• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.339-351
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• 2018

Background: The purpose of this study is to estimate empirically whether there is a difference in medical use among income groups, and if so, how much. This study applies econometric model to the most recent year of Korean Medical Panel, 2015. The model consists of outpatient service and inpatient service models. Methods: The probit model is applied to the model which indicate whether or not the medical care has been used. Two step estimation method using maximum likelihood estimation is applied to the models of outpatient visits, hospital days, and outpatient and inpatient out-of-pocket cost models, with disconnected selection problems. Results: The results show that there was the inequality favorable to the low income group in medical care use. However, after controlling basic medical needs, there were no inequities among income groups in the outpatient visit model and the model of probability of inpatient service use. However, there were inequities favorable to the upper income groups in the models of probability of outpatient service use and outpatient out-of-pocket cost and the models of the number of length of stay and inpatient out-of-pocket cost. In particular, it shows clearly how the difference in outpatient service and inpatient service utilizations by income groups when basic medical needs are controlled. Conclusion: This means that the income contributes significantly to the degree of inequality in outpatient and inpatient care services. Therefore, the existence of medical care use difference under the same medical needs among income groups is a problem in terms of equity of medical care use, so great efforts should be made to establish policies to improve equity among income groups.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.59-66
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• 2016

This study analyzed the relationship between the convergence performance in hospital. This study examined previous research and calculated centralized index using diagnosis related groups. In addition, multiple regression analysis was used based on LOS in order to understand the effect of focused strategy which quality of medical inpatient service. The centralized level was examined by analyzing national inpatient sample data using 'Internal Herfindahl-Hirshman index' This study is significant because it reviewed medical inpatient service quality by measuring hospital centralized level which has been rarely studied before Korea.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.463-475
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• 2000

The purpose of the study was to identify the effects of inpatient cardiac rehabilitation programs on motivation, the performance of health behavior, and quality of life in patients with coronary artery disease. The subjects consisted of 31 patients who participated in the rehabilitation program during their hospital stay, and were compared with 34 patients who did not participate. The study results are as follows: 1. The mean of cardiac risk factor scores for the subjects was 22.5 (SD = 5.5) at the level of low to moderate risk with some possibility to improve. The physiological and behavioral risk factors for the subjects were also in the normal range or slightly above the normal range. 2. The motivation level to preform health behaviors for both groups was improved after discharge. Also, perceived self-efficacy was significantly higher for the program participants than for the comparison group at the post-test. 3. The performance of cardiac related health behaviors improved for both groups after discharge, but there were no significant differences between the two groups. The program participants reported better performance in most health behaviors at the post-test, but the results failed to reach a statistical significant level. 4. As for motivation and health behavior, the subjects in the both groups showed an improved quality of life after the discharge. In addition, the program participants produced significantly higher scores in health and functioning dimension than the comparison group during the post-test. In conclusion, the study partially supported the effects of the inpatient cardiac rehabilitation program to motivate and improve the quality of life, and provide the need to apply early rehabilitation interventions for the patients after cardiac events. Further study with a longitudinal design is also suggested to verify the effect of cardiac rehabilitation program from hospitalization to discharge and subsequently to fully recover to the level of pre-hospitalized state.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.123-132
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• 2009

Purpose : To investigate the actual conditions of diagnosis and treatment of oral medicine inpatient with systemic disease. Methods : A total of 54 oral medicine subjects, inpatient due to systemic disease for diagnosis and treatment of oral disease was requested to answer the medical history and dental treatment record. Results : The ratio of gender is composed of male 44% and female 56%, the distribution of age is the order of the 50-59 group 37%, the 60-69 group 26%, the 40-49 group 22%. Systemic disease is composed of Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases 36%, Diseases of the circulatory system 36%, Diseases of the nervous system 10%. Chief complain of oral disease is composed of routine check for oral health 26%, craniomandibular disorders 18%, soft tissue problem 18%. Oral disease is composed of Diseases of salivary glands 32%, Gingivitis and periodontal diseases 23%, Dentofacial anomalies 16% Conclusion : These findings indicate that oral medicine inpatient due to the systemic disease is significantly correlated to the oral disease. The patients of oral disease interrelationship between inpatient and outpatient of systemic disease should be validated by future research.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.39-51
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• 2016

Objectives : This study investigated the health care utilization patterns of workers' compensation insurance(WCI) pneumoconiosis patients with excessively long hospital stays. Methods : The discharge summary data of 3,094 WCI pneumoconiosis patients were analyzed. The study sample was divided into 3 groups based on the length of stay(LOS). Health care utilization patterns were compared among the groups with logistic regression analysis, and the LOS determinants were identified with linear regression analysis. Results : The average LOS of the 222 long stay group patients was 1,448 days. Patients in this group tended to use private general hospitals, were admitted through the emergency room and discharged without the consent of a doctor. Conclusions : Many of the long LOS patients will maintain their inpatient status for the rest of their lives. For quality of life and efficient use of health care resources, policy makers need to establish a policy that enables patients to receive outpatient care in appropriate living conditions outside the hospital.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.205-210
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• 2020

Objectives: Aging is assumed to be accompanied by greater health care expenditures. The objective of this retrospective, bottom-up micro-costing study was to identify and analyze the variables related to increased health care costs for the elderly from the provider's perspective. Methods: The analysis included all elderly inpatients who were admitted in 2017 to a hospital in Tehran, Iran. In total, 1288 patients were included. The Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used. Results: Slightly more than half (51.1%) of patients were males, and 81.9% had a partial recovery. The 60-64 age group had the highest costs. Cancer and joint/orthopedic diseases accounted for the highest proportion of costs, while joint/orthopedic diseases had the highest total costs. The surgery ward had the highest overall cost among the hospital departments, while the intensive care unit had the highest mean cost. No statistically significant relationships were found between inpatient costs and sex or age group, while significant associations (p<0.05) were observed between inpatient costs and the type of ward, length of stay, type of disease, and final status. Regarding final status, costs for patients who died were 3.9 times higher than costs for patients who experienced a partial recovery. Conclusions: Sex and age group did not affect hospital costs. Instead, the most important factors associated with costs were type of disease (especially chronic diseases, such as joint and orthopedic conditions), length of stay, final status, and type of ward. Surgical services and medicine were the most important cost items.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.522-531
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• 1999

This research identifies the ingress to egress primary factors that causes a patient to receive delayed emergency medical care. This material was collected between February 1st to 28th, 1998. Research envolved 4,118 people who visited the college emergency medical center in Kyeongido Province, South Korea. Medical records were examined, using the retrospective method. to determine the length of stay and the main cause for waiting. Results are as follows : 1. The age group with the highest admission rate was 10 and under, approximately 1,394 (33.9%). Followed by an even distribution for ages between 11-50 at 10-15% for their respective ranges. The lowest admission rate was 50 years and above. 2. From the 4,118 records examined, 3,489 received outpatient treatment (84.7%); 601 were admitted for inpatient care (14.6%); 25 arrived dead on arrival (0.6%); and 4 people died at the hospital. 3. Between 7PM to 12AM, 42.9% were admitted to the EMC. The hours from 9PM to 11PM recorded the highest admission rate and 5AM to 8AM was the lowest From 8PM to 12AM, the most beds were occupied. 4. For most patients. the average length of stay was approximately 2.2 hours. By medical department, external medicine was the longest for 2.8 hours. Pediatrics was the shortest for 1.6 hours. The average waiting period for inpatient admission was 2.6 hours. Inpatient admission for pediatrics and external medicine was 3.4 hours and 2.2 hours respectively. 5. Theses are primary factors for delay at EMC: 1) pronged medical consultations to decide between inpatient versus outpatient treatment, and delaying to be inpatient, 2) when you call physicians they are delayed to come 3) Understaffing during peak or critical hours, 4) Excessive consulting with different medical departments, 5) some patients require longer monitoring periods, 6) medical records are delayed in transit between departments, 7) repeated laboratory tests make delay the result, 8) overcrowded emergency x-ray place causes delay taking x-ray and portable x-ray, 9) the distance between EMC and registration and cashier offices is too far. 10) hard to control patient's family members. The best way to reduce EMC waiting and staying time is by cooperation between departments, both medical and administrative. Each department must work beyond their job description or duty and help each other to provide the best medical service and satisfy the patient needs. The most important answer to shortened the EMC point from ingress to egress is to see things from a patient point of view and begin from there to find the solution.

• Proceedings of the Korea Inteligent Information System Society Conference
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• 2001.01a
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• pp.352-357
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• 2001

This study presents an analysis of healthcare quality indicators using data mining for developing quality improvement strategies. Specifically, important factors influencing the inpatient mortality were identified using a decision tree method for data mining based on 8,405 patients who were discharged from the study hospital during the period of December 1, 2000 and January 31, 2001. Important factors for the inpatient mortality were length of stay, disease classes, discharge departments, and age groups. The optimum range of target group in inpatient healthcare quality indicators were identified from the gains chart. In addition, a decision support system was developed to analyze and monitor trends of quality indicators using Visual Basic 6.0. Guidelines and tutorial for quality improvement activities were also included in the system. In the future, other quality indicators should be analyze to effectively support a hospital-wide continuous quality improvement (CQI) activity and the decision support system should be well integrated with the hospital OCS (Order Communication System) to support concurrent review.

• 한국사회복지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.461-492
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• 2004

This study examined the effects of gender, parental support and treatment type on the treatment outcome of adolescent substance abusers. Outcome variable was the successful graduation (or drop) from an Intensive Adolescent Outpatient Program. Adolescents with their parents' support were treated in one of three treatment models (2-weeks Inpatient plus 6 week Intensive Croup-Oriented Outpatient, 8-weeks Intensive Croup-Oriented Outpatient, and 8-weeks Individual-Family Therapy) within a private hospital-affiliated treatment center by managed care practice allowing their own choice (non-random natural assignments). Several hypotheses were tested for main effects by the Log-Linear Analyses for a multi-dimensional contingency table with 440 adolescents (284 boys and 156 girls treated during 1992-l997) from middle-class families with private health insurances. The following results were found. Odds of graduating versus dropping out of the treatment program among : (1) girls were 1.7 times higher than those among boys; (2) adolescents with two-parent were 2.2 times higher than those among adolescents with one-parent ; (3) adolescents with Inpatient plus Outpatient was 1.7 times higher than that of those with Outpatient; (4) adolescents with Individual-Family Therapy was 2.3 times higher than that of those with Outpatient Model. There was no statistically significant outcome difference between the Individual-Family Therapy and the Inpatient plus Outpatient. Implications from the results were discussed. Suggestions were made to improve the treatment components in the areas of gender sensitivity, securing more parental support, alternatives for separation from peer group and integrating new peer groups, and flexibility for the unique needs of individual family. Also, some research questions for future studies were suggested.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.95-105
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• 2022

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to retrospectively analyze 3 years of inpatient dermatologic and surgical consultation to Korean medicine ophthalmology, otolaryngology & dermatology department in Korean medicine hospital. Methods : We classified dermatological and surgical inpatient consultations between September 1st, 2019 and August 31st, 2022, based on electronic medical record by gender, age, hospitalized department, categories of diseases. Results : Total number of consultations were 336. The proportion of female and male were 2.5:1, and the average of age was 65.6 and 60, respectively. The most frequently referred skin disease category was infectious skin disease(39.9%), followed by eczema(20.2%), dermatoses due to physical forces(10.1%), pigment anomalies(7.1%), nevi and tumors(4.8%), diseases of the skin appendages(4.2%), urticaria(3.9%), and others(4.9%). Consultations from department of Korean rehabilitation medicine, and Korean internal medicine were most common, because they have a comparatively large number of inpatients and long hospitalization period. In case of infectious disease and skin ulcer, patients from Korean internal medicine were frequently consulted due to characteristics of stroke and internal diseases. Conclusions : This study identified the frequency of consultation and the disease group with many requests for each department. Identifying the characteristics of diseases with a high frequency of consultation will prevent various dermatological problems that may occur by department. In addition, it was found that a prompt consultation was needed for accurate diagnosis and treatment in dermatological problem.