• Health Policy and Management
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.35-69
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• 1995

The managerial environment of hospitals in Korea characterized by low levels of medical insurance fees is worsening by increasing government regulations as to the utilization of medical services, rising costs of labor, material, and medical equipments, growing patient expectations concerning the quality of services, and escalating competitions among large hospitals in the market. Hospitals should seek for their survival strategies in this harsh environment and they should have information about costs of their products in doing so. However, it has not been available due to the complexity of the production process of hospital services. The objectives of this study were to develop a service-based cost accounting model and to apply the developed model to a study hospital to obtain cost information of hospital services. A model commonly used for the job-order product cost accounting in the manufacturing industry was modified for the use in hospitals in Korea. Actual costs, instead of standard costs, incurred to produce a unit of services during a given period of time were estimated in the model. Data required to implement the model included financial information, statistics for the allocation of supportive cost center costs to final cost centers, statistics for the allocation of final cost center costs to services, and the volume of each services charged to patients during a study period. The model was executed using data of a university teaching hospital located in Seoul for the fiscal year 1992. Data for financial information, allocation statistics fo supportive service costs, and the volume of services, most of them in electronic form, were available to the study. Data for allocation statistics of final cost center costs were collected in the study. There were 15 types of evaluation and management service, 2, 923 types of technical service, and 2, 608 types of drug and material service charged to patients in the study hospital during the fiscal year 1992. Labor costs of each of seven types of pesonnel, material costs of 611 types of drugs and materials, and depreciation costs of 212 types of medical equipments, miscellaneous costs, and indirect costs incurred in producing a unit of each services were estimated. Medical insurance fees for basic services such as evaluation and management of inpatients and outpatients, injection, and filling prescriptions, and for operating procedures were found to be set lower than costs. Infrequent services which use expensive medical equipments showed negative revenuse as well. On the other hand, fees for services not covered by the insurance such as CT, MRI and Sonogram, and for laboratory tests were higher than costs. This study has a significance in making it possible for a hospital to obtain cost information for all types of services which produced income based on all types of expenses incurred during a given period of time. This information can assist the management of a hospital in finding an effective cost reduction strategy, an efficient service-mix strategy under a given fee structure, and an optimum strategy for within-hospital resource allocations.

• 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.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.111-125
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• 2000

To compare the differences in the recognition on hospital utilization and satisfaction, 368 hospital employees and 485 patients were selected in four hospitals in Seoul and Kyung-gi do. The survey was done using a constructed form of checklist from Apr. 30 to May 10, 1999. And the results are as follows: l. Gaining knowledge of hospitals available among hospital employees differed from that of patients. When finding out about sources of information concerning hospitals, direct visit to the hospital was recognized to be the main factor for the hospital employees in contrast to the patients' recognition which were mass media, personal involvement of job related workplace and recommendations from other hospitals. There was no difference between university and general hospitals. 2. The factors that concern which hospital to choose there was a difference between hospital employees and patients. Hospital employees recommended their own hospital solely based on the reason that it was their work place. On the other hand, the patients made a choice based on the type of medical staff, transportation available and whether it was a university hospital or not. There was no difference between university and general hospitals. 3. The recognition of employees concerning hospital image of a hospital between hospital employees and patients was different. In university hospitals, the employees recognized the name value of university hospital and cooperation as most important, whereas the patients thought convenience, kindness were the main factors. Patients considered general hospitals to be more convenient. There was some difference between university and general hospitals. For university hospitals employees' recognition was higher and for the general hospital patients' recognition is higher on hospital image. 4. The recognition of employees was different from that of patients' on hospital satisfaction. The patients' satisfaction was higher than that of employees'. There was no difference between university and general hospitals. Based on the above findings, the employees' recognition on hospital utilization and satisfaction was different from that of the patients, but there was no difference between university and general hospitals. In both groups choice of hospital was associated with satisfaction. Results showing difference between employees' and patients' recognition can be applied to implement customer-oriented attitude and be used as a baseline data for internal-external marketing planning of hospital management. The study may be limited in that the results cannot be generalized due to its small sample size and not being able to reflect demographic variables and life style. Further studies to investigate the difference of hospital utilization and hospital satisfaction will be necessary to define demographic characteristics and recognition of employees which influences patients' hospital satisfaction.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.15-51
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• 1998

compensation is a major function of human resources management. The hospital industry is characterized by its remarkable labor intensity and human resource input by unit. That is why the hospital industry has a higher level of wage/cost ration. The issues of how much the hospital personnel's direct financial compensation amounts to and how the organizational and other factors generate compensation differentiation, are central problems for research in hospitals. But there have been few approaches to study staff compensation in hospitals, its magnitude and inter-hospital relative compensation amounts for the same personnel. A worker who moves from low-wage to a high-wage employer can usually increase his or her pay without change in job description. This means in the cases of same jobs, relative importance is different for each hospitals. The purpse of this study were to find the compensation levels of hospital personnel and to determine the factors affecting compensation levels of hospital personnel. The unit of analysis is the hospital and 145 hospitals were studied for nurse(RN), medical technoloist(MT), managerial personnel(MP) and 100 hospitals for medical doctor(MD). In this study the definitions of direct financial compensation are before tax, excluding employer's contriution and total annual remuneration received by the employee. Main findings of the research can be summarized as follows. 1. Direct financial compensation of hospital personnel are MD 45,056,000 won, RN 9,222,000 won, MT 9,513,000 won and MP 9,185,000 won in the starting year's employment in hospital. 2. According to determinants of hospital personnel compensations, there are no statistical significant variables to determine the level of MD's compensation. Wlith RN and MT's compensation level, the greater the patient revenue per 100 hospital beds, the higher the RN compensation and the tertiary hospital's compensation is much more than other types of hospitals. The location of hospital is another determinant factor for the MT's compensation level. Hospitals that are in the uban area have lower compensation level than rural area. There are the same results in MP with MT. Conclusions can be drawn from the results of the study. First, the wage differentiation of MD and other health personnel still remains and the differentiation existed in inter and intra job personnel of hospitals. Second, determinants of hospital personnel personnel compensation level are patient revenue, location, and type of hospital level.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.359-372
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• 2016

Background: The purpose of this study was to develop risk-adjustment models for acute stroke mortality that were based on data from Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) dataset and to evaluate the validity of these models for comparing hospital performance. Methods: We identified prognostic factors of acute stroke mortality through literature review. On the basis of the avaliable data, the following factors was included in risk adjustment models: age, sex, stroke subtype, stroke severity, and comorbid conditions. Survey data in 2014 was used for development and 2012 dataset was analysed for validation. Prediction models of acute stroke mortality by stroke type were developed using logistic regression. Model performance was evaluated using C-statistics, $R^2$ values, and Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit statistics. Results: We excluded some of the clinical factors such as mental status, vital sign, and lab finding from risk adjustment model because there is no avaliable data. The ischemic stroke model with age, sex, and stroke severity (categorical) showed good performance (C-statistic=0.881, Hosmer-Lemeshow test p=0.371). The hemorrhagic stroke model with age, sex, stroke subtype, and stroke severity (categorical) also showed good performance (C-statistic=0.867, Hosmer-Lemeshow test p=0.850). Conclusion: Among risk adjustment models we recommend the model including age, sex, stroke severity, and stroke subtype for HIRA assessment. However, this model may be inappropriate for comparing hospital performance due to several methodological weaknesses such as lack of clinical information, variations across hospitals in the coding of comorbidities, inability to discriminate between comorbidity and complication, missing of stroke severity, and small case number of hospitals. Therefore, further studies are needed to enhance the validity of the risk adjustment model of acute stroke mortality.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.155-182
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• 1998

There exists a remarkable differences in use of MRI scanning among income classes. The poor can hardly utilize it. This is because, among high cost technnologies, MRI is the only equipment not covered under health insurance benefits in Korea. This study was designed 1) to reveal the status of nation-wide MRI installation, customary charges and per unit annual scanning performance, and 2) to analyse factors influencing the above variables. The data for this study came from "MRI Prevalence Survey" conducted by the National Federation of Medcial Insurance(NFMI) in 1997, and were analyzed through SAS packages for T-test, analysis of variance and stepwise multiple regression. Data were collected from 188 hospitals equipped with MRI scanners. Major findings are summarized as follows : The number of MRI scanners has increased from 69 in 994 to 158 in 1996(2.3 times) while per unit annual scanning performance has risen by 11.2% from 2,173 cases in 1994 to 2,417 cases in 1996. Such a rapid increase was made possible mainly due to the inclusion of CT scanning under the health insurance benefit package. The customary charges for MRI scanning with or without contrast media, on average, amounted to 484,000 Won and 402,000 Won, respectively, with the percentile increase of 17.8% and 8.1% each during the same time. Korea ranks the third worldwidely in terms of number of MRI installations, 4.8 scanners per one million persons, only next to Japan and United States. Geographical variation of MRI, however, was rather high, 7.91 unit, in Cheju area compared to 1.82 in Kyongnam area. Variations of customary charges of MRI scanning can be explained as much as by 44.8% by both the total amount of claims to NFMI and geographical variable. The charges were more likely to be higher in metropolitan areas like Seoul and in hospitals with a bigger amount of claims. While those of per unit annual scanning performance can be explained as much as by 30.7% by both MRI installation cost and level of MRI-installed organizations. Per capital scannig performance was higher in tertiary hospitals and hospitals equipped with more expensive scanners than hospitals with less expensive scanners. Two measures are called for the remedying the existing excessive abundance in MRI units in korea : One is to set a ceiling of MRI units in an area like a province or a metropolitan district. The other is to establish a committee on introduction of high cost technologies for reviewing its effective use.ctive use.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.49-76
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• 1994

Small area variations in health care utilization have long been studied as an important issue related to boto cost containment and quality assurance. This study was conducted to investigate if variations in hospital services across small geographic areas in Korea existed. The claims data of the fiscal year 1992 obtained from the regional health insurance societies were used for the study. Main findings of the research can be summarized as follows : 1. Extremal Quotients(EQ) of hospital expenditure per capita and hospital days per capita varied among diagnosis types. The EQ ranged from 2.05(cataract) to 41.67(pneumonia) in hospital expenditure per capita and from 1.86(cataract) to 45.89(pneumonia) in hospital days per capita. The diagnosis groups which showed high variation were pneumonia, cephalo-pelvic disproportion, gastritis and duodenitis, fracture of rib, and acute bronchitis. Those which showed low variation were acute appendicitis and cataract. 2. The EQ level of admission rate was different in terms of diagnosis types, ranging from 2.57(catarct) to 44.45(pneumonia). The variations were high in medical disorders such as pneumonia, oephalo-pelvic disproportion, gastritis and duodenitis and acute bronchitis, while relatively low in surgical conditions such as acute appendicitis and cataract. 3. As an indicator of service intensity, the EQ of expenditure per admission ranged from 1.67(acute appendicitis) to 31.27(essential hypertension). The diagnoses which had high variation were essential hypertension, gastric ulcer, whereas those which had low variation were cephalopelvic disproportion and acute appendicitis. With regard to hospital days per admission, the EQ ranged from 1.55(acute appendicitis) to 28.13(gastric ulcer) by diagnosis types. The diagnosis groups with showed high variation were gastric ulcer, essential hypertension, and acute bronchitis, whereas those with low variation were cephalo-pelvic disproportion, intervertebral disc disorders, and acute appendicitis. Both the expenditure and hospital days per admission showed lewwer variations than the expenditure per capita, hospital days per capita and admission rate. 4. Comparing patterns of variation in utilization indices, diagnoses such as essential hypertension, gastric ulcer, fracture of rib showed higher variations in expenditure per admission than in admission rates, whereas diagnoses such as pneumonia, cephalo-pelvic disproportion and gastric ulcer showed higher variations in admission rate than expenditure per admission. These findings suggest that wide variations existed in several diagnoses groups across small areas in Korea. Further research should be performed to investigate factors related to small area variations including provider behavior.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.163-190
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• 1996

본 논문은 미국 농촌병원의 경영전략과 관련하여 몇가지 가설을 검증한 연구결과이다. 구체적으로 1987년부터 1991년 사이의 미국 농촌병원들의 기본적 경영전략 지향 형태와 변화 추세, 경영전략과 환경 및 병원특성과의 관계, 그리고 경영전략과 재정적 성과의 관계 등이 연구되었다. 본 연구의 자료수집은 미국 농촌지역의 모든 종교병원과 영리병원, 그리고 무작위 표본추출로 뽑힌 50%의 공공병원 및 기타 비영리 병원의 최고경영자를 대상으로 1989년에 우편설문조사를 통해 이루어졌으며 회수된 설문지 중 사용가능한 640개 병원 (응답율 43%)의 자료가 분석 이용되었다. 조사대상병원의 환경적 특성자료는 지역자원 파일(Area Resource File)에서 수집하였고, 병원특성 및 재정적 성과자료는 미국병원협회 연감(Annual Survey of Hospitals)에서 구하였다. 응답병원과 비응답병원간에 환경 및 병원특성에 유의한 차이는 없는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구에서는 Miles와 Snow가 개발한 방어형(defender), 분석형(analyzer), 진보형(prospector), 반응형(reactor)의 네가지 경영전략지향 형태를 사용하여 분석하였다. 본 연구의 결과를 요약하면 다음과 같다. 1) 미국 농촌 병원들은 과거에는 방어형 및 분석형의 경영전략 지향을 보이다가 점차 반응형과 진보형으로 변화해 가고 있다. 2) 가장 뚜렷한 경영전략 지향의 변화추세는 방어형이 급격히 줄고 반응형이 크게 늘어나고 있다는 점이다. 이는 많은 병원들이 급격한 환경변화에 적응하기 위해 일관된 전략 지향보다 융통성 있고 탈력적인 경영전략을 선호하고 있음을 나타낸다. 3) 농촌병원들은 경영전략의 급격한 변화를 추구하지는 않을 것이라는 가설을 뒷받침할 근거는 없는 것으로 나타났다. 이는 급격한 의료환경의 변화로 인해 병원들이 다양한 경영전략의 변화를 모새하고 있는 것으로 볼 수 있다. 4) 대부분의 외부환경 및 병원특성은 병원의 전략지향의 선택에 큰 영향을 미치지 않는 것으로 나타났으나 인구 10,000명당 의사수, 병상규모, 위탁경영 여부, 병상점유율, 소유형태 등의 변수들이 경영전략 지향 형태에 따라 유의한 차이가 있는 것으로 나타났다. 5) 경영전략 지향이 상이한 병원들은 세부 실천전략에 있어서도 치이가 있을 것이라는 가설을 일부 전략에 있어서 사실인 것으로 나타났다. 즉 방어형 병원들은 진보형이나 반응형 병원들보다 내부관리전략, 다양화 전략, 의사유치전략, 직원복지전략 등에 있어서 소극적인 것으로 나타났다. 6) 비록 방어형 병원들이 다른 형태의 병원보다 낮은 재정적 성과를 보이고 있었지만 본 연구의 자료로는 경영전략지향과 재정적 성과간의 인과관계를 구명할 수 없었다. 또한 재정적성과에 따른 전략지향의 변화여부도 통계적으로 유의한 관계가 있지는 않은 것으로 나타났다. 이는 각각의 전략지향들이 환경에 따라 나름대로 장점을 가질 수 있으며 반드시 어느 한가지의 전략지향만이 최선은 아님을 시사해주고 있다. 7) 병원의 경영전략 변화는 환경의 변화와 더블어 그러한 변화에 적응할 수 있는 내부의 능력과도 관계가 있는 것으로 보인다. 이상의 연구결과에 따르면 미국의 농촌병원들은 급격한 환경변화에 적응하기 위하여 다수의 병원들이 환경 및 벼원특성에 관계없이 생존을 위한 전략적 노력을 기울이고 있음을 알 수 있다. 끝으로 이러한 연구결과는 최근 어려운 경영환경에 처한 한국의 농촌병원들도 합리적인 경영을 위해서는 병원이 처한 외부환경분석과 함께 내부의 능력에 적합한 경영전략의 방향을 설정하고 그에 따른 실천적 세부 경영전략을 수립해야만 한다는 것을 시사해 주고 있다.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.307-323
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• 1990

This Study was done to design and test an instrument to measure the health status of the elderly including physical, psychologyical and social dimensions. Data collection was done from July 18 to August 17, 1990. Subjects were 412 older persons in Korea. A convenience sample was used but the place of residence was stratified into large, medium and small city and rural areas. Participants located in Sudaemun-Gu, Mapo-Gu, and Kangnam-Gu, Seoul were interviewed by brained nursing students, and those in Chungju, Jonju, Chuncheon, and Jinju by professors of nursing colleges. Rural residents were interviewed by community health practioners working in Kungsang-Buk-Do, Kyngsang- Nam - Bo, Jonla Buk -Do, and Kyung Ki- Do. The tool developed for this study was a structured questionnaire based on previous literature and then tested for reliability and validity. This tool contained 20 physical health status items, 17 mental-emotional health status items and 38 social health status items. Physical health status items clustered in to six factors such as personal hygiene, activity, home management, digestive, sexual, sensory, and climination functions. Mental-emotional health status items clustered into two factors, mental health and emotional health. Social health status items clustered into seven factors, grandparent, parent, spouse, friend, kinships, group member and religious role functions. Data analysis included percentage, average, S.D., t-test and ANOVA. The results of the analysis were as follows : 1. The tool measuring the health status of the elderly and developed for this research had a relatively high reliavility indicated by a cronbach＝0.97793. 2. Average score of the subjects physical health status was 4, 054 in a 5 point likert scale, mentalemotional health status was 3.803, social health status was 2.939 and the total average was 3.521. The social status of the subjects was the lowest and the next was mental-emotional health status ; physical health status was the highest. 3. Educational background, perceived health status, the amount of pocket money were related to physical and mental-emotional health status and family structure was related mental-emotional physical and social health status. Occupation was related to physical and mental-emotional status. Area of residence was related to metal-emotional and social status. Source of living in the expeneses was related to physical and mental-emotional health status marital status to mental-emotional and social health status, and the number living in the home physical health status and religion to social health status. The following conciusions were derived from the above results ; 1. The health status of Korean elderly was relatively sound but social health status was the most vulnerable. The Social activity for Korean elderly is needed to improve social health. 2. Educational background, perceived health status and the amount of pocket money must be considered in the health assessment criteria of the elderly, Family structure, marial status, occupation, residence variables and sources of living expense must also be considered as significant. 3. A health education program based on the educational background of the elderly, and provision of an occupational socioeconomic welfare policy will be useful in order to increase social health status of Korean elderly.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.196-210
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• 2024

Background: In January 2018, revised elderly fixed outpatient copayment for the elderly were implemented. When people ages 65 years and older receive outpatient treatment at clinic-level medical institutions (clinic, dental clinic, Korean medicine clinic), with medical expenses exceeding 15,000 won but not exceeding 25,000 won, their copayment rates have decreased differentially from 30%. This study aimed to examine the changes of health utilization of elderly after revised elderly fixed outpatient copayment. Methods: We used Korea health panel data from 2016 to 2018. The time period is divided into before and after the revised elderly fixed outpatient copayment. We conducted Poisson segmented regression to estimate the changes in outpatient utilization and inpatient utilization and conducted segmented regression to estimate the changes in medical expenses. Results: Immediately after the revised policy, the number of clinic and Korean medicine outpatient visits of medical expenses under 15,000 won decreased. But the number of clinic outpatient visits in the range of 15,000 to 20,000 won and Korean medicine clinic in the range of 20,000 to 25,000 won increased. Copayment in outpatient temporarily decreased. The inpatient admission rates and total medical expenses temporarily decreased but increased again. Conclusion: We confirmed the temporary increase in outpatient utilization in the medical expense segment with reduced copayment rates. And a temporary decrease in medical expenses followed by an increase again. To reduce the burden of medical expense among elderly in the long run, efforts to establish chronic disease management policies aimed at preventing disease occurrence and deterioration in advance need to continue.