• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.516-523
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the causal relationships of perceived risk, satisfaction, switching cost and loyalty in outpatient health services. Method: A survey using a structured questionnaire was conducted with 393 hospital outpatients. The analysis of data was done with both SPSS Win 17.0 for descriptive statistics and AMOS 18.0 for structural equation model. Results: The causal model yielded Chi-square=31.44 (p=<.001), df=4, GFI=.98, AGFI=.87, CFI=.97, RMSR=.04, NFI=.96, IFI=.97 and showed relatively good fit indices. Perceived risk had a significant direct effect on customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction, financial switching cost and relational switching cost had significant direct effects on customer loyalty. Perceived risk and customer satisfaction had significant indirect effects on customer loyalty. Conclusion: These results suggest that we should decrease the perceived risk and improve the customer satisfaction and switching cost to retain loyal customers. Further study with both a larger sample from various hospitals and a longitudinal design is necessary.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.26 no.3 s.43
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• pp.442-456
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• 1993

Financial stability is the foremost prerequisite for the continuous growth and development of hospitals. The present study aimed at developing a deterministic model using the factors which affect the hospitals profitability and at discovering which factor affected the hospital profitability. The study conducted questionnaire surveys on all general hospitals, with the exception of special hospitals, with over eighty hospital beds. Of the 274 subject hospitals, 136 of them, consituting 49.6% of the whole, were used in the study. The results are as follows. 1. In the deterministic model, outpatient revenue was affected more by the number of physician visits than by outpatient service intensity. Inpatient revenue was found to be affected more by the number of discharged patients than by inpatient service intensity. However, the increase rate of the service intensity not only contributed in stepping up the operating margin by $4{\sim}8%$ in outpatient and $3{\sim}6%$ in inpatient, but it was statistically significant. 2. Among the factors which determined the operating cost within the deterministic model, the number of patients had a greater impact on the operating cost than the resource consumption per patient. 3. The resource consumption per patient were proved to have the greatest effect on the profitability within the probabilistic model. The management cost per adjusted patient, in particular, was proven to have a statistically significant effect on the profitability in all hospitals.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.427-428
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• 2017

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.185-196
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• 2015

Background: Issues concerning with the classification accuracy of Korean Outpatient Groups (KOPGs) have been raised by providers and researchers. The KOPG is an outpatient classification system used to measure casemix of outpatient visits and to adjust provider risk in charges by the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service in managing insurance payments. The objective of this study were to refine KOPGs to improve the classification accuracy and to evaluate the refinement. Methods: We refined the rules used to classify visits with multiple procedures, newly defined chemotherapy drug groups, and modified the medical visit indicators through reviews of other classification systems, data analyses, and consultations with experts. We assessed the improvement by measuring % of variation in case charges reduced by KOPGs and the refined system, Enhanced KOPGs (EKOPGs). We used claims data submitted by providers to the HIRA during the year 2012 in both refinement and evaluation. Results: EKOPGs explicitly allowed additional payments for multiple procedures with exceptions of packaging of routine ancillary services and consolidation of related significant procedures, and discounts ranging from 30% to 70% were defined in additional payments. Thirteen chemotherapy drug KOPGs were added and medical visit indicators were streamlined to include codes for consultation fees for outpatient visits. The % of variance reduction achieved by EKOPGs was 48% for all patients whereas the figure was 40% for KOPGs, and the improvement was larger in data from tertiary and general hospitals than in data from clinics. Conclusion: A significant improvement in the performance of the KOPG was achieved by refining payments for visits with multiple procedures, defining groups for visits with chemotherapy, and revising medical visit indicators.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.58-69
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• 2017

Recently, with the increase in the number of private health insurance subscribers, interest in overuse of the medical service is increasing. This study analyzed the impacts of private health insurance (PHI) on medical institution selection in outpatient service utilization among persons with arthritis. In order to control patients' health status, we extracted outpatient episodes with the same disease (KCD6, M13) from Korea Health Panel. The unit of analysis was an outpatient visit with arthritis in 2014 (n=23,363). In the light of insurance coverage, we redefined three type of private health insurance (ex, indemnity, fixed benefit, and non-insured) as a test variable and two type of medical institution (ex, hospital and physician visit) as a dependent variable. We conducted a probit regression analysis to identify the impacts of PHI on medical institution selection controlling for heteroscedasticity. The results of this study showed that the insured with indemnity were more likely to choose hospital departments than clinics (marginal effect=0.0475, p=0.000). The impact of participation of fixed benefit PHI was not as clear as that of indemnity type (marginal effect=0.0162, p=0.047). In conclusion, this study confirmed that PHI, particularly indemnity type has a significant impact on the selection of medical institutions. Healthcare policy makers should consider that PHI not only affects the overall quantitative increase in healthcare utilization, but also influences the selection of medical institutions.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.325-337
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• 2023

Background: While there are many studies estimating the effects of private health insurance on various types of health care utilization, few have examined how such effects change in conjunction with important policy reforms in national health insurance (NHI). This study examined how the effect of private health insurance (supplemental and fixed cash benefit) on high-cost outpatient imaging test utilization changed following the expansion of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) coverage in 2018, which is a key example of the NHI benefit expansion policy in recent years. Methods: Data from the 2017 and 2019 Korea Health Panel Survey, which contained information about healthcare utilization before and after the expansion of MRI coverage in 2018, were used. The incremental effect of private health insurance on high-cost outpatient imaging test utilization for each period were quantified and compared, with special attention given to the type of private health insurance. Results: While people with supplemental private health insurance were more likely to use high-cost outpatient imaging tests than those without, both before and after the expansion of MRI coverage, the incremental effect increased from 1.6% points in 2017 to 2.5% points in 2019. Conclusion: Benefit expansion in NHI does not necessarily reduce disparities in the use of health care between private health insurance subscribers and non-subscribers. The results of our study also suggest that the path through which private health insurance affects healthcare utilization may not be limited to the price mechanism alone but can be more complex.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.153-155
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• 2013

A 57-year-old man was diagnosed with lung cancer and underwent pneumonectomy and mediastinal lymph node dissection. He was discharged without acute complications, but on a regular outpatient follow-up, he was readmitted with postpneumonectomy empyema. He was successfully treated with a vacuum-assisted closure device and for 1 year period of outpatient follow-up, there was no recurrence of empyema or lung cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.969-974
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• 2012

Mammography utilization is low in Iran compared with other countries. Here a cross-sectional survey design was used to investigate psycho-social and individual factors associated with mammography among 400 women asymptomatic of breast cancer. The study was carried out at the four outpatient clinics of Tehran during the period from July through October, 2009. We found that mammography screening was related to higher self-efficacy and women's occupation. Future tailored interventions on potential psycho-social determinants and specific demographic factors are critical in increasing mammography screening rates among Iranian women.

• Annals of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.375-385
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• 2022

Backgrounds/Aims: Prehabilitation aims for preoperative optimisation to reduce postoperative complications. However, there is a paucity of data on its use in patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD). Thus, this study aims to evaluate the outcomes of a home-based outpatient prehabilitation program (PP) versus no-PP in patients undergoing PD. Methods: This retrospective cohort study compared patients who underwent PP versus no-PP before elective PD from January 2016 to December 2020. Inclusion criteria for PP were < 65 years or 65-74 years with FRAIL score < 3. No-PP included dietician, case manager and anesthesia review. PP included additional physiotherapy sessions, caregiver training and interim phone consultation. Univariate and multivariate analysis were used to evaluate length of stay (LOS), morbidity, 30-day readmission, and 90-day mortality. Results: Seventy-one patients (PP: n = 50 [70.4%]; no-PP: n = 21 [29.6%]) were included in this study. Median age was 65 years (interquartile range [IQR]: 58-72 years). Majority (n = 58 [81.7%]) of patients underwent open surgery. Ductal adenocarcinoma was the most common histology (49.3%). Patient demographics were comparable between both groups. Overall median LOS was 11.0 days (IQR: 8.0-17.0 days). Compared to no-PP, PP was not independently associated with reduced intra-abdominal collections (odds ratio [OR]: 0.43; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.03-6.11, p = 0.532), major morbidity (OR: 1.31; 95% CI: 0.09-19.47; p = 0.845) or 30-day readmission (OR: 3.16; 95% CI: 0.26-38.27; p = 0.365). There was one (1.4%) 30-day mortality. Conclusions: Our outpatient PP with unsupervised exercise regimes did not improve postoperative outcomes following elective PD.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.71 no.2
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• pp.114-119
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• 2011

Background: There is very limited data present on smoking cessation rates in outpatient departments of pulmonology. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a brief smoking cessation intervention program in an outpatient department of pulmonology and identify predictors of smoking cessation failure. Methods: After a brief recommendation of smoking cessation from pulmonologists, smokers willing to quit smoking were given individual counseling and supplement drugs. Fifty smokers were included in this study and baseline characteristics, smoking history and success rate were reviewed at 3 months. Results: The mean age of the patients was $58.3{\pm}14.6$ years and the total group of patients included 3 women. The rate of smoking cessation success was 74% at 3 months, and there were no differences in age, spirometric indexes and associated diseases between the smoking cessation success and failure group. The rate of supplement drug usage was not different in both groups either. However, body weight, mean number of cigarette usage per day and nicotine dependence scores in the failure group were significantly higher than in the success group. In multivariate analysis, body weight and mean number of cigarette usage per day were significant. Two smokers with a depressive disorder failed the smoking cessation. Conclusion: A smoking cessation intervention program in the outpatient department of pulmonology showed a favorable success rate. More intensive interventions are needed to unfavorable groups which include the obese and heavy smokers.