• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.25-42
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• 2007

To identify characteristics of elderly inpatients who had long term hospitalization in a general hospital, this study categorized into two groups who were hospitalized for less than 30 days and a group hospitalized for more than 30 days. To compare the groups the independent variables were the sociodemographical characteristics, the medical care utility characteristics, and the disease characteristics and finally analyzed factors affecting the hospitalization period. The data of 18,727 inpatients who were older than 65 years of age by the year 2005 were used and the data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows 12.0. With the results, it is necessary to provide intensive and positive management to elderly inpatients who belong to the more than 30 days group and also necessary to share roles and functions of hospital by medical network with local hospitals and clinics in order to manage long-term elderly inpatients and offer continuous post-management to discharged patients by encouraging them to use a long-term care center or by implementing an early discharge program. This study should provide many studies on how to manage the period of hospitalization efficiently on long-stay elderly inpatients in the future.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.173-179
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• 2021

Background: In Korea, the length of stay and medical expenses incurred by medical aid patients are increasing at a rate faster than the national health insurance. Therefore, there is a need to create a management strategy for each type of hospitalization to manage the length of stay of medical aid patients. Methods: The study used data from the 2019 National Health Insurance Claims. We analyzed the factors that affect the length of stay for 186,576 medical aid patients who were hospitalized for more than 31 days, with a focus on the type of hospitalization in long-term care hospitals. Results: The study found a significant correlation between gender, age, medical aid type, chronic disease ratio, long-term care hospital patient classification, and hospitalization type variables as factors that affect the length of hospital stay. The analysis of the differences in the length of stay for each type of hospitalization showed that the average length of stay is 291.4 days for type 1, 192.9 days for type 2, and 157.0 days for type 3, and that the difference is significant (p<0.0001). When type 3 was 0, type 1 significantly increased by 99.4 days, and type 2 by 36.6 days (p<0.0001). Conclusion: A model that can comprehensively view factors, such as provider factors and institutional factors, needs to be designed. In addition, to reduce long stays for medical aid patients, a mechanism to establish an early discharge plan should be prepared and concerns about underutilization should be simultaneously addressed.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.72-81
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• 2020

Background: The out-of-pocket maximum is one of the distinctive healthcare systems which sets a ceiling on co-payment in order to reduce the burden of households from the unpredictable medical expenditure. However, this leads to an increase in the demand for healthcare services especially in long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) in Korea. Methods: This study analyzed the influence factor of medical service overuse of 165,592 inpatients in LTCHs which out-of-pocket maximum is applied, by utilizing data from the National Health Insurance Service (2016). Based on Anderson Model, the medical service overuse, as a dependent variable, was defined as long-stay admission more than 180 days at the LTCHs. Independent variable was comprised of predisposing factors (gender, age), enabling factors (income level, types of out-of-pocket maximum) and need factors (illness level, patient use of tertiary hospital). Results: The most powerful factor of medical service overuse in LTCHs was availability of pre-payment for the out-of-maximum (odds ratio [OR], 191.66; p<0.001). This tendency was found in high income level status (p<0.001). Furthermore, mild inpatients (OR, 1.50; p<0.001) which had no experience with the tertiary hospitals (OR, 2.06; p<0.001) were more relevant to the medical service overuse in LTCHs, compared to the severe inpatients. Conclusion: It is suggested that a separate standard of out-of pocket maximum with regards to LTCHs is required to secure the beneficial functions of long-term hospitals and prevent unnecessary financial leakage to achieve sustainable and financially sound National Health Insurance.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.31-45
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• 2001

With an economic development and epidemiologic transition, the burden of disease due to chronic diseases and accidents is increasing. However, in most of developing countries, long-term care facilities are not available, therefore acute care facilities should provide both acute and long-term care services. It is also true in Korea. The demand for long-term care services needs to be estimated to establish the adequate supply system of health resources. This article introduces the reclassification methodology of inpatients' healthcare utilization to acute and long-term care services. All discharged patients from hospitals for one month were analyzed. The distribution of inpatients' hospital days were fitted to Chi-squared distribution by ICD disease categories, and they were grouped in five clusters. For each cluster, the lower and upper limit of classification criteria to acute and long-term care services were chosen. Summarizing all hospital days corresponding to acute and long-term care respectively, 24 to 28 percent of inpatient services fumed out to be long-term care services. The study results are consistent with those of the existing studies. They can be used practically in the allocation of long-term care resources.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.107-119
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• 2001

There has been pointed out that a great portion of hospitalized patients stay in hospitals longer than necessary, often even after the completion of necessary care. This causes that hospital resources are not used efficiently. In order to identify underlying forces in postponing inpatients' discharge, this study aimed to investigate reasons for long-term stay of patients admitted in general hospitals. A total of 135 patients, who were staying at 7 general hospitals in Inchon and Kyonggi-Do for more than 60 days, were surveyed with a self-administered questionnaire between April 3 and April 10, 2000. Medical reasons including incompleteness of necessary care, difficulty in receiving outpatient-based care, and being under physical therapy were the most significant factors associated with long-term stay, followed by the lack of familial resources to take care of patients after discharge. Financial problems such as inability to pay for hospital bills were not significant factors influencing long-term stay. Regression analyses were conducted for medical reasons, familial resources, and financial problems, respectively. It was shown that receiving physical therapy and the number of admission in the past were significant predictors for medical reasons. The lack of familial resources as a reason for long-term stay had a positive relationship with the degree of need for aid in daily living. It may be recommended for the hospitals to cope with administrative problems due to the patients' long-term stay, considering the reasons of it, and their characteristics. And also, institutional efforts like vitalizing the home care service systems by hospitals as the continuing care after discharge should be needed.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.61-73
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• 2016

Objectives : The aim of this study was to investigate the satisfaction determinants of rehabilitation care group inpatients in rehabilitation long-term care hospitals. Methods : A survey was conducted with 262 patients from 6 rehabilitation long-term care hospitals located in Busan Kyungnam. Data were collected from June 2016 to July 2016 with a structured questionnaire and analyzed with SPSS 23.0. Results : The significant factors affecting the overall satisfaction score were disease group and 5 quality indices of medical services(Medical service quality, Rehabilitation services quality, Hospital reputation, External physical environment, and Internal physical environment). Additionally, the significant factors affecting intention to revisit were age, disease group, length of hospital stay and the 5 quality indices of medical services. Conclusions : The results of this study indicate that rehabilitation long-term care hospitals should try to improve the overall satisfaction of inpatients, especially focusing on the internal physical environment and the quality of the rehabilitation services and medical services, which will lead to a high level of intention for patients to revisit.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.29-37
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• 2020

Purposes: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors related to the long-stay hospitalization of dementia patients aged 65 years or older who had received inpatient care at geriatric hospitals according to the minute facility characteristics and patient features. Methodology: This study was conducted on 317,353 cases of 1,512 geriatric hospitals using the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service dataset. The data collected were processed using the SAS Enterprise Guide 4.3 for descriptive statistics, the chi-square test, and the binary logistic regression analysis. Findings: As a result of the study, in the facility characteristics of geriatric hospitals, the long-stay hospitalization of the aged with dementia were found to be related to the type of facility establishment, the number of hospital beds, the number of medical specialists, the number of nursing personnel, and the number of geriatric hospitals by region and province. In the personal features of patients, the long-stay hospitalization was found to be associated with the gender, age, insurance, and the patient classification groups. Practical Implication: Considering the results of this study, it seems that securing the sufficient medical personnel in a geriatric facility, providing the good quality medical services, and preparing the appropriate discharge plan can reduce the unnecessary long-stay hospitalization and spend the medical expenses for the older patients.

• Korean Journal of Schizophrenia Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.38-44
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• 2020

Objectives: Dehospitalization of long-term inpatients with schizophrenia can be difficult because of complex factors such as chronic symptoms and low family and social support. The aim of this study was to identify factors related to dehospitalization and readmission of long-term inpatients with schizophrenia. Methods: This retrospective study reviewed the medical records of patients discharged from a psychiatric hospital in Yongin, South Korea, from February 1, 2016, to July 31, 2017. Patients who were hospitalized for over 3 months were divided into two groups: readmission (n=47) and dehospitalization (n=55). Differences in sociodemographic and clinical factors were analyzed between the two groups. Results: Regarding sociodemographic characteristics, female sex, familylessness, discharge to nursing homes, and discharge after symptom improvement were more prevalent in the dehospitalization group, whereas male sex, having a sibling as next of kin, and discharge because of other problems were more prevalent in the readmission group. Among clinical characteristics, hospital stay was longer in the readmission group. Conclusion: In this study, patients without a family showed a tendency to not be readmitted when they were discharged to nursing homes after symptom improvement. Expansion of social welfare support may encourage dehospitalization of long-term inpatients with schizophrenia.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.152-160
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• 2015

This paper proposes high quality of healthcare environments for a user-oriented children's hospital by identifying the user needs according to residential characteristics of the child, especially the hospitalization period. Caregivers, mostly parents of children in a children's hospital, participated in a questionnaire survey. The user's demands, satisfaction and hospital environment assessment were measured. A total of 103 copies of the questionnaire were finally collected and analyzed. The data was processed statistically using SPSS WIN 18.0 Version software. The results and conclusions are as follows. 1)The participants were categorized into three groups according to the hospitalization period of the child (less than 7 days, 7-20 days, and more than 21 days). 2)When the patients stayed longer in the hospital, their satisfaction was lower and their demands were higher. The long-term group required a more spacious bathroom for the child inpatients and their caregivers as well as sufficient individual storage spaces that are appropriate for the length of stay. 3)The longer they were hospitalized, the more negative they evaluated the hospital environment. These results suggest that the period of hospitalization is one of the crucial factors that impact the user's satisfaction and demands. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the design factors such as territoriality, privacy, accessability, and aesthetics to improve the satisfaction of the long-term child inpatients and their caregivers.

• Journal of International Academy of Physical Therapy Research
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.267-273
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to examine the changes in bone mineral density in long-stay patients of a geriatric hospital in relation to physical therapy, thereby providing basic data for preventing the onset or deterioration of osteoporosis in inpatients of geriatric hospitals or relevant facilities. The subjects of this study were 133 elderly patients who had been in H geriatric hospital in Yongin-si for more than four years. Their bone mineral density T-scores at admission and those after four years were measured to compare and analyze the changes in bone mineral density in relation to physical therapy. According to the results, the decrease in T-score for the group without physical therapy was greater by .40 than that for the group with physical therapy, indicating a statistically significant difference between the two groups(p<.01). Accordingly, physical therapy proved to be effective in preventing bone mineral density loss and maintaining the current density.