원 중 반수 이상의 입원이 부적절한 입원으로 평가되었고, 이 중 일부는 입원을 빨리 하기 위한 방법의 하나로 응급실을 편법으로 이용하고 있기 때문인 것으로 판단되었다. 또한 입원 결정서가 발부된 환자 중 상당수의 환자가 병상을 구할 수 없어 입원하지 못하고 있는 것으로 보아, 3차 진료기관의 환자 집중 현상과 응급실 과밀화 요인 해소를 위한 의료정책의 수립이 필요함을 확인할 수 있었다.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제26권4호
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• pp.650-660
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• 1993

This study aims to describe the causes of medically unnecessary hospital stay at a teaching tertiary hospital, using modified version of Delay Tool in which the causes of delay are divided into slx major categories : delay related to test scheduling, test results, surgery, medical staff, patient/family, and administration. For the analysis of hospital stay, 6,479 inpatient-days were reviewed in two medical and four surgical departments for one month. Initially inappropriate hospital stays were identified using Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol (AEP), and causes of delay listed in Delay Tool were assigned to each of them. In both medical and surgical services, the most important cause of delay was related to medical staffs, ranging from 3.6% to 51.6% of total inpatient days. Next important category was delay related to test scheduling in medical services ($4.7{\sim}9.2%$), and delay related to surgery in surgical services ($7.3{\sim}15.0%$). Among subcategories of delay related to medical staffs, delay due to conservative care was the most important cause of inappropriate hospital stay ($2.9{\sim}6.4%$). Each clinical departments had different distribution among delay categories, which could not be fully justified by their clinical charateristics. The Delay Tool would be helpful in exploring factors related to the inefficient use of hospital beds. As a measurement tool of inappropriate hospital stay, however, the Delay Tool should be refined in the definitions of categories and its contents.