• Health Policy and Management
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.148-152
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• 2016

The hospital readmission rate has been widely used as an indicator of the quality of hospital care in many countries. However, the transferrability of this indicator that has been developed in a different health care system can be questioned. We reviewed what should be considered when using the risk-standardized readmission rate (RSRR) as a generic quality indicator in the Korean setting. We addressed the relationship between RSRR and the quality of hospital care, methodological aspects of RSRR, and use of RSRR for external purposes. These issues can influence the validity of the readmission rate as a generic quality indicator. Therefore RSRR should be used with care and further studies are needed to enhance the validity of the readmission rate indicator.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.114-120
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• 2017

The hospital standardized mortality ratio (HSMR) is a widely used generic measure for assessing quality of hospital care in many countries. However, the validity of HSMR as a quality indicator is still controversial. We critically reviewed characteristics of HSMR and suggested how to use HSMR as a quality indicator in the Korean setting. The association between HSMR and other quality measures of hospital care is inconclusive. In addition current HSMR model has shortcomings in risk adjustment because of the lack of clinical data, accuracy of disease coding, coding variation among hospitals, end-of-life care issues, and so on. Therefore, HSMR should be used as an indicator for improvement, not for judgement such as public reporting and pay-for-performance. More efforts will be needed to tackle practical and methodological weaknesses of HSMR in the Korean setting.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.699-713
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• 2012

Palustrine wetland is often used for development work and green area creation. However, the ecological characteristic of vegetation is not frequently considered in planning. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate vegetation characteristic according to land-use of palustrine wetland and to provide basic materials in assessment of palustrine wetland and restoration and creation of wetland. Survey sites were caterogized into paddy, field, and mountain. Each category had two sites, so total 6 survey sites were investigated for vegetation. As a result, with a range of 61~92 species, total 216 taxa were confirmed, consisting of 71 families, 168 generic, 187 species, 2 variety 1 forma 1 subforma. Mountain received a high score in the evaluation score range of floristic regional indicator plants, and it was found that there were 10 families and 28 species of naturalized plant. Mountain showed low appearance, and fiddy and field showed relatively high appearance. Naturalized plants with slightly high vegetation cover ratio are Erigeron annuus, Amorpha fruticosa, Dactylis glomerata, Festuca arundinacea, Eragrostis curvula, Trifolium repens, Erigeron Canadensis, Ambrosia trifida, Oenothera odorata, Bidens frondosa, etc. Such naturalized plants should be removed to prevent terrestrialization of wetland and its harmful damages. Long-term monitoring and proper management of naturalized plants are expected to improve palustrine wetland into high quality biotope of rural area in the future.