• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.189-197
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• 2017

Background: Despite the recent efforts to prevent industrial accidents in the Republic of Korea, the industrial accident rate has not improved much. Industrial safety policies and safety management are also known to be inefficient. This study focused on dynamic characteristics of industrial safety systems and their effects on safety performance in the Republic of Korea. Such dynamic characteristics are particularly important for restructuring of the industrial safety system. Methods: The effects of damping and elastic characteristics of the industrial safety system model on safety performance were examined and feedback control performance was explained in view of cost and benefit. The implications on safety policies of restructuring the industrial safety system were also explored. Results: A strong correlation between the safety budget and the industrial accident rate enabled modeling of an industrial safety system with these variables as the input and the output, respectively. A more effective and efficient industrial safety system could be realized by having weaker elastic characteristics and stronger damping characteristics in it. A substantial decrease in total social cost is expected as the industrial safety system is restructured accordingly. Conclusion: A simple feedback control with proportional-integral action is effective in prevention of industrial accidents. Securing a lower level of elastic industrial accident-driving energy appears to have dominant effects on the control performance compared with the damping effort to dissipate such energy. More attention needs to be directed towards physical and social feedbacks that have prolonged cumulative effects. Suggestions for further improvement of the safety system including physical and social feedbacks are also made.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.103-119
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• 2000

This study is conducted to promote the activation of volunteer activities on the basic of the voluntaarry participation of local by investigating the utillzation of volunteers and analyzing this realted factors in the visiting health services of health centers. Subjects in this study were the whole 245 health centers. Data were collected from April, 12, 1999 to May, 31, 1999, and data for analyses were ones of 41 respondents, which answer " they utilize volunteers in visting health services". The summary of resulth was as follows : 1. In case that the type of health centers is one of county, in case that the number of staff in health center is over 80, in case that model business in not performed, in case that the degree of local financial independence is over 50%, and in case that the location of health centers in not good, there had more of volunteers in visiting health services. 2. 51.2% of analysing health centers answered that the utilization of volunteers has been done since 1998. 56.1% answered that they utillzed volunteers "over 4 hours" per person in a week. The average number of volunteers who was engaged at those visiting health services was 43.3. 3. Most of volinteers were housewives(73.2%). As for the action duration of volunteers. 68.8% answered " under 6 months". 4. As to the tasks of volunter activities, 75.6% were "home services" and 63.4% were "movable bath services". As for the tasks they intend to utilize, 90.2% answered " home services", 73.2% answered "movable health services". 5. Asked abount the purpose in utilizing volunteers, 75.6% answered "to induce the participation og local people". 65.9% answered "to provide various kinds of services". 66.7% provided some kind of education and training for volunteers. 6. Concerming evaluation of performance by volunteers, 90.2% answered " satisfactory". With reagards to the reason for that, 52.9% answered " volunteers can provide kinds of services". and 50.0% answered " volunteers can help local people to care their health". As for the obstacles to the utilization, 51.2% answered " the diffculty of recruitment for volunteers" and 43.9% answered "lack of budget and manpower needed for the utilization of volunteers".lty of recruitment for volunteers" and 43.9% answered "lack of budget and manpower needed for the utilization of volunteers".lunteers&".ot;.

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.6-11
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• 2010

Amid the rapid transitions in both local and international markets, the Korean dental industry is facing more challenges than at any time in its history. This paper tried to address some of the key issues faced by the industry as well as the policy issues and I direction of implementation that the Korean Dental Association (KDA) is expected to tackle. First, the direction of reforming the country's health insurance system was examined with emphasis on the expected changes in and improvement of the fee-for-service reimbursement system (FFSRS) and medical reimbursement system (MRS). With FFSRS, the most urgent issue would be ameliorating the current lop-sided, unreasonable reimbursement system that prevents suppliers from voicing their opinions. To help achieve that goal, the limited authority and responsibility of the president of National Health Insurance Corporation (NHIC) as one of the contract-making parties must be clarified. In addition, the functions of NHIC's Health Insurance Finance Committee must be restricted; at the same time, the panel organization of the Health Insurance Policy Review Committee needs to be reformed to embrace greater democracy. As with MRS, the government is considering a block budget bill to help promote efficiency in employing and managing the health insurance fund. Policymakers must understand that the implementation of such proposal could exacerbate an already dire situation. Improving MRS requires meeting the following preconditions: (a) the structurally vicious cycle of small charge-small salary needs to be resolved, and a certain percentage of fee raise must be guaranteed on a yearly basis to help adjust the fee system to a more realistic level; (b) the supply-and-demand balance in producing health care professionals must be improved including the prevention of oversupply of doctors, nurses, etc., and; (c) institutional strategies must be provided to enhance the quality of medical care and ensure academic advancement in health care disciplines.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.31-65
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• 2012

We study the sustainability of the current fiscal policy of Korea, and the effects of the social welfare policy expansion, which has been recently discussed among the political circles, on the government budget and the generational equity, using generational accounting. We follow the generational accounting approach, considering the fact that most of the social welfare policies are the entitlement programs, which imposes the limitation of the policy maker's discretion to control the cost of their provision. The social welfare expenditure will change due to the change in the policy environments of the future, such as population aging. Therefore, we need to take into account the government cash flow of the future as well as of the present to investigate its effects on the fiscal sustainability, which implies that the national debt or the budget balance is not a proper index for the investigation. Our findings are as follows. The current fiscal policies are not sustainable, and the long-term budgetary imbalance is shown very serious. The required tax adjustment, which is defined as the percentage change of tax burden required to attain the long-term budgetary balance, is very large. Unless the level of the government expenditure is properly controlled, the tax burden and the social contribution level will rise to the untolerable level. Moreover, the expansion of the social welfare policies, which has been discussed among the political circles, will substantially increase the fiscal burden of the future generations. Even though the provision of the free lunch to the primary and the secondary school students, the free child care, and the discounted college tuition do not increase the fiscal burden much, because their magnitude at present is not large and will decrease due to the decrease in the number of the newborns and the students resulting from the fall in the fertility rate, that of the free health care service will increase tax burden of the future generations very much, because the magnitude of the government expenditure needed at present is very large and the population aging will further increase the magnitude of the health care expenditure. The findings indicate that the structural reforms, to prevent the explosive increase in the social welfare expenditure in the future, are necessary before the implementation of the welfare policy expansion. In particular, the cost control of the social transfers to the elderly needs to be made, because the speed of the population aging of Korea is among the highest in the world. The findings also indicate that the budget balance or the national debt can cause the fiscal illusion, which makes the Korean government budget look sound, even though the fiscal policy will rapidly increase the social welfare expenditure in the future, as the population ages. The generational accounting, which takes into account the cash flow of the future as well as of the present, unlike the budgetary balance and the national debt, which shows the results of the government financial activities of the past and the present, is a useful method to overcome the fiscal illusion.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.67-77
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• 2000

For successful privatization of environmental facility, a sound environmental policy is required to satisfy social motivation and economic. The primary purpose of environmental facility is not profit, but to supply a good quality service, an efficient management tool is needed to run the facility. In foreign countries, the privatization policy was originally based on the principle of complete competition achieving economic effiency. There were efficient cooperation and division of labor between civillian and public sector. First of all, the local government had independant budget. But, we found that the environmental facility have two important problems, the first is low effiency of operation and the second is comsumed to government finances as a homemade rate 50% in the technic application For a successful privatization of the environmental facility, The law of private capital introduction should be amended to promote fund raising. There are some other strategies ; overcoming of Nimbyism, research development of the privatization, field trip to the successful foreign environmental facilities. To support an efficient privatization policy, the environmental budget should be managed by cost-benefit analysis.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.187-203
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• 1999

This paper will discuss about how we can foster educational support mechanisms to facilitate health promotion programs at the local level. Health promotion in Korea is in the early developmental stage; it has only been since the Health Promotion Act was legislated in 1995, the health promotion programs have been planned and implemented. In the context of the recent decentralization process, local health departments have a major responsibility for developing and implementing health promotion programs at the local level. The short history of health promotion in Korea has meant that local public health departments have limited experience and organizational capacity for health promotion planning ＆ practice. The results of one survey for investigating the progress of health promotion at the local level are instructive. The survey demonstrated that the public health workers recognized that the lack of personnels, insufficient budget, the lack of policy ＆ the organizational support, the lack of skill ＆ knowledge to be effective health promotors, the lack of guidance for health promotion practice were major barriers to implementing health promotion programs at the local level. The object of this paper is to suggest some ways of overcoming barriers to implementing health promotion programs at the local level This paper emphasizes on the importance of educational supports as well as environmental supports - legislative, policy, organizational, economical - in building the organizational capacity and infrastructure of local health department for health promotion. It suggests some ways of providing educational supports to the public health workers at the local level. and supports the positions that educational opportunities for training in health promotion can be better provided to the public health workers at the provincial level rather than at the national level. It argues that the educational ＆ training programs should be developed and based on the educational need assessment; that the application of the main educational principles ＆ theoretical models for health promotion be used to develop educational programs for the public health workers; and that professional health organizations should make plans to provide more educational programs at their annual conferences or at other convenient times. These kinds of educational supports facilitate the ability of public health workers to improve their capacity for health promotion practice at the local level and help to alleviate some of the pressure on state resources.

• Proceedings of The Korean Society of Health Promotion Conference
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• 1999.07a
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• pp.165-183
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• 1999

This paper will discuss about how we can foster educational support mechanisms to facilitate health promotion programs at the local level. Health promotion in Korea is in the early developmental stage; it has only been since the Health Promotion Act was legislated in 1995, the health promotion programs have been planned and implemented. In the context of the recent decentralization process, local health departments have a major responsibility for developing and implementing health promotion programs at the local level. The short history of health promotion in Korea has meant that local public health departments have limited experience and organizational capacity for health promotion planning ＆ practice. The results of one survey for investigating the progress of health promotion at the local level are instructive. The survey demonstrated that the public health workers recognized that the lack of personnels, insufficient budget, the lack of policy ＆ the organizational support, the lack of skill ＆ knowledge to be effective health promotors, the lack of guidance for health promotion practice were major barriers to implementing health promotion programs at the local level. The object of this paper is to suggest some ways of overcoming barriers to implementing health promotion programs at the local level This paper emphasizes on the importance of educational supports as well as environmental supports - legislative, policy, organizational, economical - in building the organizational capacity and infrastructure of local health department for health promotion. It suggests some ways of providing educational supports to the public health workers at the local level. and supports the positions that educational opportunities for training in health promotion can be better provided to the public health workers at the provincial level rather than at the national level. It argues that the educational ＆ training programs should be developed and based on the educational need assessment; that the application of the main educational principles ＆ theoretical models for health promotion be used to develop educational programs for the public health workers; and that professional health organizations should make plans to provide more educational programs at their annual conferences or at other convenient times. These kinds of educational supports facilitate the ability of public health workers to improve their capacity for health promotion practice at the local level and help to alleviate some of the pressure on state resources.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.1-17
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to find factors affecting health of the rural residents. The data were collected from a sample of 2,587 people aged from 40 to 70 in the year 2005-2006, Wonju City and Pyeongchang County, Gangwon-do, Korea. The theoretical model adopted in this study was the Lalonde's health field(human biology, environment, lifestyle, and health care organization). SF-12 was used to measure subjective health status. In the category of human biology, men were healthier than women. Age and BMI showed negative relation to health status. Income, education and social support showed positive relation to health status in the environment category. In the category of life style, stress showed negative relation to health status. Medical expenses showed negative relation to health status in the category of health care organization. After converting SF-12 score to percentage score, the health determinants portions were 47% lifestyle, 26% environment, 18% human biology and 9% health care organization. These findings suggest that life style, environment and biology are main factors in determinants of health. Especially stress in the life style category is more focused for the community health promotion. We also may be able to improve income, education and social support in the environment category with self empowerment efforts, community supports and government helps. Finally greater attention must be payed to life style in the future health planning and budget allocation priority in the healthcare area.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.166-179
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• 2008

Purpose: This study was conducted to understand the situation of general hospital worker's health management and health promotion. Methods: To investigate the current situation of health management in the hospital, structured questionnaires were sent to 122 occupational health providers by post. About 79% hospitals returned questionnaires. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, ${\chi}^2$-test by SPSS 12.0 program. Results: A quarter hospitals responded set up separated health care office for workers, 87.5% provided health educations, and 56.5% operated health promotion projects. In the contents of health promotion program embraced both health behavior practice and disease prevention, musculoskeletal disease control, infection control, smoking cessation, and exercise program were most commonly provided to the workers in order. Occupational health care provider chose the item such as budget limitation, manager's apathy, lack of employee's participation, cooperation provider, and so on as the reason of difficulty to run health promotion program in the hospital setting. Conclusion: Hospital managers need to construct infra to manage and promote worker's health. For example, establishing Industrial safety and health committee in hospital and arranging nurses who being fully responsible to worker's health. And occupational health care provider should advertise health promotion projects both managers and workers actively.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.91-101
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify health promotion services in rural areas and factors influencing this service. Method: From March to April, 2007, a structured questionnaire on services in 2006 was used to collect data from community health practitioners in all of the Primary Health Care Posts (PHCP) in North Chungchong Province. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS 12.0 Win program. Results: The most frequently offered programs were health gymnastics, walking exercise, bathing and vaccination service, and hypertension management. The main obstacles to these health services were lack of adequate space, insufficient budget, and overwork. The most frequently offered health education programs were education on hypertension, exercise, diabetes, volunteer work, and smoking cessation. The main obstacles to health education were lack of adequate space, insufficient education materials and equipment, and lack of cooperation from the citizens. Improvement and reinforcement of health promotion programs should include support of specialist, development of appropriate methods of service delivery, and education materials, and increase ease in using community resources. Conclusions: The research results show that a new model of health promotion must be developed for efficient health promotion programs in rural PHCP.