• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.62-84
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• 2001

The purpose of the study was to compare patient's satisfaction on the pharmacy services after introducing the new system of separation of dispensing from prescribing medicines, between those filling their prescriptions from the pharmacy nearby hospitals and those from the pharmacy in their resident areas. To measure patient's satisfaction, a questionnaire survey was conducted with 354 outpatients who received prescriptions from any of the three university hospitals located in In-Cheon city. Study results showed that geographic accessibility to pharmacy was a main attribute to select pharmacy. Size of the pharmacy and availability of prescription drugs are the second major reasons for pharmacy selection for the patients from the pharmacy nearby hospital, whereas patronage is the second major reason for those from the pharmacy in resident areas. Overall satisfaction was higher among the patients from the pharmacy in resident areas than those from the pharmacy nearby hospitals, mainly due to better facilities(waiting area, public telephone, etc), kindness, cleanliness, shorter waiting time, and pharmacist's concern about patient's health. On the other hand, the patients of the pharmacy nearby hospitals showed low satisfaction because of long waiting time and the lack of pharmacist's knowledge and information about patients' health status and medication history. Patients visiting the hospital that has pharmacy-hospital cooperation system showed higher satisfaction as compared to those visiting the hospital without such system. This study provided an empirical evidence that it would be more advantageous for patients to receive pharmacy services from pharmacies located in their living areas than from pharmacies nearby hospitals. This implies that there is a strong need for adequate strategies to enhance the role of pharmacies in resident areas under the new system of separation of dispensing from prescribing medications.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.41-50
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• 2024

Background: Recognizing the seriousness of the misuse and abuse of medical narcotics, the South Korean government introduced the world's first narcotic management system, the Narcotics Information Management System (NIMS). This study aimed to explore the recent one-year opioid prescribing patterns in South Korea using the NIMS database. Methods: This study analyzed opioid prescription records in South Korea for the year 2022, utilizing the dispensing/administration dataset provided by NIMS. Public data from the Korean Statistical Information Service were also utilized to explore prescription trends over the past four years. The examination covered 16 different opioid analgesics, assessed by the total number of units prescribed based on routes of administration, type of institutions, and patients' sex and age group. Additionally, the disposal rate for each ingredient was computed. Results: In total, 206,941 records of 87,792,968 opioid analgesic units were analyzed. Recently, the overall quantity of prescribed opioid analgesic units has remained relatively stable. The most prescribed ingredient was oral oxycodone, followed by tapentadol and sublingual fentanyl. Tertiary hospitals had the highest number of dispensed units (49.4%), followed by community pharmacies (40.2%). The highest number of prescribed units was attributed to male patients in their 60s. The disposal rates of the oral and transdermal formulations were less than 0.1%. Conclusions: Opioid prescription in South Korea features a high proportion of oral formulations, tertiary hospital administration, pharmacy dispensing, and elderly patients. Sustained education and surveillance of patients and healthcare providers is required.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.91-113
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• 2002

We report and analyze the Korean physicians' recent general strike over the implementation of the Separation of Prescribing and Dispensing Practice (SPDP) in which more than 18,000 private clinics and 280 hospitals participated. Utilizing game-theoretic models of bargaining we explain why the Korean physicians were so successful in organizing intense collective action against the government and securing very favorable policy outcomes. In particular, we highlight the role of distributional conflict among social actors in shaping the details of institutional reform. The introduction of the SPDP was a necessary first step in the overall reform of health care system in Korea. However, the SPDP was perceived to be a serious threat to the economic viability of their profession by the vast majority of Korean physicians who had long been relied on the profits from selling medicines to compensate for the loss of income due to the low service fee under the previous health care system. The strong political coalition among heterogeneous physicians enabled them to organize an intense form of collective action, the general strike. Thus, physicians were successful not only in dragging the government to a bargaining table, but also winning in the bargaining and securing an outcome vastly favorable to them. On the other hand, the lack of an overall reform plan in the health care policy area, especially the finance of the National Health Insurance and the need for maintaining an image as a successful reform initiator, motivated the government to reach a quick resolution with the striking physicians.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.262-267
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• 2010

Therapeutic duplication of prescriptions is the most frequently reported inappropriate drug use in Korea. To prevent significant problems during drug prescribing and dispensing, prospectively, development of standard including drug lists considered as therapeutic duplications for the prioritized drug classes first would be necessary. This study was aimed to analyze frequent drug classes of therapeutic duplications by healthcare providers in clinical practice settings. National health claims data for drug review and reimbursement (1,426,065 prescriptions dated March 19, 2008) were analyzed. Therapeutic duplication was defined as the prescription including more than 2 ingredients belonging to the same KFDA drug classification numbers that considered to have therapeutic similarities. The following 3 drug classes were mostly frequent therapeutic duplication classes: 114 anti-pyretics, analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs; 117 drugs for psycho-nervous system; 141 Antihistamines. About 3.5% of overall prescriptions analyzed showed therapeutic duplications. This result might be starting step to develop DUR therapeutic duplication standard.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.368-376
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• 2009

DUR (Drug Utilization Review) originally referred to the evaluation of drug usage details: however DUR refers to the system used to support the services of prescribing and dispensing through linking from Health Insurance Review and Assessment (HIRA) Service in Korea. HIRA is going to begin the DUR enforcement for extending to nationwide coverage after pilot test. Objectives: The aims for this study were to evaluate and clarify the current opinions of the pharmacists for the recognition and acceptance rates before nationwide coverage concerning DUR system. Methods: A 16-question-questionnaire was developed and pilot tested. For 40 days of survey by both on-line and fax paper, it was carried out on 80 pharmacists working at community pharmacy in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do. Results: Most of answers were broadly positive and interested in begining the DUR system and kept in mind that the goal of DUR is safety guarantee for people. On the other hand, most of answerers worry that delay of patient waiting time and inharmonious communication with doctors in DUR processing can be a major obstacle to begin the DUR system. Conclusion: To solve several problems, the most important things are to make good reciprocal relationships between doctors and pharmacists, investigate intervention tool to shorten patient waiting time, and activate educational program of inspecting items for the pharmacists.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2020.11a
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• pp.315-318
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• 2020

Due to the increase in single-person households among the people who have companion animals, it is difficult to feed them to companion animals in the absence of the owner, so an automatic feeding machine was designed. In this paper, we propose an automatic feeding machine that has a drug distribution function as well as feeds using the Arduino platform. It is expected that in the proposed automatic feeding machine, users can access the food service through the website, and experience the convenient and extended food service function through the automatic dispensing system that combines the two materials.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.93-100
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• 2012

Objective: This study is to review the current state of services offered to pharmacy users, and develop a service design converging a prescription service and a smart phone application service in order to enhance patients' experience at pharmacies and home. Background: Under the new medical system; separation of prescribing and dispensing drugs, a doctor writes a prescription to their patients and patients have their prescription filled at the pharmacy. As the number of flue, allergy and atopy patients has increased, waiting lines have been longer at pharmacies. Besides, the current medical service system lacks of providing proper information on prescribed pills to patients. There are already services offered during waiting times such as offering free drinks, magazines or suggesting general drugs which you can buy without prescription, however they neither cover the current medical service's shorts nor shorten the waiting time. Method: I researched objective and perceived waiting times reduction methods, the current service status at pharmacies, and the government's policy direction in a medical service. Also, I observed a patient's journey from the hospital to pharmacy and then home. I examined the circumstance at pharmacies, patients' behaviors and their thoughts during their journey, and extracted three main goals to design a service in order to help patients have positive perception during the waiting time; (1) to reduce the perceived time by the way of visualizing time and offering readings about what patients consider necessary, (2) to educate patients what they are into and how to get through, (3) to establish trust among patients, doctors and pharmacists. Based on three goals, I designed a structure and a wireframe for a new service application of smart phones. Results: With a new service design for pharmacy users, users can track their medical record and visit the information about their current medical treatments anytime. Also the service helps patients build reliable relationships with doctors and pharmacists. Conclusion: Experience is not just an activity but series of multiple activities. The serving range of a medical service should not be determined by stakeholders but user's holistic experience. By approaching a service design with a holistic vision, it can enrich not only a temporary experience but also a whole life well being. Application: Since there are already many service applications advising patients about their illness and finding right doctors, this service design is focused on the experience from getting a prescription till feeling better. The next move is to combine those two parts medical services and design an integrated service application. As a prescription is going to be coded in numbers, we might consider to design an un-attended pharmacy which can shorten huge amount of time for filling prescriptions.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2006

This study was intended to investigate and analyze the satisfaction of military meals service which was recognized by air force soldiers who were familiar to the society's meals service, and to make suggestions for the analysis results. For the study, the questionnaire survey was conducted for 460 air force soldiers who performed military duties in Chungcheong area for 23 days from June 3, 2003 to June 26, 2003. Total 460 copies of questionnaire were distributed. But, among them, 431 questionnaires except 29 copies which included dishonest and untrustful answers were analyzed for the study. In terms of the soldiers' rank in demographical characteristics, 43.2% (186 respondents) of total respondents were the airman first class, and 29.7% (128 soldiers) of total respondents were the airman second class. In terms of an education level, 66.1% (285 respondents) of total respondents had the undergraduate school or higher education level. Also, in terms of the growth area, 56.8% (245 respondents) of total respondents came from large cities. Among 20 items about the military meals service, in the question of cooking soldier's kindness degree, respondents answered that they were satisfied with the cooking solders' kindness at a medial level. The survey showed the average 2.95 in this item. The satisfaction level of actions taken at the lack of foods, was 2.94 on the average. Respondents answered that the soldiers' satisfaction on the actions taken at loss of foods was in the medial level. The average was 2.94 and respondents answered that this satisfaction was in the average level. In the item of daily menu placement, the average was 3.19. respondents showed the little higher satisfaction than the average. As the result of investigating whether the castor's seasoning materials were frequently replaced, there was the satisfaction of average level with 3.00 on the average. The satisfaction level of hot foods' temperature was 3.52 on the average. Respondents answered that they were relatively satisfied with the hot foods' temperature preservation. Also, the survey indicated that the nutritional satisfaction had the most influence.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.217-227
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• 2007

This study aims to help improving the quality of military food service as identifying awareness, attitudes and satisfaction of cooking soldier on their duties and providing basic data to find out alternatives on the basis of identified data. The analysis results are described as follows. For general demographics of subjects, sergeants consisted of the highest percentage of population as 38.8% in terms of the rank. For educational background, the percentage of graduates or college students was 82.5%. For the characteristics of job performance of cooking soldier, those who studied entirely different courses from cookery and became to work as cooking soldier were 92(89.3%) of total subjects. For the question why they became to work as cooking soldier, the response that they didn't know the reason showed the highest percentage as 63.1%. Those who selected cooking soldier because they were interested in cookery were only 25.2%. And 94.2% of the population had no certificates related to cookery. With respect to awareness on training period to carry on duties as cooking soldier, 3 months were selected as the most appropriate period as 36.9%. In accordance with research on job percentage of cooking soldier, 'cleaning and washing' consisted of the highest percentage among ordinary duties as 16.8%, followed by 'cooking' as 12.3% and 'food dispensing' as 11.8%. This study suggests as follows on the basis of the results of this researches. Cooking soldier requires expertise, but the privates with short period of service are discharged from military service when they are accustomed to their duties and become experts. Accordingly, the cooking soldier system could not achieve more than its ordinary performance. Therefore, it is required to post non-commissioned officers who can serve for a long time as the special resources.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.51-74
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• 2005

This paper presents an analysis of the current status of domestic hospital industry which went trough the time of new hospitals operated by chaebols from 1994 to 2003 and the dramatic changes of medical service environment such as IMF relief loan in 1997 and the separation of prescription and dispensing (SPD) in 2000. For the sake of righteous policy-making in the future, this paper presents a productivity analysis of the management and administration of 38 tertiary hospitals nationwide in the past 10 years. The analysis is based on the Malmquist index approach using linear programming. d prepare a productivity index that measures not merely efficiency but the technological evolution and adjustment to changing environments.