• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.71-86
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• 2007

This study aims at looking into the use of oriental medical services in treating disease and patient's attitude of oriental medicine by social classes. The first to be explored through this study is medical accessibility, classifying them by age, gender and job. Second is to examine kinds of oriental medical services and expenses incurred in treating the disease. Third is to compare satisfaction for the services offered and investigate into relations between disease and oriental medicine through cross-analysis by class, and provide fundamental materials for enhancing accessibility to oriental medical centers for treating chronic diseases. The 1,376 households for the period of time from Apr. to Jun. 2005, were asked to answer to the questionnaires offered. The conclusion from the survey can be summarized as follows. Medical services for the onset of disease were less offered to females, older group, low schooling, and low-income bracket. It is attributable to an economic cause, in both genders. The in- and outpatients' rate were found higher in groups of female, older age, low-income and blue-color workers. Use of oriental medical centers were higher in outpatients than inpatients probably for low-income brackets were less frequently put on regular physical checkups, more exposing to diseases. Each hospitalization was found over six days longer in average; 19.7 days for oriental medical hospitals, 12.5 for hospitals. The hospital charges that patients should pay for one hospitalization showed 909,000 won in oriental medical hospitals, much higher than 518,000 won in hospitals. Outpatients were also found to pay more for oriental medical services; 55,000 won for oriental medical hospitals, 19,000 for hospitals. As to outpatients' satisfaction, oriental medical hospitals were generally found to be a little more satisfactory than general hospitals; 11.2% of respondents answered Very Satisfactory. Satisfaction to services offered to outpatients showed 82.2% of respondents responded to Over Satisfactory for herb clinics, 76% for general hospitals. For future intention to use oriental medical services, females, over 51 years old, lower education and income, and blue color workers showed more intention to use them. To be more competitive in treating chronic diseases, it is necessary that oriental medical services become more accessible through extending its coverage of insurance into more medical herbs and their prepared packs, as well as mapping out extensive publicity strategies to make known to the public about high efficacy of medical herbs and their safety.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.31 no.3 s.62
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• pp.460-470
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• 1998

By expanding health insurance, customers will carry a smaller burden of medical costs. As a result, the number of visits to a physician increase and this result in the improvement of medical accessibility. But medical care utilization may be changed not only by insurance status but also by socio-demographic factor, economic status and other factors. The question thus remains, at which level of accessibility and what price of medical care service in health insurance will the customer and the medical care service be satisfied. The price of medical care service ls comprised of the customer's out-of-pocket money and the costs not covered by health insurance. If the price of medical care services in health insurance are appropriate, medical care utilization should not differ because of the difference in income status or the acuteness of illness. But If the price is not adequate, low income groups will receive relatively low medical care utilization, particularly in the case of chronic disease. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the differences in medical care utilization among the various income groups and those with varying acuteness of illness. The major hypotheses to test in this study are : (i) whether there are differences in medical care utilization among different income groups exist, (ii) whether differences in medical care utilization among different income groups exist with the hospital type. (iii) whether differences in medical care utilization among different income groups exist with the acuteness of illness and with age. The data was collected from the JongRo District Health Insurance Society in Seoul. A total of 118,336 persons were selected as the final sample for this study. The major findings of this study were as follows; 1. The volume of ambulatory utilization among users was statistically significant by income level. 2. Among different income groups, the volume of ambulatory utilization was statistically significant by the acuteness of illness. 3. Higher income groups with chronic diseases had a greater volume of ambulatory utilization than other groups.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.122-130
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• 2018

Recent urbanization, population densification, and the impact of global climate change are causing disasters to become larger and more complex. Meanwhile, in Korea, there is an emphasis on preventing, restoring, and recovering from disasters. However, disaster medical care, which is absolutely necessary to maintain life in a disaster, is being ignored. Therefore, in this study, we selected Seoul as the study area where flood damage is frequent and underground housing is densely populated. Assuming underground housing in the immersion history area as the emergency patient site, transfer distance and transfer time were analyzed. This study considered both accessibility to emergency medical facilities and disaster sites and accessibility from emergency services to disaster sites. Therefore, it seems to be meaningful as basic data for the improvement of emergency medical services.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.171-211
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• 2009

Because Korea has the excellent informational technology, it was expected to be able to improve the accessibility to healthcare and compete with other nations in excellence through u-Healthcare. But we can't complete the excellent u-Healthcare because of the law to be able to use only the tele-counselling between doctor to doctor or doctor to nurse. First of all, we must complete the law to be able to use the improved u-Health containing of telemedicine between doctor to patient. Though other factors, the procurement of safe IT, the credibility to healthcare service provider containing of nutritionist and occupational therapist etc. are prepared for erecting u-Healthcare, we can get the final and decisive u-Health policy only by means of Law for supporting u-Healthcare's Activation. The important sections of Law for supporting u-Healthcare's Activation are as follows. Sec. 4 The Minister for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs and the dean of associated administrative division have to erect the combined plan for u-Healthcare's Activation. Sec. 11 Government and local autonomous entity can support the facility and equipment to be necessitated for using u-Healthcare to improve the medical accessibility of person in the region with poor medicine. Sec. 13 Doctor can support other doctor's medical action through IT and if there are not medical risk, doctor can give medical act directly to the special patients. Sec. 21 If pharmaceuticals is necessitated in u-Healthcare, remote doctor has to send the patient the electronic prescription and the pharmaceutist to receive the electronic prescription has to delivery the pharmaceuticals in accordance with patient's demand.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.19-27
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to determine whether public services in rural areas performed the functions of public interest value that benefited all residents of rural areas. Therefore, the results were derived through spatial distribution and population characteristics analysis at the level of basic living service facilities. As a result, the status of spatial distribution in the Favorable and Vulnerable areas of rural villages and the status of population distribution in the vulnerable areas was analyzed for retail, child care and medical facilities. In the case of retail facilities, it was found that more than 80.0% of the country's farming villages were distributed in the favorable areas that could be reached within 15 minutes. In the case of child care facilities, 91.5% of the total number of favorable areas could be reached within 15 minutes, and the distribution of child care facilities nationwide was deemed proper. In the case of medical facilities, 90.8% or more villages could be reached within 15 minutes of travel time as a lawmaker, and in the case of hospitals and emergency medical services, 92.7% of hospitals and 68.2% of emergency medical services were analyzed as favorable areas. Through these results, the government intends to establish objective spatial data in rural areas to provide basic information on policy directions and contribute to planning.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.300-304
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• 2011

Optical microscopes are widely used for medical imaging these days, but biopsy is a lengthy process that causes many problems during the ex-vivo imaging procedure. The endo-microscope has been studied to increase accessibility to the human body and to get in-vivo images to use for medical diagnosis. This research proposes a multi-modal confocal endo-microscope for bio-medical imaging. We introduce the design process for a small endoscopic probe and a coupling mechanism for the probe to make the multi-modal confocal endo-microscope. The endoscopic probe was designed to decrease chromatic and spherical aberrations, which deteriorate the images obtained with the conventional GRIN lens. Fluorescence and reflectance images of various samples were obtained with the proposed endo-microscope. We evaluated the performance of the proposed endo-microscope by analyzing the acquired images, and demonstrate the possibilities of in-vivo medical imaging for early diagnosis.

• Journal of Korean Medical classics
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.41-53
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• 2021

Objectives : This paper analyzes the newly discovered manuscripts of the HyangchonGyeongHeomdanbang(鄕村經驗單方). The HyangchonGyeongHeomdanbang is a collection of prescriptions written by Lee, Gyeongbu, a native of Gongju, Chungcheong Province, who served as a central official in the mid-19th century. Methods : First, background of the author was investigated through official sources. Next, bibliographical information along with the contents of the book were examined. Results : 1. Based on the findings of category classification, it can be concluded that the author put the most importance on tumefaction. 2. The author's main philosophy was cultivation based on Confucian ideas. 3. The book was intended for those without specialized medical knowledge. Conclusions : The HyangchonGyeongHeomdanbang(鄕村經驗單方) is an example of maximized convenience and accessibility in the accumulative process of clinical medicine during 19^th century Joseon.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.113-121
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• 1992

In order to estimate the pattern of medical care utilization and recognition for health factor among the inhabitants in Wan-do district which is located off the southern seashore from mainland Korea, household interview survey was performed from January 15 to 30, 1990 in Wan-do Gun area. The results observed were following: 1. Among the users of medical facilities 40.8% used public health facility as first contact facility. Lower the income level was and longer the residency duration was, the utilization rate of public health facilities was higher. By age groups and medical security status the utilization pattern was likely to disperse to local clinic and secondary contact medical resources. 2. Medical expense and access time were significantly different between primary contact and secondary contact medical resources. 3. Public health facility was recognized as the favoured institute having advantage of geographic and economic accessibility. 4. Statistically significant determinants in public health facility utilization among total medical service were the region, the medical expense, and the access time.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.19-36
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to assess adequately equipped with convenience facilities for the disabled in 160 healthcare institutions in Jongno district, Seoul. Healthcare institutions were equipped an average of 3.7 facilities out of 10. General hospitals had an average of 5.0 facilities, which was higher than an average of 3.6 facilities for private clinics (p<0.05). Of 160 healthcare institutions, only 13 (8.1%) offered easy access to the outpatient setting from the entrance for wheelchair users, highlighting difficult wheelchair access within hospitals. To provide easy access to medical service for the disabled, more accessible designs need to be adopted as part of the effort to improve public facilities for the disabled. Also, universal designs could be applied for newly constructed roads, structures and transportation vehicles to maximize accessibility for the disabled. Increased accessibility for the disabled in the community will eventually increase the use of healthcare institutions.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.65-74
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• 2021

This study empirically analyzes the effect of pedestrians' personal and household characteristics and accessibility to public facilities on a walking safety satisfaction (WSS) level. The aim is to find ways to improve vulnerable pedestrians' WSS level and contribute to the creation of an inclusive urban environment. As a result of the analysis, age and gender variables were important for elderly people, and education was an important factor for disabled people. The WSS level was impacted by the factors of single-person households, income, and residential areas. In the case of accessibility to public facilities, the greater the satisfaction with accessibility to public institutions, urban parks and green areas, and public transport, the greater the WSS for the elderly and the disabled. And, the greater the satisfaction with accessibility to commercial facilities, the greater the WSS was for the elderly's WSS. However, the satisfaction with access to medical facilities was the opposite in the case of the elderly.