• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.197-206
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• 2021

Background: The purpose of this study was to identify factors affecting unmet healthcare needs due to physical accessibility by residential area by utilizing the Korea Community Health Survey (KCHS). Methods: Andersen's medical service behavioral model was applied to analyze the enabling factors, predisposing factors, and needs factors of unmet healthcare needs focusing on residential areas. This study used data from the KCHS (2017-2019, n=440,792). We used multivariate survey logistic regression analysis in order to identify affecting factors. Sub-group analysis was conducted in order to evaluate the effects of residential areas. Results: Some participants (2,621, 0.59%) had experienced unmet healthcare needs due to physical accessibility and 2,047 subjects (78.1%) of them lived in rural areas. Multivariate survey logistic regressions revealed that experience of unmet healthcare needs due to physical accessibility increased when people lived in rural areas (odds ratio [OR], 3.95; 95% confidence interval, 3.46-4.51). Conclusion: This study showed that despite the development of transportation and efforts to alleviate medical inequality, residents in rural areas may still have higher experience of unmet healthcare needs due to physical accessibility compared to the metropolitan city regardless of any other sub-group differences (OR range, 1.90-6.31). This study suggested that government and policymakers should identify the causes of the experience of unmet healthcare needs due to physical accessibility and should develop policies to alleviate those healthcare disparities.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.87-101
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• 2017

[Purpose] This study aims to classify of healthcare decline and analyze the corresponding health outcomes among cities in Korea. In pursuing the above, this paper gives the particular attention to draw policy implications. [Methodology/Approach] Public healthcare data of 81 cities between 2014 and 2015 was obtained from the National Medical Center of Korea. A matrix analysis, t-test, ANOVA and multivariate regression were applied. [Findings] The study results indicated that declining cities tend to have the most healthcare resources, compared to growing or maintaining cities. However, accessibility to healthcare appeared to be lower in declining cities. Based on the classification of cities on healthcare decline, 42 out of 81 cities were categorized as a maintain/improvement group, while 39 cities were characterized as decline/depression. The group with a decline/depression type has significantly more healthcare facilities than maintain/improvement type. In contrast, maintain/improvement cities indicated lower incidence of morbidity and mortality than decline/depression cities. Lastly, according to the multivariate regression analysis for the healthcare outcomes by the type of healthcare decline, incidence of morbidity and mortality tended to decrease as the number of healthcare workers, the proportion of people who have healthcare accessibility, and the Timely Relevance Index increased regardless of the number of medical facilities including hospital beds and special beds. [Practical Implications] In conclusion, focusing on the improvement of healthcare accessibility as well as staffing, rather than expanding facilities is essential to set the healthcare policies.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.137-153
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• 2010

The issue of spatial equity in public healthcare services is an important issue in rural areas with lower healthcare resources. This study investigates spatial accessibility to public healthcare services by public transport, focusing on bus travel in Yeoju-gun, Gyeonggi-do. We comprehensively analyzed the spatial patterns of accessibility using the measures based on spatial interaction, and compared them with the accessibility patterns by car travel. As a result of analysis, the spatial disparity between the central part of Yeoju-gun (lower accessibility) and its peripheries (higher accessibility) was identified. More specifically, the area and population of lower accessibility areas are greater than those of higher accessibility areas, and the difference in the accessibility values between higher and lower accessible areas is considerably large. Moreover, the accessibility patterns appears somewhat different according to two different travel modes. In particular, about 20% of the entire area presented the opposite patterns between two travel modes. Interestingly, less populated peripheral areas are more included in higher accessible areas by car.

• Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.283-304
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to identify Web accessibility issues of healthcare websites of the Korean government and public agencies by evaluating these websites' accessibility in accordance with the Korean Web Contents Accessibility Guideline. This study conducted both automated and expert testing to assess the accessibility of a total of 27 health-related websites. The results of the assessment which was conducted in two stages indicated that institutions such as the National Hospital and National Rehabilitation Center demonstrated almost no Web accessibility error. In addition, the Korea Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Health Services Agency, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and the Korea Medical Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Agency attained very high web accessibility. However, the results of an expert evaluation highlighted that there were considerable errors in providing appropriate alternative text, which was not found in the automated test, and the color contrast of the text content did not comply with Web accessibility standard. Therefore, these websites did not support web accessibility for the sight-impaired. Furthermore, the present study found that it was difficult to deliver accurate information to users due to errors in the default language display and markup, and also, issues of skipping repeated content, content linearization, and compliance with keyboard use were considered as challenges that might arise for people with sight, cognitive and mobility impairments with respect to Web accessibility. It is the first study that evaluated accessibility of healthcare websites of the Korean government and public agencies based on the Korean Web Contents Accessibility Guideline. The present study made a contribution to research on Web accessibility by conducting expert testing, which provided a more complete assessment that identified the degree and specific issues of accessibility errors when compared to automated testing.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.37-49
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• 2020

Background: Unmet healthcare needs have many advantages for measuring inequalities in healthcare use. However, the existing indicator is difficult to capture the reality of unmet healthcare needs sufficiently and is not quite appropriate in comparing regional inequality. The purpose of this study is to critically analyze the utilization of the unmet healthcare need indicator for regional healthcare inequalities research. Methods: We used the level of healthcare accessibility and healthcare need to categorize the regions that are known to cause differences in healthcare utilization between regions and verified how existing unmet healthcare need indicator is distributed at the regional level. Results: Four types of regions were classified according to the high and low levels of healthcare needs and accessibility. The hypothesis about the regional type expected to have the highest unmet healthcare need was not proved. The hypothesis about the lowest expected regional type was proved, but the difference in the average rate of unmet healthcare needs among regional types was not significant. The standard deviation of the rate of unmet healthcare needs among regions within the same type was also higher than the overall regional variation, which also disproved the whole frame of hypothesis. Conclusion: Failure to prove the hypothesis means the gap between the supposed meaning of the indicator and the reality. In order to understand the current state of healthcare utilization of people in various regions of Korea and to resolve inequality, fundamental research on the in-depth structure and mechanisms of healthcare utilization is needed.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.133-140
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• 2021

This study aims to analyze the quality and satisfaction of healthcare perceived by patients using hospitals and to provide basic data necessary for expanding and settling Vietnamese healthcare services by analyzing the impact on recommendation intentions. The research method selected one hospital in Vietnam and collected data from patients using the hospital and used a total of 286 effective samples as data for hypothesis verification. The research model and hypothesis verification were analyzed with the statistical data from SPSS and AMOS. The findings show that, first, tangibility, accessibility, and reliability all have a positive effect on the quality of healthcare. Second, it has been shown that only accessibility among the quality of healthcare has a positive effect on recommendation intentions. Third, customer satisfaction has been shown to have a positive effect on recommendation intentions. Fourth, when looking at the mediating effect, reliability among the quality of healthcare was shown as a full-mediated effect, but accessibility was shown to have a partial mediating effect and tangibility to have no mediating effect. Contact management is important because customer satisfaction is highly regarded when customers feel positive emotions at the interface from the provision of convenience facilities that support medical services to the reduction of waiting time for patients, employees kindness, treatment, medication, and inspection. It is also confirmed that the demand for convenient and rapid use of hospitals is increasing in Vietnam. In addition, if customer satisfaction is increased through friendly medical staff's response, the intention of recommendation will be even greater.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.88-94
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• 2017

The aim of this study was to investigate the current and trend of healthcare status of South Korea compared to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. We used the position value for relative comparison (PARC) method for measuring the healthcare status of South Korea by five parts of healthcare policy (demand, supply, accessibility, quality, and cost). Additionally, we conducted Mann-Kendall test for analyzing the trend of PARC from 2000 to the present. Demand, supply, accessibility, and quality of healthcare of Korea were located upon the average of OECD countries, and showed an increasing trend from 2000 to the present. However, primary care and screening for cervical cancer were placed at a lower level compared the OECD average. In conclusion, the current state of healthcare in Korea seems to be generally beyond the average among OECD countries. However, some parts, including primary care, need to be improved.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.98-103
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• 2018

This study aims to evaluate the status of Korean healthcare among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries and to monitor the trend of health care status since 2000. The position value for relative comparison (PARC) index was selected to gauge the level of healthcare status in demand, supply, accessibility, quality, and cost as per healthcare policy aspects. The Mann-Kendall test was conducted to allocate healthcare status of Korea since 2000. The PARC values indicate strength and weakness of Korean healthcare system by the mathematical comparisons. Korea positioned higher in demand, supply, accessibility, and quality. Yet, there are shortages in human resources and primary care. In conclusion, we suggest utilizing this study provides evidence to prioritize health care problems that can lead to establishing healthcare policy.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.47-54
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• 2024

PURPOSE: This study examined the status and prospects of telerehabilitation to identify the challenges and propose strategies for its promotion both domestically and internationally. The study also focused on the preconditions and improvements required for adopting telerehabilitation, considering technological, institutional, and socio-cultural factors. METHODS: A thorough database search was conducted. The relevant research, papers, and reports were collected, and the literature was evaluated to summarize the findings. RESULTS: Tele-rehabilitation showed promise in enhancing the healthcare service quality and accessibility. However, addressing challenges requires a comprehensive analysis of its status, global research trends, and the formulation of adoption strategies. Research in this direction is expected to improve healthcare services. CONCLUSION: Tele-rehabilitation can enhance healthcare services by overcoming geographical limitations. On the other hand, addressing challenges through analysis and strategic planning is essential for its effective adoption and advancing healthcare quality and accessibility.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.21-31
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• 2020

Purposes: Family living with dementia patients have the burden for caring and suffer from health problems. Therefore, proper supports for their health disorders are required. The purpose of this study with regard to this is to subdivide unmet healthcare needs of family living with dementia patients into affordability, accommodation, and accessibility and figure out the relevant factors. Methodology: The 2017 Community Health Survey was used, and 2,331 families living with dementia patients was included. To figure out the factors with regard to the types of unmet healthcare needs, multinominal logistic regression analysis was conducted. Findings: According to the analysis result, sex, age, monthly household income, economic activity, self-rated health, self-rated stress and perception of depressive symptoms turned out to be the factors related to unmet healthcare needs. Regarding affordability, unmet healthcare needs were low when the object was female, over 65, highly educated, and monthly household income were high. On the other hand, unmet healthcare needs was high when self-rated health was bad, self-rated stress was high, and had depression. With regard to accommodation, unmet healthcare needs were low when the object was over 65. Unmet healthcare needs were high when the object was female, economically active and had depression, and self-rated health was high. Regarding accessibility, unmet healthcare needs were low when the object was high school graduate, but it was high when self-rated health was bad. Practical Implication: This study confirmed that the family with dementia patients had a high proportion of unmet healthcare needs due to affordability and accommodation. The existing main discussion was that the experience of unmet healthcare needs normally occurred due to economic reasons, but a consideration on various cases and factors is required to ultimately achieve the policy goal to reduce the unmet healthcare needs of the family living with dementia.