• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.127-136
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• 2012

The challenge facing the Korean National Health Insurance includes what to spend money on in order to elevate the 'value for money.' This article reviewed the changing issues associated with quality of care in the Korean health insurance system and envisioned a picture of an effective pay-for-performance (P4P) system in Korea taking into consideration quality of care and P4P systems in other countries. A review was made of existing systematic reviews and a recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development survey. An effective P4P in Korea was envisioned as containing three features: measures, basis for reward, and reward. The first priority is to develop proper measures for both efficiency and quality. For further improvement of quality indicators, an electronic system for patient history records should be built in the near future. A change in the level or the relative ranking seems more desirable than using absolute level alone for incentives. To stimulate medium- and small-scale hospitals to join the program in the next phase, it is suggested that the scope of application be expanded and the level of incentives adjusted. High-quality indicators of clinical care quality should be mapped out by combining information from medical claims and information from patient registries.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.301-310
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• 2020

Background: In this study, we aimed to investigate the recent trends for health care indicators including maternal mortality ratio, infant mortality rate, under-five mortality rate, life expectancy, years of life lost, and healthcare resources in South Korea, North Korea, Germany, Russian Federation, Mongolia, Vietnam, China, Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary. Methods: We used data from five sources: World Health Organization, Federal Institute for Population Research, World Bank, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development health statistics, and national statistics. Results: In the early 1990s, health indicators continued to improve in countries that switched to the health insurance system, but the gap widened in North Korea as health indicators worsened. Conclusion: The establishment of a sustainable health care system after unification of the Korean peninsula requires substantial changes in the health care system and efforts to improve the health of North Koreans.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.62-70
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• 2023

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to identify workload measurement indicators for school nurses in order to provide high-quality health care and deploy school nurses effectively. Methods: A second Delphi survey was conducted on 21 experts with more than 5 years of school nurses experience. To develop indicators related to the workload of school nurses, the importance and measurability of a total of 21 workload indicators were investigated, including school nurses characteristics, school characteristics, health needs of students, and socioeconomic determinants. Results: As a result of the Delphi survey, it was found that 6 indicators were suitable in terms of importance and 8 indicators in terms of measurability. The important indicators the panel agreed on include the size of the city where the school is located, the total number of students, the number of classes, the percentage of students with chronic illness, the percentage of students visiting the health office per day, and the percentage of wound care in the health office per day. Conclusion: The percentage of students with chronic illness and the percentage of wound care per day need to be reflected in school nurse workload indicators and follow-up studies are required to shed more light on the socioeconomic determinants of schools.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.38-53
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• 2001

The price of the hospitals' services is regulated by the governmental health insurance reimbursement schedule in Korea. On the other hand, the emphasis on the quality of care of hospitals service is ever increasing. Under the environment, hospitals have to understand the effects of the activities to improve quality of care on efficiency and on financial performance so that they develop a management strategy that allows quality of care, operational efficiency, and financial achievement simultaneously. This study investigates the relationship among the concepts. The sample for the study includes 23 hospitals that have more than 300 beds. The concept of quality of care is measured by the score reported by the Hospital Standardization Survey (HSS) instituted by Korean Hospital Association. Efficiency is measured by the ratio of number of employee to the number of patients served. Financial performance is measured by the financial ratios indicating the profitability of a hospital. An analysis is performed using the multiple regression. The results show significant positive relationships between the HSS score and efficiency indicators, md between the HSS score and profit measures. However, the significant positive relationship between the HSS score and profit measures disappeared when efficiency indicators were introduced to the model. This study concludes that the structural quality of a hospital has a positive effect on efficiency of the hospital and that the structural qualify indirectly affects the financial performance of a hospital through the improvement of efficiency. Based on the findings, the implications on hospital management and health policy are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.147-160
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to identify the nature of the patient service quality of health center, and based on that, to examine the relationship of health center visitor's perceived quality and overall satisfaction. Data were collected on the basis of 'the 3rd Regional Health Care Planning' operated by Rural Health Care Service Technology Aid Task-force Team(RHCSTAT), Ministry of Health and Welfare. Basically, the Manual of 3rd Regional Health Care Planning is composed of structure, process, and outcome measurement indicators. Of these indicators, 21 patient satisfaction questions as outcome indicators are used in this study. The samples are 3,530 patients who visited 80 health centers all of the nation. First, the reliability and validity of patient service quality items was evaluated. Second, the descriptive statistics of health service quality are calculated. Third, through the T-test and ANOVA, the differences of patient satisfaction by responder's general characteristics are compared. In final, to explore the relationship of service quality and overall satisfaction, multiple regression analysis was used. This study shows firstly, the dimension of patient service quality was categorized into 3 dimensions, that is, facilities and environment, staff kindness, and access convenience. Secondly, the reliability and validity of patient service quality items was satisfied. Thirdly, the mean score of staff kindness factors are high in contrast to the facilities and environment. And in regard to the overall satisfaction, the mean score is more higher in Daegu region, County type health center, male group, and upper 65 age group than comparison groups. Lastly, as a result of multiple regression analysis, the effect of patient's perceived service quality, especially, appropriateness of billing time(Beta=0.190) and of reservation time(Beta=0.132) are statistically significant(P<0.01). In conclusion, to satisfy the health need of community people and improve the service quality of the health center, the efforts for the access convenience might be needed. Additionally, the enlargement on health center space and supply of new medical equipment is urgent for the patient satisfaction.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.11-26
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• 2016

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which has continuously evaluated the performance of healthcare systems, has recently invested much effort into hospital performance measurement. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the hospital performance measurement programs operated by international organizations or at the national level based on the OECD's hospital performance project. Health Insurance Review & Assessment service (HIRA)'s quality assessment was analyzed based on the analytical framework of the OECD's hospital performance project. The hospital performance measurement programs of WHO, Canada, Australia, United States and United Kingdom are briefly explored, in view of the conceptual framework, key performance dimensions and indicators that are currently in use. The OECD suggested seven key dimensions of hospital performance: timeliness, efficiency, continuity, effectiveness and appropriateness, staff orientation, patient orientation and safety. The analysis of the quality assessment program of HIRA, which operates 36 diseases and procedures and 347 indicators, shows that the numbers of indicators are relatively small in the areas of safety, patient centeredness and efficiency. Continuity of care and staff orientation are not fully developed also, but the situations are similar in other countries. In conclusion, hospital performance measurement using stable and comprehensive data should be developed to improve overall system performance, and discussions on a conceptual framework that can lay out directions and key performance domains need to take into place.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.164-177
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop effective management indicators for improving efficiencies of visiting nursing centers. Method: This was a methodological research study to develop the key performance indicators based on balanced score cards for long-term care visiting nursing centers. The main methods used in this study were literature review, focus group interview, and content validity index. The data analysis was used frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. Results: The common vision of the long-term care visiting nursing centers was identified as "The healthy visiting nursing center to serve high quality cares." Eight action strategies and 15 key performance indicators to achieve this vision were developed. Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, we suggest that the developed balanced score cards will be used as an effective managerial guideline to improve performances of long-term care visiting nursing centers.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Dental Administration
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.8-14
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• 2020

To provide high-quality oral health services, the concept of measurable oral health quality must first be defined. Owing to reports of significant preventable adverse events in the healthcare service provision process, the recognition and consensus of patient safety and patient-centered health service provision was formed. Six areas that are important medical care have been identified, including the quality along with existing concepts such as timeliness, effectiveness, equity, and efficiency of medical services. While there is ongoing research on the quality of oral health, there is not yet any internationally accepted definition. The purpose of this study is to introduce the ideas of oral healthcare quality and quality indicators that have been developed and announced in the field of dentistry.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.26-45
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• 2005

The purposes of this study were to Identify the .level of measurement on quality Indicators and evaluate the existing indicators in order to determine the priority of quality indicators' application in Korean general hospitals. A survey was conducted using a questionnaire. The subjects were quality managers working at general hospital having over 300 beds. The criteria were relevance, reliability, precision, impact, application, and preference to evaluate quality indicators. According to these six criteria, each indicator was evaluated on a five point scale(5: excellent, 1: poor). The response rate was $40.4\%$. The hospitals have monitored the average of 3.8 indicators(median 4). The indicators such as return to operating room, unplanned readmission, cancellation of booked operations, death, hospital infection, cesarean section rate, volume per disease or procedure, readmission, re-operation, blood transfusion, and post-procedural complications were frequently measured. The top ten quality indicators in the evaluation by its relevance, validity, reliability, impact, preference and application were decubitus ulcer, clean wound infection, fall, unplanned return to operation room, transfusion reactions, foreign body left In during procedure, unplanned readmission, wound infection after contaminated surgery, postoperative hemorrhage/hematoma, and cesarean section rate in order. The high priority quality indicators frequently measured could be used as primary national indicators. Standardized guidelines about monitoring indicators and the utilization will preliminarily be needed to compare and reuse the data for various purposes and improve the quality of care continuously.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.204-216
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• 2000

Background : There has been a concern that the quality of care provided to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients in the United States may not be as good as recommended. This paper illustrates a composite measure to assess, the quality of care received by ESRD patients undergoing in-center hemodialysis by incorporating outcomes for 4 major treatment areas. The 4 treatment areas are: dialysis treatments, anemia control, nutritional management, and blood pressure control. Methods : The major data source for the study was the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) Dialysis Morbidity and Mortality Study Wave 1 (DMMS-1) d Sixteen categories of a composite quality indicator were constructed by combining 4 dichotomous variables (16=2*2*2*2). representing the optimal vs. less than optimal level of outcome for each of the 4 treatment outcome measure respectively. Optimal outcome level for each treatment area was defined based on the recommendation from the National Kidney Foundation: (a) delivered dialysis doses (Kt/V) ${\geq}$ 1.2; (b) hematocrit level ${\geq}$ 30%; (c) serum albumin concentration ${\geq}$ 3.8g/dl ; and (d) blood pressure of <140 / <90mmHg. The 16 quality indicator were ranked according to their relative quality weights, which were estimated from its association with the relative risk of survival, adjusting for patient's baseline severity and dialysis facility characteristics. Results : Out of the entire sample of 2,179 patients, only 229 (10%) meet th recommended outcome levels for all 4 treatment areas. Overall, the study patients were distributed evenly over the 16 quality indicators, indicating a great variation in the quality of ESRD care. It appears that the rank of the 16 quality-indicators is driven by serum albumin concentration, suggesting that serum albumin concentration may be the most powerful predictor of ESRD patient survival among the 4 outcome measures. Conclusion : The developed quality indicator has the advantage of describin a range of care for dialysis patients and thus providing a more complete picture of care as compared to previous studies that have focused on only single or few components of the ESRD care.