• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.174-183
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• 2015

The major purpose of this study is to construct a retrospective exposure assessment for benzene through a review of literature on Korea. Airborne benzene measurements reported in 34 articles were reviewed. A total of 15,729 individual measurements were compiled. Weighted arithmetic means [AM(w)] and their variance calculated across studies were summarized according to 5-year period intervals (prior to the 1970s through the 2010s) and industry type. Industries were classified according to Korea Standard Industrial Classification (KSIC) using information provided in the literature. We estimated quantitative retrospective exposure to benzene for each cell in the matrix through a combination of time and KSIC. Analysis of the AM(w) indicated reductions in exposure levels over time, regardless of industry, with mean levels prior to the 1980-1984 period of 50.4 ppm (n = 2,289), which dropped to 2.8 ppm (n = 305) in the 1990-1994 period, and to 0.1 ppm (n = 294) in the 1995-1999 period. There has been no improvement since the 2000s, when the AM(w) of 4.3 ppm (n = 6,211) for the 2005-2009 period and 4.5 ppm (n = 3,358) for the 2010-2013 period were estimated. A comparison by industry found no consistent patterns in the measurement results. Our estimated benzene measurements can be used to determine not only the possibility of retrospective exposure to benzene, but also to estimate the level of quantitative or semiquantitative retrospective exposure to benzene.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.209-226
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• 2018

Purpose: This purpose of this study was to develop evidence-based practice guideline for isolation in health care settings to prevent transmission of infectious diseases utilizing guideline adaption process. Methods: The process of guideline adaptation was performed according to the Korean hospital nurses association's guideline adaptation manual which consisted of three main phases, 9 modules, and 24 steps. Results: The adapted isolation guideline consisted of introduction, overview of isolation guideline, summary of recommendations, recommendations, references, and appendices. The guideline includes 224 recommendations in 4 sections which are organizational administration, standard precautions, transmission-based precautions, and education/counselling. Conclusion: The adapted isolation guideline is recommended to be disseminated and utilized by nurses and clinicians nationwide to improve the isolation practices for infected or colonized patients with communicable diseases and to decrease the transmission of infections in the healthcare settings.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.51-74
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• 2005

This paper presents an analysis of the current status of domestic hospital industry which went trough the time of new hospitals operated by chaebols from 1994 to 2003 and the dramatic changes of medical service environment such as IMF relief loan in 1997 and the separation of prescription and dispensing (SPD) in 2000. For the sake of righteous policy-making in the future, this paper presents a productivity analysis of the management and administration of 38 tertiary hospitals nationwide in the past 10 years. The analysis is based on the Malmquist index approach using linear programming. d prepare a productivity index that measures not merely efficiency but the technological evolution and adjustment to changing environments.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.164-175
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• 2003

Objectives: To evaluate the performance of models to predict AMI patients death using severity adjustment measures in Korea. Methods: Medical records of 861 patients treated by AMI in 7 general hospitals during 1996 and 1997 were reviewed by trained nurses. We measured the severity of patients by APACHE III, MedisGroups, CSI and DS. Using each severity method a predictive mortality for each patient was calculated from a logistic regression model including the severity score. The statistical performance of each severity method model was evaluated by using c-statistics and R2. For each hospital, z scores compared actual and expected mortality rates. Results: The overall in-hospital mortality was 14.5%, ranged from 10.0% to 22.2%. The distributions of severity scores for each method was significantly different by hospitals. The four severity-adjusted models to predict AMI patients death varied in their statistical performance for discrimination power of patients death. Order of Severity-adjusted mortality rates and z scores by four severity measures was different. Conclusion: Severity-adjusted mortality rates of AMI patients might be applied as an indicator for hospital performance evaluation in Korea. Because different severity methods frequently produce different impressions about relative hospital performance, more studies has to be done to use it as quality indicator and more attention should be paid to select appropriate severity measures.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.169-187
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• 2007

This study is to propose the characteristics that a desirable quality, especially usability, evaluation method of hospital information systems(HIS) should possess. This study reviews the literature recently published in the academic journals which are in the Science Citation Index or registered by the Korean Research Foundation. Especially, the International Journal of Medical Informatics was the valuable source, providing almost 20 literature. The results reveal the need to develop a domain-specific usability evaluation method that reflects the uniqueness of hospital industry. The results show user-centeredness and context-orientedness are the indispensible characteristics of a HIS quality evaluation method too.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1-23
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• 2006

There is general consensus in the research literature that market orientation is related to organizational performance. The study examines this relationship in the Korean hospital industry. One feature of this study is to examine the differences between large and small hospitals in terms of their market orientation, performance and the relationship between these constructs. The other feature is that both market orientation and performance are conceptualized as being multi-dimensional constructs. Hence a structural equations modeling (SEM) technique is used to examine the dimensionality of market orientation and performance and to examine the nature of this relationship. Data for this study are collected using a questionnaire that is mailed to the top marketing-related managers of 1,048 hospitals. Usable responses are obtained from 230 hospitals for a response rate of 21.9%. The SEM results confirm the multi-dimensional nature of both market orientation and performance, and the strong relationships between the constructs. Interestingly, this relationship is found to be much stronger for smaller hospitals than for larger hospitals. For smaller hospitals, this study shows that market orientation has a tremendous influence on performance, with almost 73.9% of the variance in performance being attributed to market orientation.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.61-83
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of the introduction of 'business performance evaluation program' on the changes in organizational culture and employee commitment. The data for this study were collected three times, in 2006, 2008, and 2009 from the employees at a public hospital in Korea. The main findings of this study are as follows. 1. Organizational culture has gradually changed as the 'business performance evaluation program' was introduced and implemented. Regarding the changes in the different type of culture, we can see that group culture, developmental culture and rational culture has been stronger and, on the other hand, the introduction of 'the program' did not have as much impact on the hierarchical culture as on the other types of culture. 2. The group culture has have more impact on the organizational commitment than other types of culture. In case of the hierarchical culture, however, statistically significant relationships could not be found between the organizational commitment and the introduction of business performance evaluation program.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.4-16
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• 2024

Smart hospitals involve the use of recent ICT (information and communications technology) technologies to improve healthcare access, efficiency, and effectiveness. Standardization in smart hospital technologies is crucial for interoperability, scalability, policy formulation, quality control, and maintenance. This study reviewed relevant international standards for smart hospitals and the organizations that develop them. Specific attention was paid to robotics in smart hospitals and the potential for standardization in this area. The study used online resources and existing standards to analyze technologies, standards, and practices in smart hospitals. Key technologies of smart hospitals were identified. Relevant standards from ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) were mapped to each core technology. Korea's leadership in smart hospital technology were highlighted. Approaches for standardizing smart hospitals were proposed. Finally, potential new international standard items for robotics in smart hospitals were identified and categorized by function: sampling, remote operation, delivery, disinfection, and movement tracking/contact tracing. Standardization in smart hospital technologies is crucial for ensuring interoperability, scalability, ethical use of artificial intelligence, and quality control. Implementing international standards in smart hospitals is expected to benefit individuals, healthcare institutions, nations, and industry by improving healthcare access, quality, and competitiveness.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.27-39
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• 2000

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors associated with respirator usage on the basis of reasoned action theory. Methods : The data were collected from August 1 to September 30 1999, and study subjects consisted of 303 workers who were employed in the manufacturing industries. A self-administered questionnaire was used to measure the attitude, subjective norm and related factors. Results : In bivariate analysis, the variables related to protector usage were prevention of occupational disease, protection of toxic material, disturbance during working, troublesome of usage, proper exchange of protector. Multivariate logit analysis was used to estimate factors associated with respirator usage. Significant predictors that are related to respirator usage were attitude toward the behavior, size of industry and proper exchange of protector. Conclusions : The results suggest that it is strongly required to focus on attitude toward the behavior in order to improve workers' usage of respirator.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.58-75
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• 1998

The hospital is characterized by it's remarkable labor industry and human resources input by unit. Recently, the administrative personnel are recognized as important staff to provide a hospital guidance to consumer and also easiness for consumer's visit to hospital. The objectives of this study is to find the performance of the administrative personnel in hospitals. The unit of analysis is the hospitals and data was collected form 144 staffs in 5 hospitals. Self administered questionnaire was given to analyze the general characteristics of staft such as age, sex, education, experience, and performance level in terms of frequency, ability, necessity of tasks. The major findings are as follows: 1. The 5 major tasks such as general affairs, insurance related affairs, hospital statistics, admission/discharge, and analysis of treatment cost were analyzed. Performance level of these tasks were not showed consistent level. It means that the same task was showed both high level performance and low level one. 2. The higher rates of performance level, ability and necessity were found, below 29 years of age, junior college graduates and university hospital than that of general one. 3. Factors mostly affected to performances were found as characteristics of hospital, age and education. 4. Concerning the various manpower management, On the job training, incentive mechanism and colose relationship among units were somewhat lack. In conclusion, most responded administrative personnel have performed actively in dealing with their tasks. however, the performance level and ability of the same task were showed differently, it means that such routine works were not standardized. Therefore, standardization and specification of tasks should be developed to strength the performance. Finally, this study is the first attempt to find out the performance of the administrative staffs and the study results imply that further study could be neeed to promote the performance of administrative personnel efficiently and effectively.