• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.380-389
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• 2013

The nurse staffing level in the acute care hospitals affects patient safety and performance, and the nurse staffing legislation can be an important tool to guarantee the minimum nurse staffing. In Korea, although the medical law suggests the nurse staffing standards, it is necessary to revise the medical law for quality of nursing care and patient safety. Firstly, the nurse staffing standards in the current medical law enacted in 1962 needs to be revised to reflect changes in health care environment. Secondly, legal nurse staffing standards in the medical law are the minimum nurse staffing that medical institutions should comply with and thus must be managed so that all medical institutions should abide by them. Thirdly, the nurse staffing standards should apply on the basis of RN-to-patient ratios per shift in order to help patients understanding and ensure the easy management. Fourthly, the information of nursing staff level by the nursing unit and nursing shift in hospitals shall be released.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.384-392
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• 2013

Objective: This study inspected incident cases, legal control levels, and GHS(Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals) classification results of strong acids such as hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen chloride, nitric acid, and sulfuric acid, which have been responsible for many recent chemical accidents. As a result, it is deemed necessary for legal control levels of these strong acids to be revised and GHS classification be managed nation-wide. Methods: This study inspected incident cases and legal control levels for strong acids such as hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen chloride, nitric acid, and sulfuric acid. The study analyzed and compared chemical information status and GHS classification results. Results: There were 76 domestic incidents involving strongly acidic hazardous materials over the five years between 2007 and 2011. They include 37 leakage incidents(46.7%) within a workplace, 30 leakage incidents(39.5%) during transportation, and nine leakage incidents(13.8%) following an explosion. The strongly acidic materials in question are defined and controlled as toxic chemicals according to the classes of Substances Requiring Preparation for Accidents, Managed Hazardous Substance, Hazardous Chemical(corrosive) as set forth under the Enforcement Decree of the Toxic Chemicals Control Act and Rules on Occupational Safety and Health Standards of Occupational Safety and Health Act. Among them, nitric acid is solely controlled as a class 6 hazardous material, oxidizing liquid, under the Hazardous Chemicals Control Act. The classification results of the EU ECHA(European Chemicals Agency) CLP(Commission Regulation(EC) No. 790/2009 of 10 August 2009, for the purposes of its adaptation to technical and scientific progress, Regulation(EC) No 1272/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on classification, labeling and packaging of substances and mixtures) and NIER (National Institute of Environmental Research) are almost identical for the three chemicals, with the exception of sulfuric acid. Much of the classification information of NITE (National Institute of Technology and Evaluation) and KOSHA(Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, KOSHA) is the same. NIER provides 12(41.4%) out of 29 classifications, as does KOSHA.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.251-256
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• 2018

The origin of hospital accreditation in Korea is the Hospital Standardization Program of the Korea Hospital Association. Current accreditation program implemented by the Korea Institute for Healthcare Accreditation has succeeded in stimulating quality improvement activities of participating hospitals since its launching in 2010. However it has been criticized due to some unintended consequences of accreditation. In order to fully enjoy the benefit of the accreditation program in Korea, national efforts to expand accreditation scheme and coverage, upgrade accreditation standards, insure substantiality of accreditation process, provide consumers with more useful information, and strengthen the professional capacity of accreditation organization will be needed.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.14-34
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• 2013

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to provide comprehensive information of qualification systems of developed countries needed to establish our national system for QI(Quality improvement) specialists. Methods: All articles related to any applicable domestic or foreign countries' laws, operational status, and detailed programs for professional qualification system of QI were reviewed. Result: In the United States, a non-profit organization, Healthcare Quality Certification Commission (HQCC) has set the policies, procedures and standards in the field of health care quality. And qualification system of CPHQ (certified professional in healthcare quality) has been operated in order to authenticate the qualifications in the field of quality management. IBQH(international Board for quality in healthcare), a qualification system of experts in the United Kingdom, was designed to assist the qualification of professionals to improve the quality of healthcare. In addition, Health Research Center of Feinberg School of Medicine in Northwestern University has been operating Master's and doctoral degree programs in the field of the quality of care and patient safety and IHI (institute for healthcare improvement) open school was operating a professional training course related to the quality of care and patient safety. Conclusion: Quantity and complexity of information of the quality of care and patient safety have been increased. For reform of the health care system, a special training course of the expertise and leadership are needed. So far, there is no national professional certification courses in our nation. Therefore essential job skill should be acquired individually. For systematic and effective quality improvement activities, the educational and certification system with professional development model are needed.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.4056-4066
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• 2015

For understanding of terminology related to u-Health and activating u-Health industry, it is required to develop u-Health standard terminology for communication. The purpose of this study is to develop u-Health standard terminology and provides guidelines for terminology standardization in order to develop the u-Health standard terminology. We finally developed the 187 u-Health standard terminology through the process of data acquisition, term extraction, term refinement, term selection and term management based on reports, glossary and Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) standards about u-Health. As a result, the standard terminology and guidelines of u-Health optimized to the domestic environment were suggested. They included details of definition, classification, components, the methods and principles of the process for u-Health standard terminology. Presented in this study, u-Health standard terminology and guidelines for terminology standardization would assist the cost-reducing of employing terminology and management of it, while making information transfer easy. This would make possible promoting efficient development of u-Health industry in general.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.sup3
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• pp.47-52
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• 2016

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women in Asia and its incidence is rapidly increasing. Information on the incidence and mortality of breast cancer is essential for planning health and more studies. This study aimed to investigate the age-specific incidence and mortality of breast cancer in Asia in 2012. A total of 639,824 cases of breast cancer were recorded in Asian countries, those with the five highest standardized incidence rates being Israel, Lebanon, Armenia, Singapore, and Kazakhstan. The highest number of deaths was observed in India, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Japan, respectively. Tith increasing income and improving living standards in developing countries, the incidence of breast cancer increases. This may be due to longer life, higher exposure to risk factors, eating more fatty foods and obesity, and lower pregnancy rates. The variation in incidence rates of breast cancer is very pronounced in Asia (from 80.5 in Israel to 4.6 in Bhuta). A similar situation exists for mortality rates (from 1.8 in Bhutan to 25.2 in Pakistan).

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.208-217
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• 2022

Purpose: This study investigated childhood cancer survivors' behavior related to a healthy lifestyle during their survival period by comparing reports between childhood cancer survivors and their parents. Methods: In this comparative descriptive study, a survey was conducted with a 33-item questionnaire and one open-ended question about areas for improvement. The participants comprised 69 childhood cancer survivors and 69 of their parents, for a total of 138. Results: The total mean healthy lifestyle score, on a 4-point Likert scale, reported by childhood cancer survivors was 2.97, while that reported by their parents was 3.03. No significant differences in children's healthy lifestyles were found between childhood cancer survivors' and their parents' reports (t=0.86, p=.390). For the open-ended question, the main keywords based on the results of degree and eigenvector centrality were "exercise", "unbalanced diet", and "food". These keywords were present in both the children's and parents' responses. Conclusion: Obtaining information on childhood cancer survivors' healthy lifestyles based on reports from themselves and their parents provides meaningful insights into the improvement of health care management. The results of this study may be used to develop and plan healthy lifestyle standards to meet childhood cancer survivors' needs.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.25-33
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• 2016

Purpose : The information of mental health facilities in Korean law is so unclear that people hardly enable to understand what sort of proper mental health service is prepared for them. Futhermore, there is not enough regulation and standard to classify each type of facilities in the law. Therefore the purpose of this study is to provide data on the basis for classification and facility standards by analysing Korean law and policies. Methods : This study was conducted by a research on law and regulation of mental health facility. Results : The result of this study can be summarized into three points. The first one, current law and policy do not reflect a change in community mental health services paradigm. The second one, the classified facility should be designed to fit the community mental health services. The third one, overall, it requires more detailed guidelines to enhance the quality of mental health services. Besides, the treatment as well as the function of the prevention and rehabilitation are necessary criteria that can also be enhanced. Implications : This study looked at the classification and facility standard of mental health facility by the change in community mental health services paradigm. Forward according to these changes, there is a need for specific guidelines for mental health facility.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.11-21
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• 2014

The rapid development and distribution of information communication industry facilitates the changes of hospital administration, introducing EMR(Electronic Medical Record) instead of paper-based medical record in the medical field. The developed countries such as U.S. have established EMR system after in the middle of 1970s because the primary advantages of EMR is to store and handle vast amounts of records efficiently and increase the quality of health care. Most of health organizations in Korea also apply medical record system to their administration. As the result, they have accomplished a scientific administration system through the use of medical record to handle a variety of patient's information including patient's confidentiality and privacy such as family history, social status, income level, and so on. However, access to and the misuse of EMR causes illegal infringement of patient's information and finally it becomes a very serious medical issue. Potential leakage and misuse of records may seriously infringe patient's privacy rights. In this respect, the related agencies in the public and private sector have been making efforts to prevent patient's records leakages. Especially, the revision bill of Medical Law in 2002 establishes the ways on the security and standards of electronic records. However, it does not provide the proper guidelines which is applied to the rapid changes of the medical environment. One of the most priorities in the hospital administration is the production and maintenance of an accurate medical records fulfilled by medical recorders. Therefore, it is very important for health care providers to hire ethical-based medical recorders. But, unfortunately most of hospitals overlook the importance of their roles. All parts including government, physician and patient must have more concerns on the problems related to EMR. Therefore, this study aims to propose the proper ways to resolve the problems coming from EMR.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.227-237
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• 2018

Objectives: This study was investigated the characteristics of small-scale water works (SWW) in Gyeongnam area and conduct a health risk assessment of water-quality inspection items unfitted for water-quality standards (WQS). Methods: The characteristics of SWW in Gyeongnam province were analyzed using the data of SWW in the last three years (2014~2016) published in National Waterworks Information System. In addition, the health risk assessment for inspection items unfitted for WQS was carried out in four steps: hazard identification, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, and risk characterization. Results: The total number of SWW in Gyeongnam area was gradually decreased from 2014 to 2016. In addition, drinking water sources of SWW were in the order of ground water, valley water, spring water, surface water, and river-bed water. The number of points unfitted for WQS in SWW by year was 22, 45, and 18 in 2014, 2015, and 2016, respectively, and a total of 112 points were found to unfit for WQS in SWW during 2014~2016. The hazard quotient (HQ) for fluoride, nitrate nitrogen, boron in the unfitted points for WQS was more than 1.0, and the mean values for turbidity and color in points unfitted for WQS were 2.38 nephelometric turbidity unit and 16.25 color unit, respectively. Conclusions: The HQ for fluorine, nitrate nitrogen and boron was more than 1.0 in points unfitted for WQS among SWW in Gyeongnam area, and the turbidity and the color degree exceeded WQS, which mean that there is a possibility of harmful impacts on the human health.