• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.65-79
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• 2023

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify the importance and performance of the evaluation indicators of the childcare center evaluation system among childcare center staff and to find ways to improve the evaluation indicators of the childcare center evaluation system. Methods: A survey was conducted among 296 directors and teachers of childcare centers located in Busan and Gyeongnam. The collected data were analyzed using a paired sample t-test and an IPA analysis with SPSS 23.0 and Excel 2010. Results: There was a difference between the perceived importance and performance of childcare staff for the overall evaluation indicators, and significant differences were found in all areas and nine evaluation indicators except for "childcare environment and operation management". According to the IPA analysis, Health and Safety fell into quadrant 1, Staff into quadrant 2, and Child Care Process, Interaction, Child Care Environment, and Operations into quadrant 3. This distribution resulted in 6 indicators in quadrant 1, 4 in quadrant 2, 7 in quadrant 3, and 1 in quadrant 4. Conclusion/Implications: This study provides essential data for exploring ways to enhance the evaluation indicators of the childcare center evaluation system, with the goal of improving the quality of childcare services. Additionally, it offers policy implications.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.104-124
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• 1996

Background : In these days, the health care organizations have concerned about customer-centered care in order to empower the competitiveness on the health care markets. The departments working for quality management of the hospitals have used health care quality indicators in terms of medical areas as well as service areas of the hospitals. However, there were insufficient efforts to develop the credible measurement to seek the customers' needs, their expectations and their satisfaction levels related to health care services because various kinds of challenges were in the process of scale development to measure customers' satisfaction in health care. The purpose of this study was to develop the satisfaction scale to health care services in a Korea health care organization and to test its tool with validity and reliability. Method : The concept of this tool was acceptability that one of the components of health care quality defined by Donabedian. Acceptability has the five dimensions of concept: Accessibility; Patient-Practitioner Relations; Amenities; Patient Preferences as to the effects of care; and Patient Preferences as to the costs of care. The Satisfaction Tool to Health Care Services was reviewed by expert panel with five researchers, including hospital managers and a professor related to quality management of the hospitals. As a result, the content validity index was .84 in the outpatient satisfaction tool. The inpatient satisfaction tool had .87 of the content validity index. The Satisfaction Tools to Health Care Services finally consisted of 44 items for outpatients/their families and of 60 items for inpatients/their families. Study subjects of the construct validity test were 479 outpatients/their families and 561 inpatients/their families who visited or admitted at a University hospital from July 1, 1996 through August 10, 1996. The data were examined by Factor Analysis with SPSS. Result : The items of Satisfaction tools for outpatients/their families were categorized by eleven factors with eigenvalue greater than 1.0 accounting for 64.2 percent of the variation in item scores. Also, the items of inpatient tool had eleven factors with eigenvalue greater than 1.0 accounting for 60.3 percent of the variation in item scores. The reliability of overall scale were .95 and .96 for the outpatients/their families satisfaction scores and inpatient/their families satisfaction scores. The internal consistency reliability with eleven factors was ranged from .30 to .94 for inpatients/their families. The Satisfaction Tool with eleven factors for inpatients/their families had internal consistency reliability ranged from .53 to .89. Conclusion : The Satisfaction Tools to Health Care Services focused on outpatients/their families and inpatients/their families developed in this study had a high reliability and the strong evidence of content validity and construct validity based on quality concept. Therefore, this tool would be utilized as a credible quality indicator of health care services to assess the quality problems and to monitor the quality improvement activities in Korean Health Care Organizations.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2019

The number of people with chronic diseases has been increasing steadily but the indicators for the management of chronic diseases have not improved significantly. To improve the existing chronic disease management system, a new policy will be introduced, which includes the establishment of care plans for hypertension and diabetes patients by primary care physicians and the provision of care coordination services based on these plans. Care coordination refers to a series of activities to assist patients and their families and it has been known to be effective in reducing medical costs and avoiding the unnecessary use of the hospital system by individuals. To offer well-coordinated and high-quality care services, it is necessary to develop a service quality assurance plan, track and manage patients, provide patient support, agree on patient referral and transition, and develop an effective information system. Local governance should be established for chronic disease management, and long-term plans and continuous quality improvement are necessary.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.23-34
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• 2020

Purpose: This qualitative study was conducted to examine the current status and problems concerning the collection of present on admission (POA) indicators and determine how to use these indicators for evaluating the quality of care and degree of patient safety. Methods: A total of 11 health information managers were divided into two groups according to the size of their hospitals. Two focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted, one for each group, which followed a pre-developed semi-structured guideline. The verbatim transcriptions of the FGDs were analyzed. Results: The majority of participants were concerned about entering POA flags honestly because they did not know how future POA indicators would be used. In particular, for some participants, POA N was a burden that could imply a signal of mismanagement within the medical institution. In addition, the lack of awareness and indifference of physicians regarding POA indicators were some of the difficulties for POA flag entry. Although medical institutions are making efforts to improve the accuracy of POA flagging, many participants mentioned the need to develop real case-oriented POA entry guidelines to improve the accuracy of POA flagging. Conclusion: To increase the validity of POA indicators, it is necessary to increase the level of awareness of POA indicators in physicians and other medical professionals. Furthermore, efforts related to POA indicators by individual medical institutions need to be reflected in the process evaluation.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.248-254
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• 2023

Objectives: Measuring the quality of care is paramount to inform policies for healthcare services. Nevertheless, little is known about the quality of primary care and acute care provided in Korea. This study investigated trends in the quality of primary care and acute care. Methods: Case-fatality rates and avoidable hospitalization rates were used as performance indicators to assess the quality of primary care and acute care. Admission data for the period 2008 to 2020 were extracted from the National Health Insurance Claims Database. Case-fatality rates and avoidable hospitalization rates were standardized by age and sex to adjust for patients' characteristics over time, and significant changes in the rates were identified by joinpoint regression. Results: The average annual percent change in age-/sex-standardized case-fatality rates for acute myocardial infarction was -2.3% (95% confidence interval, -4.6 to 0.0). For hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke, the age-/sex-standardized case-fatality rates were 21.8% and 5.9%, respectively in 2020; these rates decreased since 2008 (27.1 and 8.7%, respectively). The average annual percent change in age-/sex-standardized avoidable hospitalization rates ranged from -9.4% to -3.0%, with statistically significant changes between 2008 and 2020. In 2020, the avoidable hospitalization rates decreased considerably compared with the 2019 rate because of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Conclusions: The avoidable hospitalization rates and case-fatality rates decreased overall during the past decade, but they were relatively high compared with other countries. Strengthening primary care is an essential requirement to improve patient health outcomes in the rapidly aging Korean population.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.85-94
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• 2010

Purpose: The study aimedto provide basic data to improve the quality of home healthcare nursing services by evaluating quality of care in representative nationwide sites. Method: The current quality of home care service in 104 nationwide sites was evaluated in terms of structures, processes, and outcomes based on published standards of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of healthcare Organizations. Results: The mean score for three dimensions of quality of home care service was as follows in descending order: structures (77.6), outcomes (60.4), and processes (38.7). Additionally, by specific item compared level of quality of home care servicein each site, the highest score was 97.3 and the lowest score was 42.3 out of 100, with a mean score of 74.7. Conclusions: These findings provide a base for establishing the quality management system and to develop a tool for evaluating the quality of home healthcare nursing. The result should be continuous management and improvement of home healthcare nursing quality.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.552-564
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• 2004

Purpose: This study was to develop a client health status outcome evaluation instrument, and examine content validity, reliability, construct validity, and the acceptability of this instrument. Method: A preliminary list was made of such key information as standards, criteria, indicators and measures, by means of a broad review of literature within the field. After determining the preliminary instruments, the study sought to obtain examination, consensus, and modification of two groups of experts in the home-care field. Finally, the instrument examined content validity, reliability, construct validity, and the acceptability of this instrument. Result: The tool was considered of 13 criteria, 48 indicators, and 167 detail measures. The content validity index of the tool was above 0.8 according to the expert group. Regarding the reliability of the evaluators of standards 1 and 2, the degree of agreement between evaluators was high(96.4% through 98.2%). Construct validity in this study, the difference in the mean score between the baseline point and the follow up point of each of standards 1 and 2 was significant, and the mean score of the follow up point was more than that of the baseline point. After examining the acceptability of this instrument with practice managers and home care nurses in home care institutions, a positive opinion was given of this instrument, and it was indicated that to be useful and applicable in home care practice. Conclusion: The results of evaluating client outcome will contribute to overall outcome-based quality improvement and service marketing in home care by providing a constant gauge of home care effectiveness.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.101-109
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• 2011

Purpose: The Assessing Care Of Vulnerable Elders project has developed indicators for the quality of the end-of-life (EOL) care. However, family members of cancer patients may have a different view on the quality indicators (QIs) established by health care experts. We evaluated the QIs from the family members' perspective. Methods: The information used in this study was gathered by surveying family members of cancer patients who were admitted to the inpatient hospice ward in Korea. A cross-sectional anonymous questionnaire was distributed to 120 potential respondents from July to October 2009. We included 69 responses in this study (effective response rate, 57.5%). Statistical analysis was performed by using SPSS for Win ver. 14.0, with independent t-test and Pearson's chi-square test. Results: Among QIs for good hospice care, families agreed the most on "Medical examination by the palliative care team or specialist" (88.4%) and "Dying in the family's presence" (88.4%). They agreed the least on "Discussing cardiopulmonary resuscitation with patients" (15.9%). Among QIs for bad hospice care, "Occurrence of fall or pressure ulcer are undesirable" showed the highest agreement rate (94.2%). The lowest agreement rate was 11.6% on "Dying in the hospital is undesirable." In addition, women, patients who were aware of their prognoses, and people with a high socioeconomic status tended to agree more on the QIs. Conclusion: Patients' families did not agree on some of the QIs recommended by previous studies. Family members' characteristics were related to their opinions on QIs.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.119-128
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to develop Web database for healthy city that contains healthy city indicators for making city health plans, setting project priorities, monitoring projects, and evaluating healthy city projects, effectively. Using Delphi survey method for identifying indicator domains and indicators, we extracted nine domains with thirty-four healthy city indicators. Based on the appraisals of DB users about the contents of DB, a web database for healthy city Wonju was constructed. We developed a web database system for the purposes of sharing high quality health related data for managing and evaluating healthy city projects. The web database currently provides variety data in the web address, http://healthycity.wonju.go.kr/index.html. The web DB comprised with major healthy city indicators that are the most important indicators, healthy city indicator data that have a variety data set for encompassing all domain areas such as city infrastructure, health medicine, economies, and all other related areas and qualitative data that contains policy reports, research results, healthy city information and all other tips. A database of healthy city is very essential and important because it makes healthy city projects alive by managing and sharing healthy city related data effectively. But we need to fill out some blank cells in DB because there are currently unavailable data for some indicators. In conclusion, we expect the web DB contributes information sharing of healthy city project teams and improving healthy city project quality at Wonju city in Korea.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.49-69
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• 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to derive contextual indicators of medical provider quality and assess their relative importance along with the individual utilization of antenatal care (ANC) and institutional births with a skilled birth attendant (SBA) in India using a multilevel framework. Methods: The 2015~2016 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) from India was used to assess the outcomes of neonatal, infant, and under-five child mortality. The final analytic sample included 182,980 children across 28,283 communities, 640 districts, and 36 states and union territories. The contextual indicators of medical provider quality for districts and states were derived from the individual-level number of ANC visits (<4 or ${\geq}4$) and institutional delivery with SBA. A series of random effects logistic regression models were estimated with a stepwise addition of predictor variables. Results: About half of the mothers (47.3%) had attended ${\geq}4$ ANC visits and 75.8% delivered in institutional settings with SBAs. Based on ANC visits, 276~281 districts (43.1~43.9%) and 13~16 states (36.5~44.4%) were classified as "low" quality areas, whereas 268~285 districts (41.9~44.5%) and 8~9 states (22.2~25.0%) were classified as "low" quality areas based on institutional delivery with SBAs. Conditional on a comprehensive set of covariates, the individual use of both ANC and SBA were significantly associated with all mortality outcomes (OR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.26, and OR: 1.10, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.19, respectively, for under-five child mortality) and remained robust even after adjusting for contextual indicators of medical provider quality. Districts and states with low quality were associated with 57~61% and 27~43% higher odds of under-five child mortality, respectively. Conclusion: When simultaneously considered, district- and state-level provider quality mattered more than individual access to care for all mortality outcomes in India. Further investigations are needed to assess the importance of improving the quality of health service delivery at higher levels to prevent unnecessary child deaths in developing countries.