• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.28-38
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• 2015

This study was conducted by extending Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior(TPB) model in analyzing physician's observance behavior of National Health Insurance review standards. An extended TPB model was proposed by including 'background knowledge'and 'dorganizational commitment'in original model to predict physician's review standards observance behavior. Surveys for data collection were carried out on the physicians who were working in a general hospital, clinics, specialized hospitals, local medical centers and long term care hospitals located in Daegu and Kyoung-Buk province in Korea. Two hundreds twenty copies of questionnaires were distributed and 166 physicians responded. Data were analyzed using a structural equation model. The results show that an affirmative attitude and subjective norms have significant positive effects on physicians' behavior of observing review standards. However, the effect of perceived behavioral control on intention to behavior is not significant. The organizational commitment and background knowledge have a positive effect on the intention of observance of review standards. In conclusion, because physician's observance behaviors are affected by background knowledge and organizational commitment as well as attitudes, subjective norms, hospital managements should establish a communication system to share information on the review standards among physicians and provide appropriate measures to increase physician's organizational commitment.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.563-572
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• 2023

Objectives: The high readmission rate of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has led to the worldwide establishment of proactive measures for identifying and mitigating readmissions. This study aimed to identify factors associated with readmission, as well as groups particularly vulnerable to readmission that require transitional care services. Methods: To apply transitional care services that are compatible with Korea's circumstances, targeted groups that are particularly vulnerable to readmission should be identified. Therefore, using the National Health Insurance Service's Senior Cohort database, we analyzed data from 4874 patients who were first hospitalized with COPD from 2009 to 2019 to define and analyze readmissions within 30 days after discharge. Logistic regression analysis was performed to determine factors correlated with readmission within 30 days. Results: The likelihood of readmission was associated with older age (for individuals in their 80s vs. those in their 50s: odds ratio [OR], 1.59; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.19 to 2.12), medical insurance type (for workplace subscribers vs. local subscribers: OR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.72 to 0.99), type of hospital (those with 300 beds or more vs. fewer beds: OR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.66 to 0.90), and healthcare organization location (provincial areas vs. the capital area: OR, 1.66; 95% CI, 1.14 to 2.41). Conclusions: Older patients, patients holding a local subscriber insurance qualification, individuals admitted to hospitals with fewer than 300 beds, and those admitted to provincial hospitals are suggested to be higher-priority for transitional care services.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.56-70
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• 2005

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to develop a linking model between industrial injury insurance organs and local organizations providing social welfare health services, for the activation of medical rehabilitation services for industrial injury patients. Method: Research design for this study was a multi-step research through literature review, field research, and group interviews with persons in charge, to compare local society-oriented medical rehabilitation programs. The term of researches Sep.1 ~ Nov. 30, 2004. Results: 1. Home nurses from Workers Accident Medical Corporation have been taken to be adequate to case managers, who link industrial accident insurance institutions to local society services for the activation of medical rehabilitation services for industrial injury patients. They have been chosen for case managers because they have richer understanding and experiences of objects of industrial accidents than any other specialists, and because they have proved to be able to provide direct home services as a specialist. We have established the center for case management affairs within the workers accident general hospital, organized the committee for case management with doctors in charge, doctors in rehabilitation, rehabilitation consultants, social welfare workers, physical therapists, and nurses, determined objects of case managements from those of long-term recuperation, and constructed a course of case management containing from case management plans to evaluation. 2. We have made files of community resources, and organized the council of industrial accident administration to have it in charge of the adjustment and linking of services in case management affairs. 3. Because there are inequality of community resources between areas, differences in experiences in and bases for linking, and disparity of core organizations with active linking in the system of linking between public and civil sectors, we have taken a system of linking between parallel organs to be the core. In our linking model, workers accident general hospital, hospitals designated for industrial injury, and rehabilitation hospitals are linked in parallel, inadequate long-term recuperation managers are trusted to an workers accident medical corporations through examination by the examination committee in Korea Labor Welfare Corporation, and are dealt with by the committee for case management. Of the hospitals designated for industrial accidents, those running a home caring center provide home caring services for the handicapped at home from industrial injury. 4. Workers Accident Medical Corporation take part in medical rehabilitation, and Korea Labor Welfare Corporation in vocational/social rehabilitation. Furthermore, in the model, the latter should construct a system for job opportunities through Internet portals and provide cyber vocational consultation and introduction. Conclusion: Improvement of systems is needed to apply the linking model to practical affairs. Because this model is centered for practical affairs, it should be put under the analysis of effects, and evaluation of its adequacy to practical application, and its effects and efficiency through experimental running in the 8 workers accident general hospital in Korea.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.40-49
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aimed to analyze the effects of fatigue, resilience, and self-leadership on nursing service quality of local medical center nurses who nursed COVID-19 patients. Methods: The participants were 135 nurses who worked at regional public hospitals located in H-gun, G, and C-city in province C. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson's correlation coefficients, and stepwise multiple regression using IBM SPSS Statistics version 25. Results: The participants' nursing service quality showed significant positive correlation with resilience (r=.53, p<.001), and self-leadership (r=.60, p<.001). The factors affecting participants' nursing service quality were commitment to self-leadership (β=.57, p<.001) and work position (chief nursing officer) (β=.26, p<.001), which explained 42% of the participants' nursing service quality. Conclusion: During a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to help nurses enhance their self-leadership skills and build their career continuously by developing relevant policies, systems, and nursing intervention programs. Future studies could expand the knowledge base by including more participants to explore other ways to improve nursing service quality during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.44.1-44.3
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• 2019

Artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and ubiquitous robotic companions -the three most notable technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution-are receiving renewed attention each day. Technologies that can be experienced in daily life, such as autonomous navigation, real-time translators, and voice recognition services, are already being commercialized in the field of information technology. In the biosciences field in Korea, such technologies have become known to the local public with the introduction of the AI doctor Watson in large number of hospitals. Additionally, AlphaFold, a technology resembling the AI AlphaGo for the game Go, has surpassed the limit on protein folding predictions-the most challenging problems in the field of protein biology. This report discusses the significance of AI technology and big data on the bioscience field. The introduction of automated robots in this field is not just only for the purpose of convenience but a prerequisite for the real sense of AI and the consequent accumulation of basic scientific knowledge.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.30.5-30
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• 2001

This paper describes a new design of blimp having wheeled vehicle part. This system can work both on the ground using wheeled vehicle and in the air using the floating capability of the blimp part. The passive wheeled mechanism in the vehicle part enables the stable taking off, landing on as well as it is greatly helpful to keep a stationary position on the floor. On the other hand, the floating capability enables the wheeled blimp to fly freely regardless of the ground condition or obstacles. The wheeled blimp can be used as an agent robot for the tole-presence application. Using multimedia devices such as camera, speaker, LCD and microphone mounted on the blimp surface, this system can get necessary information at the local site and communicate with person from a distance. As a typical tele-presence application, the wheeled blimp is currently being developed to a tole-guidance robot working in public indoor areas such 35 exhibition halls, departments, hospitals, etc ...

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.198-208
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• 2002

Background : This research, as a part of improving management process of college hospital in this rapidly changing circumstances, is searching for the actual state of private clinics referring patients to referral center including college hospitals. Methods : This research examined the sense of satisfaction and requesting degree in using referral center and by analyzing the correlation and differences among factors such as primary factors regarded as selecting ones in referring patients to a referral center in college hospital and expecting factors expected to be supported to patients and cooperative hospitals. Results : The main researched results are as follows. First, as for the primary factors, the differences between cooperative and uncooperative hospitals revealed the fact that choosing target hospital in accordance with cooperative relation and convenient process in referring patients are important. Second, satisfaction rates, analyzed from the paired t-test revealed kindness and convenience as the top priorities, while sending patients back again and benefit of supporting such as the use of facilities were revealed as the least satisfactory aspects, despite the fact that they should be fulfilled through actual service. Conclusion : The recognition of the practitioner is examined and analyzed in this research by examining primary factors in selecting college hospitals, expecting factors expected to be supported to patients and satisfaction degree, which are expected to be used as basic materials for the development of referral center of college hospitals.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.141-153
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• 2005

Objectives : This survey was accomplished to find out how Korean medical doctors take acupuncture treatment in real clinics. Methods : The survey questions were developed by the consensus from the professors who major in acupuncture and moxibustion. The questionnaire was given the 2731 Korean medical doctors at the mending education site; In addition, it was given to 793 doctors working at the 105 Korean medical hospitals listed on the National Korean Medical Hospital Associations Address book by postal mail; and also it was given to the 142 public health care Korean medical doctors who attended the conference for the municipal and provincial representatives of the public health service Korean medical doctors. Total of 1277 questionnaires were retrieved out of the 3666 subjects. Results : 1. Nine hundred out of 1277 Korean medical doctors used method of differentiation syndromes(70.4%) and 1184 out of 1277 Korean medical doctors convalescence decide with subjective symptom improvement of patient(92.6%). 2. Nine hundred eight out of 1277 Korean medical doctors used both local and remote points(71.0%) and 916 out of 1277 Korean medical doctors treat with method of reinforcement-reduction(71.7%). 3. Eleven hundred fifth five out of 1277 Korean medical doctors used cupping a boil(90.3%) and 1023 out of 1277 Korean medical doctors used moxibustion(80.1%). Conclusion : When Korean medical doctors treat with acupuncture, most of them diagnose with differentiation methods and meridian theory, decide convalescence with subjective symptom improvement of patient, select out of both local and remote acupuncture points, treat with method of basic reinforcement-reduction, apply moxa and cupping a boil when they are necessary. The cupping a boil comes to be used when being muscle and joint disease. The moxa comes to be used when being chronic disease.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.85-108
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• 2012

One of the ways to achieve the principle of equal access for equal needs, availability and geographical accessibility of health care resources regardless of resident sites is important. The purpose of this paper is to measure socioeconomic inequities in distribution of health care resources among regions in the Republic of Korea (hereafter Korea). Data were extracted from regional statistics of National Health Insurance, Community Health Survey, Korea Social Science Data Archive, and Korean Statistical Information Services at the same period of 2009. The dependent variables were the number of health workforce and health care facilities in each region. The proxy indicator of regional socioeconomic status was local tax per person. To identify whether inequalities among regions, we examined the concentration index(CI) and indirectly standardized CI by controlling each region's demographics and need factors. Total observations were 232 districts in nationwide, and we analyzed separately Seoul(25 districts) and non-Seoul areas(207 districts). The standardized CI values of health care resources were positive(favoring the rich region) across the nation in almost all kinds of resources. Especially the number of specialist, dentist, dental clinics, clinics, oriental medical clinics, pharmacists, and pharmacies were statistically significantly favoring the rich region. But the CI for the number of long-term care hospitals, public health centers were negative(favoring the poor region). The tendency of CI presenting positive values were increased in Seoul area. But in the case of non-Seoul, the CI indexes were nearly zero. The results suggest that except the Seoul area, little regional socioeconomic-related inequalities were observed in the distribution of health care resources in Korea.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.30 no.1 s.56
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• pp.195-207
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• 1997

High price equipment is one of the major factors that increases national health expenditure in developed countries. Computerized Tomography(CT), one of the important high price equipment, has been concerns of health service researchers and policy makers in many countries. In Korea, CT, first introduced in 1984, have spreaded nationwide with rapid speed. Though the Committee for Approving Import of High Price Medical Equipment, founded in 1981, tried to regulate the introduction of high price medical equipment including CT, the effort resulted in failure. The exact situation of diffusion of the high price equipment, however, was not yet investigated. We aimed at the description of the diffusion of CT in Korea and analysis of influencing factors on hospitals for the adoption of CT. We mainly used the database of CT, made in 1996 by the National Federation of Medical Insurance for the purpose of insurance payment for CT. Also characteristics of hospitals were gathered from yearbooks published by the central and local governments and by the Korean Hospital Association. We calculated the cumulative number of the CT per one million population year by year. In turn, multiple linear logistic regression was done to find out the contributing factors for the adoption of CT by each hospital. In the logistic regression model, it is regarded as dependent factor whether a hospital retained CT or not in 1988 and 1993. The major categories of the independent factors were hospital characteristics, environmental factors and competitive conditions of hospitals at the period of the adoption. The results are as follows: Number of CT scanners per one million persons in Korea marked more higher level compared with those of most OECD countries. Major influencing factors on the adoption of CT scanners were hospital characteristics, such as hospital referral level, and competitive condition of hospitals, such as number of CT scanners per 10,000 persons in each district where the hospital was located. In Korea, CT diffused with rather rapid speed, comparable with those of the United States and Japan. The major factors contributing on the adoption of CT for hospitals were competitive condition and hospital characteristics rather than regional health care need for CT. In conclusion, a kind of regulating mechanism would be necessary for the prevention of the indiscreet adoption and inefficient use of high price equipment including CT.