• Title/Summary/Keyword: Characteristics of Departments

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A Study on the Characteristics of Intentional Self-Poisoning Patients : Comparison between Non-Prescription and Prescription Drugs (일반의약품과 전문의약품 의도적 음독 자살 시도자 특성 분석 연구)

  • Cho, Eulah;Cho, Ji Hyun;Jho, Kyeng Hyeng;Sim, Hyun-Bo
    • Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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    • v.28 no.2
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    • pp.116-125
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    • 2020
  • Objectives : Self-poisoning is the leading cause of visits to the emergency departments after a suicide attempts. This study is aimed to compare the patient characteristics according to the category of drugs ingested by the patients who attempted suicide. Methods : All medical charts were retrospectively reviewed from patients who visited the emergency center, at Seoul Medical Center, due to intentional self-poisoning from April of 2011 to July of 2019. We investigated the information regarding the subtype and quantity of the intoxication drug, how it was obtained, suicidal history, and psychiatric history, as well as, sociodemographic information. Variables were compared between prescription drug (PD) and non-prescription drug (NPD) poisoning groups. Results : The mean age of the NPD poisoning group was significantly lower than that of the PD poisoning group. The patient ratio of those enrolled in national health insurance and living with spouses were significantly higher in the NPD poisoning group. Compared to the NPD poisoning group, the PD poisoning group had a higher incidence of mental illnesses, underlying diseases and ratio of involuntary visit to the emergency department. Among the prescription drugs, the benzodiazepine poisoning group had a higher rate of self-prescription than the non-poisoning group, while the zolpidem poisoning group had a higher rate of the using someone else's prescription than other drugs. Each single drug poisoning group (benzodiazepine, zolpidem, and antidepressant single-agent) had a higher rate of no mental illness than each of the mixed-poisoning group. Conclusions : Guidelines for regulating non-prescription drugs are needed as a matter of suicide prevention. Also, this study suggests that clinicians need to be careful when issuing prescriptions and should suicidal risk according to patients' characteristics, duration of follow-up and type of drug packaging.

A Descriptive Statistical Analysis of the Hospitalized Patients with Low Back Pain in Departments of Korean Rehabilitation Medicine of Korean Medicine Hospitals (한국의 5개 한의과대학 부속한방병원 재활의학과의 요통 입원 환자에 대한 후향적 기술통계분석 - 입원 기간, 상병명, 치료 방법을 중심으로 -)

  • Maeng, Tae-Ho;Kim, Jongyeon;Yi, Woon-Sup;Chung, Won-Seok;Ko, Youn-Seok;Lee, Jung-Han;Shin, Byung-Cheul;Cha, Yun-Yeop;Go, Ho-Yeon;Sun, Seong-Ho;Jeon, Chan-Yong;Jang, Bo-Hyoung;Song, Yun-Kyung;Ko, Seong-Gyu
    • Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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    • v.23 no.4
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    • pp.213-223
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    • 2013
  • Objectives Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most common reason for people in Korea to visit Korean medical institutions. To assess actual amounts of use in the treatment of LBP in Korean medicine and to provide objective base line data for policy decision making, research regarding the current state of LBP patients' treatment in Korean medical institutions are in need. Methods The current study was designed as a retrospective chart review to investigate descriptive characteristics of LBP patients. The clinical records of 304 patients who were hospitalized for the treatment of LBP in Korean rehabilitation medicine inpatient clinics of five different Korean medicine hospitals were analyzed. The percentage of patient characteristics such as sex, age, average duration of admission, insurance type, diagnosed LBP related disease code, and rates of interventions applied were assessed. Results 1. The female sex was significantly predominant among patients with LBP : 105 patients (34.5%) were male and 199 patients (65.5%) were female. Percentage of the patients' age appeared as followed : 76 people (25.0%) were in their 50s, 64 people (21.1%) were in their 40s, 51 people (16.8%) were in their 30s, 37 people (12.2%) were in their 60s, and 33 people (10.9%) were in their 70s. Approximately half of the total LBP patients investigated were older than 50. 2. The average duration of admission was 16.2 days. Approximately one third (30.3%) of the patients were hospitalized for 8 to 14 days. 3. Female patients tended to stay admitted in hospitals slightly longer than male patients. Elderly (age 60~79) patients stayed in hospitals longer (17.8 days) compared to younger (age 20~39) patients (13.5 days). 4. More than half of the patients (171 cases, 56.3%) had their hospital bills covered with automobile insurance. 40.1% (122 cases) of the patients had medical insurance to cover their hospital bills. The average duration of admission of patients who had automobile insurance was 14.2 days, while that of the patients who had medical insurance was 18.4 days. 5. "Sprain and strain of the lumbar spine and pelvis" was the most commonly used (195 cases, 64.1%) disease code in patients with LBP. Patients diagnosed as "lumbar and other intervertebral disc disorders with radiculopathy" required the longest admission duration (22.1 days). 6. Herbal medication was applied to all of the patients during admission. Acupuncture was applied to all of the patients except one case diagnosed as spinal stenosis. Physical therapy, cupping therapy, moxibustion therapy, chuna therapy, and pharmacopuncture therapy were applied to 94.7, 92.8, 85.2, 83.9, and 49.7% of the patients, respectively. 7. There were certain differences among Korean medicine hospitals in terms of the LBP patients' duration of admission, type of insurance, frequency of the disease code use, type of intervention applied. Conclusions It is thought that the current study can be used as reference data in assessing the current state of LBP treatment in Korean rehabilitation medicine and a basis for future research. Provided improvements of certain limitations of the current study in future researches, such data would act as better base line data in policy decision making.

A Efficacy of One-Stop Service in the Outpatient Clinic at the University Medical Center (3차 의료기관 외래진료에 있어 One stop service 도입의 효과)

  • Lee, Suk-Yeon;Chang, Sung-Goo
    • Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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    • v.6 no.2
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    • pp.70-85
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    • 2001
  • This study has been conducted, on the reservation of specific examinations during seven months starting from June 1999 and ending December as the Group I for these of one stop service and as the Group II for those of existing direct reservation made by patients or patrons, to understand the differences between the two groups. The survey was extended to the patients visiting specific departments of K hospital with sample sizes of 154 for the Group I and 155 for the Group II. The findings of the survey are as follows: First, as the general characteristics of the sample, male patients account for 67% of the total and female patients 33%, with the former twice as large as the latter. The average age of the patients is 51, indicating relatively high level. By the geographical area of residence, metropolitan area is 80.7% and the other area 19.3%, showing most of the patients are from metropolitan area. The general characteristics do not have statistical significance between the Group I and the Group II(p>0.05). Second, regarding the ratio by the number of examinations, the Group I shows 37.0% for one examination and 63.0% for two examinations, while the Group IT indicates 30.3% for one examination and 69.7% for two examinations. The populations by the number of examinations do not have statistical difference between the two Groups(p>0.05). Third, regarding the time required for the reservation of examinations by the number of examinations, the Group I shows 9.8 minutes for one examination and 19.8 minutes for two examinations, with the average of 16.1 minutes. The Group IT indicates 19 minutes for one examinations and 25.7 minutes for two examinations, with the average of 23.7 minutes. Though the time required for the reservation by the number of examinations do not have statistical significance, the time required for the Group I was shortened. Fourth, regarding the time required for the reservation of examinations by the age range of patients, the Group I shows 21.7 minutes for 70-79 years of age, 17.5 minutes for 60-00 years of age, and 15.2 minutes for 30-39 years of age. The Group II indicates 27.2 minutes for 70-79 years of age, 26.3 minutes for 60-69 years of age, 24.4 minutes for 50-59 years of age, and 22.4 minutes for 30-39 years of age. The time required for the reservation gets longer as the age range moves up, and has statistical significance (p<0.05). Fifth, regarding the ratio by the range of time of required for reservation, the Group I shows 41.6% for 11-20 minutes, and 38.3% for 1-10 minutes, while the Group II indicates 43.9% for 11-20 minutes, 29% for 21-30 minutes, and 14.2% for 31-40 minutes. Statistical significance is revealed (p=0.001). Sixth, concerning the length of movement course by the number of examinations, the Group I shows 37 meters regardless of the number of examinations. The Group II indicates an average of 188 meters for one examination and 189 meters for two examinations, with the difference 151 meters between the Groups, and representing statistical significance (p=0.001). Based on the above findings. one-stop service contributes to the reduction of both the time and the movement course and therefore is considered to be beneficial to the patients, and the improve the efficiency of the hospitals in terms of the space and the time.

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Changes in Occupational Therapy Students' Occupational Balance and Quality of Life in Epidemic of COVID-19 (COVID-19 유행으로 인한 작업치료(학)과 학생들의 작업균형과 삶의 질 변화)

  • Lee, Hyang-sook;Han, Gyeong-ju;Park, In-yeong;Hwang, Eun-bi;Chae, Hyun-ah;Noh, Chong-su;Cha, Jung-jin
    • The Journal of Korean society of community based occupational therapy
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.11-22
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    • 2021
  • Objective : The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in occupational balance and quality of life caused by COVID-19 in occupational therapy students. Methods : From May 27 to June 26, 2020, questionnaires were distributed to a total of 35 universities among 62 occupational therapy departments nationwide. General characteristics, COVID-19 related characteristics, OBQ and WHOQOL-BREF were used to evaluate and analyze occupational balance and quality of life. The SPSS/PC 24.0 program was used to analyze frequency analysis, crossover analysis, chi-square test, independent t-test, analysis of variance, and Pearson correlation analysis. Results : There were significant differences in school system(years), class, life pattern, quality of life, personal and public schedule depending on whether they are interested in occupational balance. There were significant differences in occupational balance(OBQ) and quality of life(WHOQOL-BREF), 'Hobby', 'new hobbies after COVID-19', 'life patterns', 'use of public transportation', 'maintenance of occupational balance', and 'quality of life'. There was a significant positive correlation occupational balance and quality of life. Conclusion : This study showed that the more people who have changed their lives due to COVID-19 are interested in work balance, and the better they maintain their work balance and emotional well-being, the higher the work balance and quality of life, and the positive correlation between work balance and quality of life was confirmed. This will be the basis for studies related to intervention strategies that can improve occupational balance and quality of life in a time when social isolation is easy due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

A Study on the Characteristics of Inpatients in Korean Medicine Ophthalmology, Otolaryngology & Dermatology Clinic -From March, 2012 to February, 2018, Korean Medicine Hospital of Daejeon University- (한방안이비인후피부과 입원환자의 특성 연구 -2012년 3월부터 2018년 2월까지 대전대학교 둔산한방병원을 중심으로-)

  • Hwang, Mi-Lee;Jung, Hun-A
    • The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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    • v.32 no.1
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    • pp.16-31
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    • 2019
  • Objective : The purpose of this study is to analyze the charcateristics of inpatients in Ophthalmology, Otolaryngology & Dermatology Clinic by gender, age, season, and department of medical care after hospitalization from March, 2012 to February, 2018. Method : From March 1, 2012 to February 28, 2018, patients who were admitted to the Ophthalmology, Otolaryngology & Dermatology Clinic of Korean Medical Hospital were classified by gender, age, department, and season, and their relationship, hospitalization period, number of outpatient visits Differences were analyzed objectively using various statistical methods using IBM SPSS 18.0. Results : 1. The number of inpatients was 432, including duplication. Of these, 317 were female and 115 were male. The number of female patients was 2.8 times higher. 2. The average age of the inpatients was 43.9 years and the number of middle-aged 40-50 patients was 48.6%. 3. The number of inpatients in the departments was in the order of dermatology, otology, laryngology, rhinology, and ophthalmology. The most hospitalized diseases were eczema in the dermatology department, sudden hearing loss in the otology department, tonsillitis/peritonsillar abscess, rhinitis in the rhinology department, and dry eye syndrome in ophthalmology. 1) The effect of gender on the difference in the number of inpatients by subdivision was statistically significant. 2) The effect of age on the difference in the number of inpatients by subdivision was statistically significant. 3) The effect of seasons on the difference in the number of inpatients was not statistically significant. 4. The number of inpatients by season was in the order of winter, spring, summer, autumn, and the number of inpatients decreased significantly in autumn. 1) The effect of gender on the difference in the number of hospitalized patients by season was not statistically significant. 2) The effect of age on the difference in the number of hospitalized patients by season was not statistically significant. 5. The average length of hospital stay for inpatients was 10.7 days. 1) The effect of gender on length of hospital stay was not statistically significant. 2) The effect of age on hospital stay was not statistically significant. 3) The effect of the subdivision on hospital stay was statistically significant. 4) The effect of the season on hospital stay was not statistically significant. Conclusion : As a result of this study, the most distinctive feature of the present study was the high rate of inpatients with otic disease like idiopathic hearing loss and Meniere 's syndrome and the high rate of female patients. This may be related to the increased prevalence of the disease and the severity of the disease. In addition, the high rate of female patients suggests that women are more likely to be affected by illnesses, as well as to have more medical use and severe symptoms requiring hospitalization. In the future, it would be better to provide various treatment plans and policies for patients with otic diseases and female patients. Also it would be good if studies on these fields are made in the future.

Preference and Tourism Behaviors of the Tourists to the Travel-Destinations in the Eastern Area of Chonnam Province (전남 동부지역 관광지의 선호도와 관광행태에 관한 연구)

  • Chu, Myung-Hee;Lee, Joeng-Rock;Kim, Jae-Chul
    • Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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    • v.2 no.1
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    • pp.115-131
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    • 1996
  • Tourism is multi-faceted phenomenon which involves movement to stay in destinations outside the normal place of residence. Thus, tourism is a composite phenomenon which incorporates the diversity of variables and relationships to be found in the tourist travel process. Tourism-behaviors are of major economic and social significance. With the growth of mass-tourism, the government departments of tourism is to provide many tourist facilities, to develop travel destination and tourism resources. At same time, the growth of mass-tourism has prompted perceptive travellers to raise many questions concerning the many travel destination and the tourism resources of encouraging further tourism demand. Most of tourism have a mental in their minds about various objects. This allowed him to choose tourism destination as a important rules. In tourism geography, behavioral approach to wildness, tourism resources and places has risen since 1960's. The tourist profile can be viewed under two major categories: the tourist social-economic and behavioral characteristic. Particulary, the motivations, attitude, need, values and preference of travel destinations are of crucial importance in contributing to their desion-making process. In this view, this paper is emprical study investigated travel patterns and behavioral characteristic of tourists and potential tourist in East Chonnam. The purpose of this paper is to show the spatial preference and tourism behavior of travel destinations. For this study, we are undertaken the questionary method employed by recreation geographers in order to collect research data for the East Chonnam-citizens functioned as a major tourist demand. The East Chonnam Province have many tourist-places including national park, provincial park, and local tourist-places. Thus, citizen of the East Chonnam evaluate many tourist-places very high, but evaluate the facilities of tourist place very low. The high ranks of preferences to travel destinations among tourist-places are Hyangilam, Geomoon island, Odongis land, Songkwang temple. The major travel destinations occurred the temporary travel trip are Odong island, Sunam temple, Songkwang temple. Heungkook temple, Hyangilam which are the type of mountainous in located inland. The relationship between the degree of preference and tourism behavior of travel trip for the travel destinations does not correlate each other. The result of analysis about the degree of seasonal preferences presented spatial differences according to characteristics of tourist-places. The typical travel destination are divided into seasons : Odong island. Mt. Backwoon, Goemoon island of spring, Goemoon island, Sungbul valley, Banggukpo beach of summer, Songkwang temple, Mt. Pal young of fall. The future of tourism will be rapidly grow with increase of personal mobility and leisure time, chang of tourism behavior. Thus, it is imperative that planning and development for tour-root, facilities of tourist-places should be implemented to increase tourism demand.

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A Study on the Individual Issue and Organizational Issue of Organizational Innovation (개인혁신과 조직혁신의 이슈에 관한 연구)

  • Song Kyung-Soo;Kim Hye-Jung
    • Management & Information Systems Review
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    • v.16
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    • pp.59-76
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    • 2005
  • The inner and outer environment surrounding companies becomes more insecure and unpredictable due to sudden changes. Because the change of environment surrounding companies can deeply affect the existence of companies, continuous innovation of organization is required to develope management ability. Also, to conquer insecure present and future of companies effectively, organizations of companies have voluntarily coped with insecurities and intense competitions through endless organization innovation. Externally, globalization, openness, and relaxed regulation intensify competitions; consumers' requests get varied; consciousness of members of organizations have changed. Due to those factors, companies are placed in a situation that they should practice endless inner innovation. Internally, competitive power has weakened due to decline in productivity and inefficiency of indirect parts of company has increased. From those factors, managers increasingly request inner innovation and pursue organization innovation for the purpose of effective usage of extra resources and being prepared for the future. The managers who operate organization innovation think that systematized approach to organization innovation is the most practical, and actually operate the thought. However, the negative side of the thought is not neglectable. To minimize inner and outer resistance and to operate organization innovation successfully, some innovation strategies that properly reflect several issues related to organization innovation should be prepared. Another words, organization innovation should be operated differently by cases that if it focuses on personal perspective or on organization's. For many cases of our country, several techniques of organization innovation have been adopted in a short time and operated without making its original use. Therefore, this study looks into major Issues that should be considered for more successful operation of organization innovation, from both personal aspect and organizational aspect. When considering such aspects and operate organization innovation, there is more possibility to succeed on organization innovation. Now, Korean companies have overcame trial period and reborn as global companies. Take warnings by the ordeal under IMF administration, this is time to secure international competitive power by using developed innovation techniques and transform to superior company. Managers need to recognize that to try successful organization innovation is the shortcut to reborn as competitive company, and should take a continuous and profound search for decisive factors to succeed on organization innovation. To operate successful organization innovation, first, at the step of planning organization. innovation, the company should understand the company's capability, position in market and relationship with competitors. Then, the company should establish a distinguished innovation strategy which is of the whole company's aspect, so that the company can freely choose various technique of organization innovation that suits for the company's capability and needs, and unfold the organization innovation movement. Establishing strategy in the aspect of the total company is very important because it offers clear focus of the purpose of adopt, priority and distribution of resources. Second, at the step of operating organization innovation, the company should define concrete purpose and method to evaluate the results that are expected to obtain by adopting organization innovation in advance. While pushing forward, the company should set proper time of examination(milestone) and inspect if expected results are shown. Third, at the step of afterward management of operating organization innovation, the company requires a thorough afterwards verification if targeted results are obtained and of confirmation of successful or failure factors. Also, the company should cultivate specialists in the company who can accumulate and continuously spread the know-how learned during organization innovation promotion, so the know-how don't remain only in certain departments or to a few people in charge. The company should also give effort to maintain the accumulated innovation techniques to be continued.

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The knowledge and human resources distribution system for university-industry cooperation (대학에서 창출하는 지적/인적자원에 대한 기업연계 플랫폼: 인문사회계열을 중심으로)

  • Park, Yoon-Joo
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.20 no.3
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    • pp.133-149
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    • 2014
  • One of the main purposes of universities is to create new intellectual resources that will increase social values. These intellectual resources include academic research papers, lecture notes, patents, and creative ideas produced by both professors and students. However, intellectual resources in universities are often not distributed to the actual users or companies; and moreover, they are not even systematically being managed inside of the universities. Therefore, it is almost impossible for companies to access the knowledge created by university students and professors to utilize them. Thus, the current level of knowledge sharing between universities and industries are very low. This causes a great extravagant with high-quality intellectual and human resources, and it leads to quite an amount of social loss in the modern society. In the 21st century, the creative ideas are the key growth powers for many industries. Many of the globally leading companies such as Fedex, Dell, and Facebook have established their business models based on the innovative ideas created by university students in undergraduate courses. This indicates that the unconventional ideas from young generations can create new growth power for companies and immensely increase social values. Therefore, this paper suggests of a new platform for intellectual properties distribution with university-industry cooperation. The suggested platform distributes intellectual resources of universities to industries. This platform has following characteristics. First, it distributes not only the intellectual resources, but also the human resources associated with the knowledge. Second, it diversifies the types of compensation for utilizing the intellectual properties, which are beneficial for both the university students and companies. For example, it extends the conventional monetary rewards to non-monetary rewards such as influencing on the participating internship programs or job interviews. Third, it suggests of a new knowledge map based on the relationships between key words, so that the various types of intellectual properties can be searched efficiently. In order to design the system platform, we surveyed 120 potential users to obtain the system requirements. First, 50 university students and 30 professors in humanities and social sciences departments were surveyed. We sent queries on what types of intellectual resources they produce per year, how many intellectual resources they produce, if they are willing to distribute their intellectual properties to the industries, and what types of compensations they expect in returns. Secondly, 40 entrepreneurs were surveyed, who are potential consumers of the intellectual properties of universities. We sent queries on what types of intellectual resources they want, what types of compensations they are willing to provide in returns, and what are the main factors they considered to be important when searching for the intellectual properties. The implications of this survey are as follows. First, entrepreneurs are willing to utilize intellectual properties created by both professors and students. They are more interested in creative ideas in universities rather than the academic papers or educational class materials. Second, non-monetary rewards, such as participating internship program or job interview, can be the appropriate types of compensations to replace monetary rewards. The results of the survey showed that majority of the university students were willing to provide their intellectual properties without any monetary rewards to earn the industrial networks with companies. Also, the entrepreneurs were willing to provide non-monetary compensation and hoped to have networks with university students for recruiting. Thus, the non-monetary rewards are mutually beneficial for both sides. Thirdly, classifying intellectual resources of universities based on the academic areas are inappropriate for efficient searching. Also, the various types of intellectual resources cannot be categorized into one standard. This paper suggests of a new platform for the distribution of intellectual materials and human resources, with university-industry cooperation based on these survey results. The suggested platform contains the four major components such as knowledge schema, knowledge map, system interface, and GUI (Graphic User Interface), and it presents the overall system architecture.

Database study for clinical guidelines of children with pneumonia who visited an emergency department (응급의료센터에 내원한 소아 폐렴의 진료 지침을 위한 기초 자료 연구)

  • Hong, Dae Young;Lee, Kyung Mi;Kim, Ji Hye;Kim, Jun Sig;Han, Seung Baik;Lim, Dae-Hyun;Son, Byoung Kwan;Lee, Hun Jae;Lee, Kyung-Hee
    • Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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    • v.49 no.7
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    • pp.757-762
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    • 2006
  • Purpose : Pneumonia is one of the most common infections in children who visit emergency departments(ED), but standard clinical guidelines for children with pneumonia in Korea have not been studied. This study was performed to collect and evaluate a data-base of children with pneumonia for establishing clinical guidelines in ED. Methods : This study reviewed 304 children who were diagnosed and treated for pneumonia in the ED at one tertiary hospital between January 2003 and December 2003 retrospectively by reviewing the charts and analyzing the clinical characteristics, laboratory findings, and radiologic findings between an admission group and a discharge group. Results : The 2 year-5 year age group was the top of age distribution and the peak incidence of monthly distribution was December. Two hundred forty seven(81.3 percent) children were hospitalized(admission group), and the mean length of hospitalization was $7.24{\pm}3.24$ days. The most common indications of admission were fever, tachypnea and an age of less than three months. There was statistical differences in the outpatient department follow-up between the two groups(85.8 percent in admission group vs 35.1 percent in discharge group). Conclusion : More prospective studies are needed to establish clinical standard guidelines for children with pneumonia. This will be helpful in ED management and will aid the prevention of pneumonia.

The Structure of Korean Radiation Oncology in 1997 (국내 병원 별 방사선치료의 진료 구조 현황(1997년 현황을 중심으로 한 선진국과의 비교 구))

  • Kim Mi Sook;Yoo Seoung Yul;Cho Chul Koo;Yoo Hyung Jun;Yang Kwang Mo;Je Young Hoon;Lee Dong Hun;Lee Dong Han;Kim Do Jun
    • Radiation Oncology Journal
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.172-178
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    • 1999
  • Purpose : To measure the basic structural characteristics of radiation oncology facilities in Korea during 1997 and to compare personnel, equipments and patient loads between Korea and developed countries. Methods and Materials : Mail serveys we conducted in 1998 and data on treatment machines, personnel and peformed new patients were collected. Responses were obtained from the 100 percent of facilities. The consensus data of the whole country were summarized using Microsoft Excel program. Results: In Korea during 1997, 42 facilities delivered megavoltage radiation theraphy with 71 treatment machines, 100 radiation oncologists, 26 medical physicist, 205 technologists and 19,773 new patients. Eighty nine percent of facilities in Korea had linear accelators at least 6 MeV maximum photon energy. Ninety five percent of facilities had simulators while five percent of facilities had no simulator, Ninety one percent of facilities had computer planning systems and eighty three percent of facilities reported that they had a written quality assurance program. Thirty six percent of facilities had only one radiation oncologist and thirty eight percent of facilities had no medical physicists. The median of the distribution of annual patients load of a facility, patients load per a machine, patients load per a radiation oncologist, patients load per a therapist and therapists per a machine in Korea were 348 patients per a year, 263 patients per a machine, 171 patients per a radiation oncologist, 81 patients per a therapist, and 3 therapists per a machine respectively. Conclusions : The whole scale of the radiation oncology departments in Korea was smaller than Japan and USA in population ratio regard. In case of hardware level like linear accelerators, simulators and computer planning systems, there was no big differences between Korea and USA. The patients loads of radiation oncologists and therapists had no significant differences as compared with USA. However, it was desirable to consider the part time system in USA because there were a lot of hospitals which did not employ medical physicists.

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