• Asian Oncology Nursing
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.191-198
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• 2010

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a gum-chewing on the recovery of bowel motility and days of hospitalization after surgery for colorectal cancer. Methods: This study used a non-equivalent control group and non-synchronized design. Thirty-four patients undergoing abdominal surgery for colorectal cancer were assigned to either gum-chewing group (n=17) or control group (n=17). The patients in the gum-chewing group chewed gum for 10 min three times daily from the first postoperative morning until the day they began oral intake. Outcome variables were time of first flatus, time of first bowel movement, and length of hospital stay. Results: Gum-chewing was effective in enhancing the first passage of flatus, but was not effective in enhancing time of bowel movement and length of hospital stay. Conclusion: Gum-chewing can be utilized as a useful nursing intervention to shorten the time of the first flatus of postoperative colectomy.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.136-143
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• 2024

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations of obesity and clinical characteristics including interleukin-6 (IL-6) with hospital length of stay (LOS) in coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) patients in Korea. Methods: A retrospective descriptive study design was employed to analyze medical data from a government-designated hospital in a city of Korea. Clinical data were collected from 256 patients with COVID-19 in negative-pressure isolation wards in 2021. The following parameters were analyzed: body mass index (BMI), IL-6 levels, age, sex, comorbidities, healthy habitsat the time ofadmission, and LOS. The statistical package SPSS 26.0 was used for descriptive statistics, the independent t-test, the chi-square test, and partial correlation coefficients. Results: The age of COVID-19 patients was positively correlated with BMI (r = -.16, p = .012), IL-6 levels (r = .14, p = .022) and LOS (r = .26, p < .001). Obesity, non-drinking, hypertension, and older age were associated with longer LOS. Conclusion: These results suggest that age, obesity, and hypertension in COVID-19 patients are related to LOS. Studies investigating other factors that can affect long-term hospitalization in COVID-19 patients are suggested.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.108-117
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• 2019

Purpose: The study examined the poisoned patients' characteristics nationwide in Korea by using data from the National Emergency Department Information System (NEDIS). Methods: Among the patients' information sent to NEDIS from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2015, the included subjects' main diagnosis in ED showed poisoning according to the 7th edition of the Korean Standard Disease Classification (KCD-7). We analyzed the patients' gender, age, initial vital signs, visit time, stay time of staying in ED, results of ED care, main diagnosis in ED, length of hospitalization, and results of hospitalization. Results: A total of 106,779 ED visits were included in the analysis. There were 55,878 males (52.3%), which was more than the number of females. The number of intentional poisoning was 49,805 (59.6%). 75,499 cases (70.8%) were discharged, and 25,858 cases (24.2%) were hospitalized. The numbers of poisoning patients per 1,000 ED visits were 14 in Chungnam and 11.9 in Jeonbuk. The most common cause of poisoning, according to the main diagnosis, was venomous animals. It was the same for hospitalized patients, and pesticide was next. Pesticide was the most common cause of mortality in ED (228 cases, 46.1%) and after hospitalization (584 cases, 54.9%). The incidence of poisoning by age group was frequent for patients in their 30s to 50s, and mortality in ED and post-hospitalization were frequent for patients in their 60s to 80s. Conclusion: This study investigated the characteristics of poisoning patients reported in the past 3 years. Pesticide poisoning had a high mortality rate for patients in ED and in-hospital. For mortality, there was a high proportion of elderly people over 60. Thus, policy and medical measures are needed to reduce this problem. Since it is difficult to identify the poison substance in detail due to nature of this study, it is necessary to build a database and monitoring system for monitoring the causative substance and enacting countermeasures.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.42-56
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• 2003

Background : The purpose of this study is to investigate the influencing factors on the length of emergency department stay of patients with acute myocardial infraction. Methods : we reviewed medical records of all patients who were Hospitalized with acute myocardial infraction from March 1, 2002 to February 28, 2003. Results : The average length of stay in the emergency room of the subjects was 182.74 minutes. After the emergency room treatment, 48.1% of the subjects were transferred to intensive care unit. The hospitalization through emergency room mostly took place in the office hours. There were more patients on Monday. The influencing factors on the length of stay in the emergency room of patients with acute myocardial infraction were emergency room arrival time which was classified in seasons, treatment hours of specialized doctors, medical care insurance and required time of radiologic examination. Conclusion : In order to reduce the length of emergency room stay, it might be an available solution secure enough spaces, facility, and staff of the radiologic test only for the patients of the emergency room. And the effective use of emergency facility and space, establishment of standardized treatment guideline, and provision of emergency treatment support system are also needed.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.445-453
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• 2019

Background: This study is to investigate the association between the distribution of multimorbidity and length of stay and medical expenses among inpatients in a municipal hospital to achieve an integrated care setting. Methods: We used the exploratory factor analysis and the generalized estimating equation model to analyze the data from patients living in the northeast region of Seoul, who were hospitalized from January 2017 to December 2017 in a municipal hospital. Results: As a result of the factor analysis, seven types of multiple chronic diseases were classified. Among the elderly patients admitted to municipal hospitals, the burden of medical expenses was mainly influenced by the length of stay (B=310,719, p-value <0.0001), not the type of disease (all not significant). Length of stay were mainly due to psychiatric illness (factor 1: B=4.323, p-value <0.0001) related to the brain and metabolic diseases (factor 2: B=2.364, p-value=0.003). Conclusion: This study showed that the medical expenses of the elderly patients were largely due to prolonged hospitalization, not multimorbidity. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an integrated care paradigm strategy cope with the multimorbidity of the elderly in the community and to alleviate the socio-economic burden.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.268-276
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• 2006

Purpose: this study is attempted to provide basic data on development of systematic discharge educational programs for discharging cancer patients. Method: The subjects of this study were 132 mothers whose children were diagnosed with cancer and being treated at 3 university hospitals in Busan. The data were collected from December 1 to February 28, 2005, and were analyzed Using SPSS WIN 10.0. Result: The degree of education at the time of discharge from hospital was statistically significantly lower than that of educational demand after the discharge. Such demand significantly varied in accordance with the length of period passed after the discharge. Mother’s educational demand was significantly different in accordance with generation characteristics of her child with cancer, especially the first period of hospitalization and change in weight Conclusions: mothers of children with cancer were higher in educational demand after the child’s discharge from hospital than in education provided at the time of the discharge. Such demand was different in accordance with the length of period passed after the child's discharge from hospital.

• 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.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.327-336
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• 2016

Purpose: This study was to examine the clinical characteristics and mortality risk factors of geriatric hospital patients who visited one region-wide emergency department (ED). It's basically meant to develop criteria for the patient management of geriatric hospitals and to provide related information. Methods: A retrospective research study was implemented using electronic medical records. The subjects in this study included 484 geriatric hospital patients who were selected from among 15,994 patients that visited one region-wide ED between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2015. Results: There were significant differences in death, a change for the better and no change for the better, which were results of treatment, according to the length of stay in hospital, hospitalization in a general ward, not having an operation or surgery, the presence or absence of malignant neoplasm, the insertion of foley catheter, intubation, ventilator and the insertion of central venous catheter. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that a patient management system is necessary in geriatric hospitals and that competent healthcare workers who can properly respond to emergencies are required as well.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.271-282
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• 2021

This study was conducted to develop a model for predicting the length of stay for premature infants through machine learning. For the development of this model, 6,149 cases of premature infants discharged from the hospital from 2011 to 2016 of the discharge injury in-depth survey data collected by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were used. The neural network model of the initial hospitalization was superior to other models with an explanatory power (R²) of 0.75. In the model added by converting the clinical diagnosis to CCS(Clinical class ification software), the explanatory power (R²) of the cubist model was 0.81, which was superior to the random forest, gradient boost, neural network, and penalty regression models. In this study, using national data, a model for predicting the length of stay for premature infants was presented through machine learning and its applicability was confirmed. However, due to the lack of clinical information and parental information, additional research is needed to improve future performance.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.52-58
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• 2010

Purpose: The digital artery perforator flap was recently introduced and has been proven to be useful for reconstruction of various finger defects. Short operative time, less invasive surgery, and reliable flap circulation are the major advantages of this flap. The authors presented the clinical cases of the digital artery perforator flap and compared them with the distant flaps within a hand (thenar and hypothenar flaps) to reveal their differences. Methods: From May of 2006 to February of 2009, the authors performed reconstructions of finger defects with the digital artery perforator flaps in 10 patients as with the distant flaps within hand in 9 patients (7 thenar and 2 hypothenar flaps). In these two groups of the patients, flap size, use of skin graft, length of stay in hospital, healing time, complications were reviewed retrospectively and compared with statistical analysis (Student's t-test). Results: All flaps survived completely. The mean size of the perforator flap was $0.9{\times}1.9\;cm$ and the mean distant flap within a hand was $1.9{\times}2.0\;cm$. The use of skin graft was reduced in the perforator group because the donor site of the flap was closed primarily. The hospitalization period and healing time also reduced significantly in the perforator group. Minor complications (partial flap loss) were noted in small percentages in both groups but resolved with conservative management. Mean follow-up period was about 6 weeks. Conclusion: The digital artery perforator flap was smaller than the distant flap but its reconstruction of finger defects was reliable and comparable to the conventional distant flaps within a hand. This flap would be not only an alternative method but very useful in the management of various finger defects, because of ease of operative technique, less invasive surgery, decreased need of skin graft, and shorter period of hospitalization and healing time.