• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.836-847
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the association between utilization of home care services under the national long-term care insurance system and family caregiver distress. Methods: A secondary data analysis was conducted in this study using data collected in 2011 and 2012 from the Korean version of International Resident Assessment Instrument (interRAI) Home Care assessment system. The study sample included 228 clients receiving community based home care and their family caregivers in Korea. Descriptive statistics, $x^2$ test, t-test, and Heckman selection model analysis were conducted using SAS 9.3. Results: Presence of family caregiver distress was significantly associated with days of nurse visits (${\beta}$=-.89, p=<.001) and home helper visits (${\beta}$=-.53, p=.014). Level of caregiver distress was also significantly associated with days of nurse visits (${\beta}$=-.66, p=.028). Other factors which were significantly associated with caregiver distress were depression, cognitive function, inadequate pain control, social support for older adult, and caregiver relationship to the older adult. Conclusion: The results of this study show that visiting nurse service and appropriate support programs for Older Adults and family caregivers experiencing caregiver distress should be developed and provided to families based on the health care needs of older adults and their family caregivers for effective and sustainable home care.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.27-42
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• 2017

Objectives : This study analyzes the characteristics of hospital organization structures, insurance claims reviews and assessment tasks and their effects on hospitals in Pusan. Methods : The data for this study were collected through interview and self-administered surveys in 109 hospitals. The study included only - hospitals with a minimum of 50beds and excluded those providing only dental, psychiatric, or long-term care. Results : The findings of this study state that the number of beds has an influence on the organizitional structure. Conclusions : Hospital managements should seek human resources management(the insurance claims reviewer and evaluator) schemes that take into account the characteristics of the medical institution. In addition, insurance claims review and assessment tasks in hospitals require considerable knowledge and experience, and hospitals should be equipped with staff that have the relevant expertise. Therefore, to further deepen knowledge, comprehensive training should be continuously carried out in order to produce specialists in claims review and assessment.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.255-264
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• 2014

Objective: The aims of this study are to investigate the total volume of prescribed medicines against Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the trends of usage by analyzing the claims-data from the Korea National Health Insurance Service. Method: The demographic and claims-data were included the major AD treating medicines such as donepezil, galantamine, rivastigmine and memantine, and analyzed during the period of 2010~2012. The assessing criteria were gender, age, habitation, types of medical institution, code of ingredients, outcomes of treatment, volume and amount of claims, and the numbers of patients with dementias. After trimming the data, it were analyzed by the market size, demographic traits, characteristics of medical service, characteristics of each anti-AD medicine, etc. Results: Among the chosen 4 medicines, donepezil had the top prescription volumes. Most prevalent prescribing preparations of donepezil were conventional types. However, among the non-conventional types, oro-dispersible formulation is the fast increasing one in both volume and growth rate. This specialized preparations to improve both toleration and adherence, tend to being prescribed generally at the tertiary medical institutions. While the younger patients with mild-to-moderate AD mostly treated by expensive medicines in resident at the tertiary hospitals, the rest older patients with severe AD have been treated non-expensive one at long-term care facilities. Conclusion: AD is a chronic illness therefore, long-term use of therapeutic medications are highly important. If an anti-AD treatment was applied steadily in the earlier stages, it would be achieved not only improving the quality of life of patient but also reducing the expenses in the medical and nursing cares. As the socioeconomical impacts of AD is expanding, healthcare professionals need to aware the importance of pharmacotherapy and to improve sociopolitical fundamentals.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.105-110
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• 2017

This paper is to research the difference of care workers' role in Sanatorium between urban and rural areas. Interviews have been conducted with 100 care managers with structured questionnaires in community care settings. The findings of the study are as follows. In the analysis of working with carers a care manager acting as a counsellor in rural was required rather more than any other role in working with clients' carers. In working with formal and informal networks, an administrative specialist role was also important in both areas. With resource management, there were some regional variances between rural and urban. In the urban area, a care managers as a coordinator was more required than as a broker. In the rural area, a care manager as a broker, selecting service resources for elderly clients was the most suitable role. In conclusion, in general rural care managers' roles were similar to those of many core managers in urban area. Among the many possible roles of care managers that effective continuity of care is to be provided for elderly clients in community care, two have been specified as essential roles. The first is the role of care managers that provides coordination and integration of services at the clients' levels as a care manager as an implementer, a linkman, counsellor. The second is at the system level which is possible role for coordination and linkage of programs as a characteristics of care managers, task with formal & informal network, community resources, available residential & NHS resourcesw.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.275-284
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to provide useful insights into community-level support services for family caregivers in Korea by comparing them with the services in the United States. Similar to most developed countries, life expectancy has led to rapid population aging in Korea over the last several decades. However, despite increased social needs of long-term care for the elderly, many elderly Koreans are still dependent on their family for the long-term care. Yet, existing support programs for family caregivers are very limited. As a result, family caregivers often suffer from a lack of financial resources and emotional support. In this study, we comprehensively review the extensive literature, including relevant studies and documents of community-level support services for family caregivers of the elderly at home in Korea and the United States. One of the most important differences is that compared to Korea, diverse services based on the law of NFCSP to support the family caregivers, such as counseling, organization of support group, and educating have been available in the United States since 2000. Additionally, the legal definition of family caregivers in the United State is broader than that in Korea, where family caregivers are limited to those who are related by blood or marriage. Therefore, more caregivers are eligible for support programs and benefit from the programs in the United States. The findings of the study suggest that policy makers in Korea should legislate for diverse and comprehensive services for family caregivers. Further, it is necessary to define legal terms for family caregivers more broadly to extend beneficiaries of the programs.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.11-17
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to describe the policy agenda and alternatives for the home health care system in Korea. The home health care system development was not fully integrated while the medical laws were established in 2000, community health law in 1995, and elderly long-term health insurance law in 2007. Because of the increasing population of people over the age of 65 and dramatically decreasing fertility rate, the burden of various health-care expenses has become a great obstacle for the Korean government. Under these circumstances, the home of home health care system in has taken on an important role under the mandate of the national health care system. The types of home health care system in Korean shows a greater contrast from those utilized in other more industrialized countries, such as, U.S. or Japan. In conclusion, the strategy in overcoming the obstacles to enhance home health care system under the national health system would be developing it as a comprehensive and exchangeable consumer-focused organization.

• 한국노년학
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.1199-1215
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of job satisfaction among care givers. Finding out the determinants of job satisfaction among care givers, the dependent variables were defined 3 groups with 9 sub-factors, such as personal factors of growth needs and self-efficacy, job factors of job diversity, job autonomy, job importance, role clarity and workload, organizational factors of comradeship, education & training. For the study, data were collected form 479 care givers working in 52 care facilities of Chung Nam Province and analyzed them by regression analysis technique using the SPSS 20.0 statistical package. The results are as followings, job diversity, job importance, comradeship, education & training have positive effects on job satisfaction respectively, workload effects on it negatively, but growth needs, self-efficacy, job autonomy, role clarity no effectiveness on job satisfaction. Based on the results of study, theoretical implications are discussed for care givers to promote the job satisfaction and suggested the directions for further study. Further more, the findings provide the basic sources for care giver human resource management in long term care facilities which are suffering from recruiting of care giver, and it also contribute to successful management of long term care insurance system as a meaningful suggestion.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.53-83
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• 1993

A small number of high cost patients usually spend a larger proportion of scarce health resources. Korea is no exception. Under the national health insurance, 12% of the insured persons have consumed approximately half of the national health insurance expenditures. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the characteristics of the high cost patient group, if we would like to reduce them. This study has defined high cost patients as those who have spent one and half million won and over per 6 months. The study reveals that high cost users are those who have a longer length of stays(LOS), 40days of LOS in the 6 months, have multiple admissions, 2 to 3 admissions per 6 months and are the elderly patients. They have spent 814.126won per on the average, and commonly suffered from malignant neoplasms, circulatory diseases, fracture, diabetes mellitus, etc. Unlike the case of western developed countries, early readmissions are not the major causes of high cost spending in Korea. Undoubtedly, a lengthy admission is the main cause of large spending. Health policies should vigorously be explored to respond appropriately. There are evidences that hospital beds are often misused. As the Korean health care system is lacking in a mechanism of patient evaluation under the fee-for-service remuneration system, an idea of progressive patient care needs to be tested. The Goverment should set up health policy to diversify the role of long-term care facilities and encourage people to establish them. Further studies are needed to identify factors influencing large medical bills necessary for formulating the health policy on cost containment.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.117-126
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• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors associated with the health-related quality of life of family caregivers. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted. This study included 191 primary family caregivers of elders who used home care services (home-visit nursing, home-visit care, daycare) covered by the public long-term care insurance. Data were collected using self-report questionnaires from December 2010 to June 2011. These data were analyzed by using hierarchical multiple regression. Results: The majority of the family caregivers were female (79.6%) and daughters-in-law (28.8%). The mean depression score was $6.33{\pm}6.49$ and the mean health-related quality of life score was $0.69{\pm}0.39$. It was found that the factors affecting the health-related quality of life of family caregivers included depression (${\beta}$=-.406, p<.001), home-visit nursing use (${\beta}$=.296, p<.001), and daycare use (${\beta}$=.178, p=.015), which accounted for 36.6% of their health-related quality of life. Conclusion: Using home-visit nursing and daycare services has a positive effect on the health-related quality of life of family caregivers. To improve health-related quality of life of family caregivers, South Korea needs to fully activate the home-visit nursing and daycare services, and to strengthen family support programs.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.157-166
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• 2008

This study was conducted with whole home care nurses nationwide to provide secondary analyzed data to understand on their usage of medical equipments and their need of them for a month. This study found that treatments given by home care nurses were nelaton catheterization, bladder washing/urethral washing, newborn care, exchange and care for nasogastric tube and suction in that order of frequency. Second, instruments and equipments used for home care were reported to be stethoscope, patient monitor, blood pressure measuring equipment, air flotation mattresses, beds for patients, mattresses, suctioning device sets, enteral feeding equipment and dressing set in that oder of frequency. Moreover, need assessment of medical instruments and equipments showed renal dialysis was most needed and patient monitor, blood pressure measuring equipment, enteral feeding equipment, solution and other supplies for renal dialysis and beds for patient were necessary in that order. In conclusion, the results of this study investigating special treatments and medical instruments and equipments used for home care patients and analyzing patients' need, were expected to be useful for expansion of application of long-term care insurance for the elderly and health insurance as well as for quality control of home care and development of medial instruments and equipments used at home.