• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.218-231
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• 2001

Background : The purpose of this study was to investigate the understanding and the attitude of Korean hospital CEOs toward the healthcare quality improvement. Methods : A mailed questionnaire survey to the CEOs of hospitals with 400 beds or more was conducted between September 15 and October 30, 2000. Of the 108 hospitals eligible for the study, 58 participated, yielding a response rate of 54 percent. Result : The hospital CEOs have expressed that their hospital management was arduous job, and they had been pressured by increasing competitions among healthcare providers. They indicated that the low fees of health insurance made their hospital management difficult. The results also indicated that there was general consensus that the improvement of service quality was important in encouraging their organizations, but the investment of manpower and equipment ranked higher than the improvement of service quality. The majority of the CEOs have good understanding about quality improvement activities. However the facts that in general QI must be focused at the process of services and customer satisfaction, meanwhile quality improvement activities are helpful for the organizational productivity embarrassed them. The hospital CEOs responded that there were successful changes in terms of quality of care, patient satisfaction, and process efficiency after QI activities, but no increase in patient number and profit. Lack of understanding to QI activities and limited budget seem to attribute unsatisfactory outcomes. Conclusion : The majority of Korean hospital CEOs have a good understanding and attitude about QI activities. As mentioned in the result, despite of several limitations, several facts regarding the CEOs of hospital in Korean can be elucidated. (1) The general cognition of the QI project is relatively high, and it is accepted with positive concern, (2) the priority of the QI project, however, is not set higher than other projects and (3) the specific concepts of the actual QI project such as customer (patient)-focused work driving, the recognition of the work accomplishment, and the importance of rewards have not sufficiently understood.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.597-627
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• 2012

As misalignments among images, identity, and legitimacy of health professionals and institutions have been on the rise, CEOs of health care organizations have been required to enhance organizational accountability. Despite the accumulation of literature on the conceptual discussions of accountability, only a few studies empirically investigated key barriers to accountability and its facilitators. To identify perception on accountability with key barriers and facilitators of organizational accountability, a semi-structured interview with 11 CEOs of Korean hospitals was conducted. A short survey was taken to get quantitative data on CEO's perception on organizational accountability. To CEOs, accountability was very complex and unfamiliar concept, but understood as physician's code of ethics by nature and basic principle of hospital management. CEOs thought accountability could be improved through ethical leadership, financial stability and learning climate of hospitals. Distrust of the government, which failed to provide economic incentives for hospitals to increase accountability activities, was emphasized as a serious barrier to hospital accountability. There was consensus among hospital CEOs as to the importance of accountability in management. However, there were concerns that, without policy instruments to motivate hospitals toward increasing community benefits as well as collective efforts among health professionals to rebuild moral climate for being accountable, greater accountability would not be achieved in hospitals.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.110-126
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• 2006

The purpose of the study is to find the factors influencing small or middle size clinics and hospitals CEOs' expectation level on the affiliation with the large size teaching hospitals. Data for analysis was collected to use self-administrative structured questionnaire on 164 CEOs of small or middle sized clinics and hospitals affiliated with large sized teaching hospital located in Kyung Ki Province. For the study, the researchers develop the constructs for questions on the expectation on the affiliation, the attitude such as confidence, knowledge on the affiliation, previous relationship of the affiliation, and selection guideline of the affiliation with exploratory factor analysis and reliability test. Through the confirmative factor analysis using AMOS 4, the researchers develop constructs based on exact relationship between constructs and questions. CEOs' expectation level on the affiliation is influenced on attitude or confidence, gender, types of clinics and hospitals, distance to the affiliated large hospital, types of recommender, and number of affiliated hospitals. Large sized hospitals that want to affiliation with other clinics and hospitals can promote the affiliation to consider these factors from the results.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.105-117
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to investigate evaluation and improvement of long-term care hospitals for changing long-term care hospitals fee system. Data were collected from 104 CEOs in nationwide long-term care hospitals using structured self-administered questionnaires during August 17 to 31, 2009. Major results of the empirical analysis are as follows; first, to change fixed sum medical fee per day caused to decline the level of geriatric service in 87% of CEOs. Second, 79% of CEOs were dissatisfied with changing fixed sum medical fee per day, and 47% of them were dissatisfied with graded fee for doctor and nurse management. Finally, they suggested that to specialize and to differentiate of long-term care hospitals will drive to improve long-term care hospitals function and to measure workforce based on rate of filled vacancies will increase efficiency and productivity of doctor and nurse management.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.86-106
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• 2006

The purpose of the study is 1) to explore clinic and hospital CEOs' satisfaction and expectation level on the affiliation with the larger size teaching hospitals, 2) to find the factors influencing the satisfaction and expectation level on the affiliation with the large hospitals. Data for analysis was collected to use self-administrative structured questionnaire on 335 CEOs of small or middle sized clinics and hospitals affiliated with large sized teaching hospitals located in Seoul and Kyung Ki Province. For the study, the researchers develop the constructs for questions on the satisfaction and the expectation of the affiliation, the attitude, knowledge on the affiliation, previous relationship of the affiliation, and selection guideline of the affiliation with exploratory factor analysis and reliability test. Through the confirmative factor analysis using AMOS 4, the researchers develop constructs based on exact relationship between constructs and questions. CEOs' expressive and unexpressive satisfaction level are 2.54 of 5 point(38.5 of 100) and 2.78 of 5 point(44.5 of 100), and the expressive and unexpressive expectation level are 2.77 of 5 point(44.3) and 3.16 of 5 point(54.0). These levels are relatively row for importance of affiliation. Expectation levels do not influence satisfaction levels. Attitude of affiliation influences expressive expectation and unexpressive satisfaction, reason for affiliation unexpressive satisfaction, and previous relationship to affiliated hospitals influence both of expressive and unexpressive satisfaction. The expressive expectation level and the expressive satisfaction level influence unexpressive expectation and unexpressive satisfaction, respectively. There is cognitive dissonance between expectation and satisfaction, therefore numbers of affiliation might be smaller or weaker in the future than present time. Many CEOs feel environmental press such as competition and the press of health insurance, but they might not think affiliation is best solution. Therefore, large hospitals try to give affiliated clinics and hospitals practical benefits to increase satisfaction and expectation levels, and they need to new affiliation form such as joint venture and joint ownership. The expectation and the satisfaction level was influenced by CEOs' gender, type of health service facilities, distances between the affiliated facility and the large mother hospital, and reason for affiliation.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.40-52
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to investigate opinions and experiences of hospital CEOs' and QI managers toward the National Hospital Evaluation Program which was implemented in 2004 and to recommend various strategies to improve the program. Methods: We conducted a mail survey with CEOs and QI　managers' of 78 hospitals with 500 beds or more that participated the 2004 National Hospital Evaluation Program. Results: About 70.8% of the participating CEOs and 64.0% of the QI　managers felt that the objectives of the evaluation program weren't fully achieved. Most respondents said that the current program required a partial or an overall change. Evaluation Criteria was the most often cited area for a change. Many respondents pointed out the importance of including clinical quality indicators in the evaluation tool. Conclusions: To upgrade hospital services with better quality, it is most important to first reach consensus on objectives and approaches of the evaluation program among various players. For a consistent planning and implementation, it is urgent to set up a more systematic organization and financing mechanism. Also, evaluation approaches, including evaluation criteria, methods, patient satisfaction assessment, as well as ways to summarize and publicize each hospital's performance should be improved.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.108-135
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• 1996

This paper investigates the current feature of management strategy of hospitals in Korea, and examines the relationships between adoption of a particular strategic orientation and the hospitals environmental and organizational characteristics, strategic behaviors and management improvement activities, and financial performance. Data were collected from CEOs of 88 hospitals among 650 hospitals for a 13.5% response rate using the self-administered questionnaire by mail survey. The major findings that obtained are as follows: 1. Only 37.2% of response hospitals carried out strategic planning, Most of these hospitals established the first strategic planning in 1991(81.3%) and renovated strategic planning by 4 or 5 years(56.3%), and modified strategic planning with flexibility(59.4%). Most strategic plans were documented, but informalized(68.8%). And only 29.0% of these hospitals had independent planning division. 2. Hospital services that CEOs assessed rank ordered for their impact on profitability are as follows: i)diagnostic ultrasound facility, computerized tomography scanner, obstetric inpatient unit, therapeutic X-ray, and physical therapy at present. ii)diagnostic ultrasound facility, physical therapy, computerized tomography scanner, emergency department, and health screening at future. And the services rank ordered that CEOs hoped to introduce are as follows: emergency department, physical therapy, health screening, volunteer services, and computerized tomography scanner. 3. Using a typology developed by Miles and Snow(l978), the strategic orientation of response hospitals are shifting significantly from defenders in the past to analyzers in the present, and to prospectors in the future(p<.01). 4. With regard to hospital environmental and organizational characteristics such as ownership, physician training, location, bed size, and hospital management training career and specialty of CEOs, the four strategic orientation archetypes varied not significantly. But, hospitals with a analyser orientation in the present and a reactor orientation in the future perceived competition significantly higher than the other three archetypes(p<.05). 5. The four archetypes rank ordered in terms of appling strategic behaviors and management improvement activities are as follows: prospector, analyzer, reactor, and defender. 6. The four archetypes differed significantly in terms of their financial performance using revenue per bed(p<.05). Reactors and prospectors in terms of total revenue per bed, prospectors in terms of outpatient revenue per bed, and reactors and prospectors in terms of inpatient revenue per bed had the best performance.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.399-407
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• 2001

Objectives : To investigate the current status of hospital-based health promotion programs in Korea and to elucidate the factors which affect to the process of implementation. Methods : We conducted a mail survey of all 875 hospitals in Korea from March to May 2001. In reference to 12 specific kinds of health promotion programs, hospital CEOs were asked whether their hospital have such programs, whether they are fully staffed and whether the program is paid for by the patients. Contextual factors(location, hospital type, number of beds, length of operation, public/private status, economic level of the community, the level of competition) and organizational factors (the extent of market, compatibility with vision, formalization), strategic types of the CEOs (defender/analyser/prospector) were also surveyed. The relationships between each variable and the implementation of health promotion services, activation of services, and the target groups(patient/community resident) were analyzed by univariate analysis and the independent effects of these variables were examined with multiple logistic regression. Results : 100 of 125 hospitals responding (84.8%) had mere than one health promotion program. However, they showed fluctuations in the adoption rate of each programs, meaning that comprehensive health promotion services were not provided. Many programs were not fully staffed and few hospitals had paid programs. In factors affecting health promotion service implementation, private hospitals showed a higher rate in implementation than public hospitals. In contrast, when the competition among nearby hospitals was intense, the level of implementation of service lowered. In the strategic type of the CEOs, the prospectors were shown to have instituted more health promotion programs in their hospitals and the analysers had a greater tendency to have programs for community residents than the defenders. Conclusion . Considering the above results, contextual factors may contribute greatly to the introduction of health promotion services in Korean hospital, although the CEO's personal preference and organizational factors play a larger role in the activation of services. Additionally, the CEO's personal preference may be the major influencing factor in the introduction of programs for community residents.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.125-132
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• 2008

Melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine), a major hormone of pineal gland in vertebrates, is known to be associated with regulation of the dynamic physiological functions in general and has some functions on reproduction in the ovarian follicles in particular. And its antioxidant properties as a scavenger are also reported. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of melatonin on the in vitro maturation of mouse germinal vesicle (GV)-stage oocytes. Oocyte maturation, apoptosis, and mRNA expression of melatonin receptor were analyzed in the cumulus cell-enclosed oocytes (CEOs) cultured with melatonin for 18 h. The CEOs were obtained from 3 wk-old ICR female mice cultured in media with 0, 0.1 nM, 10 nM, or 1,000 nM melatonin for 18 h. And then the extrusion of the first polar body was assessed to evaluate the maturation rate. The apoptosis and mRNA expression of melatonin receptor (Mtnr1-a and Mtnr1-b) in cumulus cells of each group were measured by TUNEL assay, ELISA, and real time RT-PCR after in vitro maturation(IVM). The addition of melatonin in the IVM medium significantly improved nuclear maturation of the mouse GV oocytes and the highest maturation rate were obtained from the group treated with 1,000 nM melatonin. Apoptosis was not detected in IVM oocytes, but detected in cumulus cells. And cumulus cells treated with 1,000 nM melatonin exhibited significantly lower apoptosis. In the group treated with 1,000 nM melatonin, the expression of melatonin receptor mRNA was decreased in CEOs. In conclusion, melatonin has a potentially important role for regulating oocyte maturation and reduces the apoptosis of cumulus cells in vitro.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.146-159
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• 2001

Background : To propose effective strategies for successful implementation of QI in health care institutions, by identifying facilitating factors and barriers to conducting QI programs. Methods : In order to examine empirical evidence on the success factors or barriers to QI implementation in hospitals, a literature study was performed on the basis of MEDLINE search. Among the identified literature. 13 provided reliable findings and basis comprehensive discussion on this issue and thus were selected for in-depth analysis. A mailed questionnaire survey was conducted for hospital CEOs and QI directors of hospitals with 400 beds or greater to investigate what attributes of their organizations they perceived as success factors or obstacles to QI implementation. Result : The analysis of selected literature and survey results presented that the primary factors considered to be most important as successful implementation of QI were: strong support from hospital CEOs, setting higher priority for QI activities, continuous and persistent efforts in QI activities, and active participation of clinical staffs. The barriers identified in this study were : the lack of orientation and understanding of QI concepts, low level of interest and participation of physician in QI programs, the lack of evaluation and rewarding system for QI activities. Conclusion : By identifying factors that affect facilitation of QI, the study results will be of great use for either institutions being in the early stage of evolving QI or those looking for better strategies to achieve more active and persistent QI implementation in their institutions.