• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.58-72
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• 2000

This study was an attempt to encourage the development of a rehabilitation delivery system and programs as a substitute service for hospitalization on the case of car accident patients, such as hospital based home health care nursing services. Various substitute services for hospitalization are required to curtail the length of stay for inpatients who were hospitalized with car accident compensation insurance. It focused on developing an estimation an early discharge day for car accident inpatients based on detailed statements of treatment for 111 inpatients who were hospitalized at the General Hospital in 1997. This study had four specific purposes as follows. First. to find out the utilization of medical services. Second, to estimate the time of early discharge and income increasing effect based on early discharge for those patients. Third, to identify the factors affecting total medical expenditure and the length of stay for those inpatients. Forth, to figure out the need of utilizing home health care nursing service for accident patients. In order to analyze the length of stay and medical expenditure for inpatients who were hospitalized due to car accidents, the authors conducted micro- and macro-analysis of medical and medical expenditure records. Micro-analysis was done by nominal group discussion of 4 expertise with the critical criteria, such as a decrease in the amount of treatment after surgery, treatments, tests, drugs and changes in the test consistency, drug methods, vital signs, start of ROM exercise, doctor's order, patient's outside visiting ability, and stable conditions. In addition to identifying variables affecting medical expenditure, and the length of stay and income effect due to early discharge day, the data was analyzed with a multiple regression analysis and linear regression analysis model by SPSS-PC for windows and Excell program. Results of this study were as follows. First. the mean length of stay was 50.3 days. whereas the mean length of stay due to early discharge was 34.3 days at the hospital. The estimation of time of early discharge depended on the length of stay. The longer the length of stay, the longer the length of time of early discharge : for instance a length of stay under 10 days was estimated as correlating to a mean length of stay of 6.6 days and early discharge of 6.5. The mean length of stay was 217.4 days and the time of early discharge was 110.1 respectively. The mean medical expenditure per day was found to be 169.085 Won and the mean medical expenditure per day showed negative linear trends according to the length of stay at the hospital. The estimation results of the income effect due to being discharged 16 days early was around 2,244,000 won per bed. However. this sum does not represent the real benefits resulting from early discharge, but rather the income increasing amount without considering medical prime cost in the general hospital. Therefore, further analysis is required on the cost containments and benefits as turn over rate per bed as the medical prime costs. The length of stay was most significant and was positive to the total medical expenditure, as expected. Surgery and patient's residential area was also an important variable in explaining medical expenditure. The level of complications was the most significant variable in explaining the length of stay. There was a high level for need a home health care nursing service which further supports early discharge for accident patients. In addition, when the patient was discharged. they needed follow up care for complications suffered during the car accident. $86.8\%$ of discharged patients responded that they needed home health services after early discharge. From these research findings, the following suggestions have been drawn. Strategies on a health care delivery system must be developed in order to focus on the consumer's needs and being planned for 21 century health policy in Korea. Community based intermediate facilities or home health care should be developed for rehabilitation services as a substitute for hospitalization in order to shorten the length of stay would be. A hospital based home health care nursing service. it would be available immediately to utilize by patients who want rehabilitation services as a substitute for hospitalization with the cooperation of car insurance companies.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.80 no.3
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• pp.241-246
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• 2017

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an ambulatory care-sensitive condition, and effective treatment of outpatients can prevent worsening of the illness and hospitalization. Current COPD guidelines provide appropriate guidance for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with COPD. In fact, it has been shown that when appropriate guidance and treatment are performed, the morbidity and mortality rates of COPD patients are reduced. However, there is a gap between the clinical guidelines and the actual clinical treatment. Therefore, the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) conducted an evaluation of the adequacy of COPD diagnosis and treatment using the Claims Database of HIRA. This review provides a summary of the COPD adequacy assessment results reported by the HIRA and some brief comments on the results.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.272-283
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• 2016

Purpose: This is a comparative study using secondary data from the Korean national long term care (LTC) insurance. Methods: Visiting nursing (VN) service users (n=666) and non-users (n=4,375) were extracted and compared in terms of medical expenditures, length of hospitalization, and annual number of ambulatory care visits to investigate effects of VN services in LTC. Results: Total health care expenditures were compared between the two groups and it was found that VN service users spent about $ 1700 than non-users for their medical costs between 2009 and 2011. The average length of in-hospital stay for VN service users was 19.4 days shorter than that of non-users. However, using VN services did not significantly influence the annual number of ambulatory care visits. Conclusion: The study has found that VN services are effective ways of providing community-based LTC services. We recommend LTC policy makers to further utilize VN services to deliver cost effective health care services.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.49-80
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• 2013

The Issuance of false medical certificates on Criminal Law or the Medical Service Act are frequently applied to the insurance fraud cases related with the medical certificate, prescriptions. The meaning of medical certificate is not defined on the crime of Issuance of false medical certificates, but considering the rule of Paragraph 1 of Article 17 of the Medical Service Act, which punishes drawing up the medical certificate by anyone except the doctor who has directly examined, and the principle of legality, the medical certificate applied with the crime of Issuance of false medical certificates should (1) include the judgment after current medical ex-amination, (2) be written for the purpose of verifying the health status and (3) have a style that can be recognizable as medical document usually written by doctors. In addition, since there have been many argues on the range of application of the Paragraph 1 of Article 17 of the Medical Service Act, which generally regulates various kinds of documents such as medical certificates, prescriptions and others, which have different purpose and characters, the range of application of the clause above is needed to be interpreted strictly.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.48-70
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to make an analysis of the impact of the DRG payment system on medical care pattern and cost of cataract surgery in a general hospital. The subjects were 173 patients whose DRG severity grade was zero, selected from among the hospitalized who underwent cataract surgery before and after the joining to the demonstrational operation of the third year DRG payment system. Their medical records and the details of their medical bills were examined to find out the length of hospital stay, medical care pattern provided to them, the cost of medical care, and the quality of medical care. The length of stay and the amount of medical care supplied during being in hospital dropped significantly for both single-eye and double-eyes cataract surgery groups. The amount of antibiotic use went down during the hospitalization and upon discharge from the hospital, but decreased after discharge. The total medical bills and the rate of basic examination implementation increased in the OPD before hospitalization but after discharge dropped. For double-eyes cataract patients, the rate of double-eyes cataract surgery went down. The total medical bills of DRG payment system converted into the fee-for-service system was greater by 113.3% for the single-eye cataract surgery group and by 102.9% for the doble-eyes cataract surgery group, compared to that by the fee-for-service. The contribution shared by the insurance corporation increased for both single-eye and double-eyes cataract surgery groups, but the copayment by the insured went down. Regarding the treatment outcome, no difference was found in complication rate, resurgery rate and mortality rate before and after the joining to the DRG payment system was implemented. The use of special lens lessened significantly. The amount of medical care supplied during hospitalization decreased but the complication rate didn't increase. But the increased use of low-price artificial cataract and the avoidance of double-eyes cataract surgery was observed. The phenomenon decreased number of OPD visit and the decreased total medical bills of OPD care after discharge in this hospital required further evaluation.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.517-532
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• 2000

The purpose of this study was to develop a critical pathway for case management of patients who have received Lumbar Laminectomy because of low back pain, arm and leg numbness, and radiating pain in the leg. For this study, a preliminary critical pathway was developed through a review of the literature including five critical pathways which are currently being used in the USA. In order to identify the overall service contents required by these patients, 30 cases were analyzed. These cases were taken from medical records of those with Lumbar Laminectomy between January, 1998 and December, 1998 in the department of neurosurgery at the Pusan National University Hospital in Pusan. An expert validity test was done for the preliminary critical pathway, a clinical validity test was also done using 12 patients with Lumbar Laminectomy between October 1, 1999 and January 31, 2000. After these processes, the final critical pathway was developed. The results are summarized as follows. 1. The vertical axis of the critical pathway includes the following eight items: assessment, consultation, diet, test, medication, treatment, activity, education/ discharge planning. The horizontal axis includes the time from the start of hospitalization to discharge. Analysis of the 30 medical records was done. analysis of the service contents showed the horizontal axis of the preliminary critical pathway was set from hospitalization to the 12th post operation day and the vertical axis was set to include eight items, the contents which should have occurred, according to the time frames of the horizontal axis. 2. As a result of the expert validity test, it was found that among the 233 items, 203 showed over 88% agreement and 30 of them showed less than 88% agreement, which were then revised or deleted from the critical pathway. At the preliminary meeting for the clinical validity test, the time of hospitalization on the horizontal axis was shortened to the 10th post operation day. A clinical validity test was done with 12 patients with Lumbar Laminectomy. All the cases progressed according to the critical pathway although some variances were noted in assessment, consultation, test, medication, and treatment. 3. Based on these results, a final critical pathway was determined. In conclusion, this critical pathway is partially applicable to the care of patients with Lumbar Laminectomy and needs further investigation.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.375-386
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to identify the present use of caregiver services, to evaluate the degree of satisfaction with the services according to type of caregiver service, private or public, and to provide data for the development of a plan which will provide good quality service with less economic and psychological burden to the patients and their families. Survey data were collected from 130 patients in 4 general hospitals in Seoul, and their families. Data were collected during April, 2004, using a questionnaire which included the patient satisfaction scale developed by Jun (2001). Data were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations, $X^2$ analysis, t-test. The SPSS computer program was used to facilitate analysis. The results of this study are summarized as follows; The total score for satisfaction was high for both groups. For the private caregiver group it was $52.38{\pm}11.08$, and for the public caregiver group, $58.14{\pm}9.64$. This difference was significant(t=-3.391, p=.001). In all of areas, the scores for satisfaction of the public caregiver service group were higher than private caregiver service group, ie. caregivers' attitude, role, confidence, performance, and service charge, and all the differences were significant. In conclusion, it was found that long-term hospitalization of older patients with high dependence resulted in more caregiver service. There were more severe patients in the public caregiver group, but the service charges, additional costs and paid holidays were less. Based on these results, patients and their families were significantly more satisfied with public caregiver service because it was not only less expensive but also had a high quality of service. Thus, caregiver services should be systemized so that patients and their families will get the best quality caregiver service

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.366-375
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to analyze the use of hospital, hospitalization, medical service, discharge and power of medical care patients who are concerned about moral hazard. We conducted focus group interview with 3 medical care patients and their families and 5 workers who had worked for more than 4 years in a nursing hospital. The main results and implications are as follows. First, admission to nursing hospitals was mostly based on the linkage between the medical institutions and the competition to attract the patients rather than the choice of the patients. Second, the main cause of the long-term hospitalization of medical assistance patients was the lack of social protection measures such as absences of residence and care giver, although there are factors that cause moral hazard such as low self-pay. Third, most of the patients were in need of treatment, but they were admitted to the hospital even though their needs were not higher than those of the health insurance patients. Fourth, the rehabilitation service is the mainstay of the medical service of the nursing hospital, and the roles of nursing staff and care givers are important. Fifth, medical care patients are paying medical expenses for nursing hospitals due to cost of living and family support, but they are exempted from the hospital expenses or the burden of their own expenses in the hospital. Sixth, public institutions and social welfare institutions have not managed continuously since commissioning patients to nursing hospitals and have neglected the connection with community services after discharge.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.132-140
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• 2003

This study was to identify the utilization of home care service and home care nursing satisfaction for clients with cancer who had completed secondary and tertiary chemotherapy session. Raw data was collected by reviewing charts and questionnaire of 23 clients with cancer between September, 2002 and November 2002 at an university hospital located in Seoul. Korea. The result are as follows: 1. Characteristics in the use of home care: After applying for home care service, patients were visiting an average of 1.88 days later. The major purpose of using home care service was to help recovery after hospitalization or to maintain present health. The average period for home care service was 14.6 days, with 4 visits over this period, for 35.78 minutes per visit. 2. Content of home care service: A total of 47 items of service were provided - basic nursing care, education and counseling, and therapeutic nursing care. On every visit, an average of 19 items of home care service were provided, and the majority (7 items) were therapeutic nursing care. 3. Satisfaction with home care services: Satisfaction was very high, an average of 3.88 on a scale of 4 points. Both patients and families expressed high satisfaction with all sub-domains of nursing care: guidance by the home care nurses, knowledge, skill, attitude, interpersonal relationships, emotional support, and accessibility. In conclusion, home care served basic nursing care, teaching and counseling, and therapeutic nursing to clients with cancer going through secondary or tertiary chemotherapy. Therefore they changed knowledge and attitude to disease and treatment which were difficult to change.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.120-127
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• 2014

Background: Since December 2010, online computerized prospective drug utilization review (pDUR) has been implemented in Korea. pDUR involves the review of each prescription before the medication is dispensed to the individual patient. The pDUR is performed electronically by Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA), which is a Korean governmental agency, and then HIRA provides medical institutions and pharmacies with information that can be helpful to them in preventing potential drug problems such as drug/drug interactions or ingredient duplication. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the Korean pDUR implementation on the proportion of drug-drug interactions (DDIs) using claims data from HIRA. Methods: A before-after comparison of the prevalence of DDIs between prescription was conducted, using HIRA administrative claims data of medical institution from January 2010 to December 2011. The analysis unit was the prescription issued and pairs before and after. The main outcome measures were the proportion of DDIs within- (control group) or between- physician encounters. To examine the difference, a paired t-test was applied. Results: We found that DDIs proportion between prescription decreased significantly (t=3.04, p=0.0026) after the implementation of pDUR, whereas there is no significant reduction within prescription (t=1.15, p=0.2518). With respect to the prevalence of DDIs between drug groups, the most dramatic reduction was occurred between 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors and anti-fungal agents. Conclusion: It seems effective that giving a direct feedback to prescribers by a prospective DUR. Further research is needed to assess the impact of DUR to final outcomes such as hospitalization.