• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제43권1호
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• pp.35-41
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• 2010

Objectives: In Korea, the top 10% of Medical Aid recipients represent nearly 60% of total payment, with the costs for those disabled for over 365 days representing approximately 30% of total payment. The purpose of this study was to compare Medical Aid use of the disabled with non-disabled recipients, and to identify contributing factors to the total payment in the top 2% of recipients identified as Medical Aid overusers. Methods: Subjects (n=2,211) selected were ${\geq}18$-years-of-age and received >1000 days of co-payment-free type I Medical Aid. Case managers (n=200) conducted interviews in December 2006, and collected data from Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service. Amounts over the 9 months from January September 2006 were analyzed descriptively and using Chi-square, ANCOVA, and robust multiple linear regression. Results: Disabled individuals (mean age 61.3 years) composed 36.6% of subjects; 44.8% of the disabled were male. On a monthly basis per capita, the disabled group averaged 10.5 outpatient days, total payment of 523,000 Korean Won(￦), inpatient payment of ￦359,000, and outpatient payment of ￦183,000. All values exceeded the monthly average for non-disabled individuals. Contributing factors were identified as male gender (￦82,000), elementary school or lower educational level (￦64,000), residence in a small city (￦82,000), lack of family support (￦61,000), kidney disability (￦673,000), intellectual disability (￦151,000), and multiple disabilities (￦119,000). Conclusions: The identification of contributing factors to Medical Aid use by those defined as disabled supports the adoption of comprehensive alternative policies such as strengthening of education and consultation services, provision of alternative facilities, and promotion of self-care.

• 한국의료질향상학회지
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• 제4권2호
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• pp.184-195
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• 1997

Background : The purpose of this research was to evaluate the appropriateness of preoperative hospital days in a tertiary care hospital and to examine the reasons of the inappropriateness, so as to provide basic information and policy for enhancing appropriateness of preoperative hospitalization and benefit of patients and hospital. Methods : The subjects of the research were the 344 patients who received operation among discharged patients during January, 1996 in surgical departments including general surgery, neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, plastic surgery and ophthalmology. Their medical records were reviewed and appropriateness of hospital days was evaluated by the Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol. Result : The results of evaluating the appropriateness of preoperative hospitalization showed that inappropriate hospital days were 80.8%. The reasons of inappropriate hospital stays were the tests or preparation which could be done in outpatient basis' followed by 'possible tests or preparation on the operation day' and 'cancelation of operation'. Conclusion : In order to shorten the inappropriate preoperative length of stay, it is recommended that lengthening of laboratory running time and doing most of tests necessary for operations on the outpatient basis prior to admission should be considered. In addition, the operation at the same day of hospitalization and usage of day surgery should be encouraged. Finally there should be changes in the inpatient management system and attitudes and behaviors of surgeons to shorten unnecessary preoperative and maximize the benefit for patients and hospital.

• 한국실내디자인학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국실내디자인학회 2005년도 춘계학술발표대회 논문집
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• pp.203-206
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• 2005

Recently, it is not to much to say that the world of hospital architecture in Korea is in a time of transition that undergo big changes. Each hospital pursues their transformation not only for patiences' changing demands on medical services but to cope with rapid environmental changes that pouring like boundless competition, opening tendency and to get an advantage of competition to attract patiences with other hospitals. It is because national expectations and standards on medical services have risen and they are not satisfied with hospitals that run for doctors and medical care that served technically any more. With rising interests in health, it is emphasized not the functions of hospitals to prevent diseases but the purpose of treatment and securing other facilities according to rising economical incomes except medical facilities.

• 한국의료질향상학회지
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.28-40
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• 1998

Background : Many patients have been frequently complaining that they have to spend couples of hours in hospital on visiting outpatient clinic. Among several steps, two major time consuming steps were waiting to see a doctor and/or waiting at pharmacy to get medicine. Therefore not only to provide the proper guidance for medication or counseling on health affairs but also to make waiting time short is very important for the better hospital services. The aim of this study is to validate several time-saving processes to reduce waiting time at outpatient pharmacy and its efficacy. Methods : We surveyed the time interval actually taken to receive medicine after issuing prescription by doctors, and analyzed the data on the bases of relevant or possible causative factors. Then following processes were given to reduce waiting time and resurveyed and compared both data to validate efficacy of those processes : 1. No work-off on Monday and Tuesday 2. Work hour shift to start 30 minutes earlier 3. Changeable work shift between outpatient pharmacy and ward pharmacy according to work load 4. Use of pre-made medicines prescribed more frequently by certain doctors at certain time 5. Cooperation with doctors to use set prescriptions. Results : Before the process, mean waiting time at pharmacy was 29.2 minutes and most time consuming period was from noon to 1 PM, 3 to 4 PM, 1 to 2 PM in order of frequency. Only 37.7 % of patients could get the medicine within 20 minutes. Three times of surveys after process showed mean waiting time at pharmacy were 18.1 minutes, 19.0 minutes, and 17.6 minutes, respectively. And 72.7 %, 81.3%, and 82.2% of patients could get the medicine within 20 minutes. Conclusion : The mean waiting time was markedly reduced with above mentioned processes which applied intradepartmently event hough with little cooperation from other department. Consequently, the complaints of patients were decreased with increasing the satisfaction degree. In conclusion, those suggestions were recommanded to improve the degree of satisfaction of patients.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제18권3호
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• pp.41-57
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• 2008

To examine the gap between physician's perceived importance and performance of care and to identify factors associated with the gap. A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted with 91 physicians working in a University hospital in Seoul. The respondents were asked about their perceived importance and actual performance of interpersonal care on a 5-point Likert-type scale, indicating a higher score as higher importance and performance. Interpersonal care was measured by questions modified from the Korean Standard Service Quality Index, which are grouped into 6 categories: basic services, extra services, reliability, courtesy, convenience, and tangibles. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to find out physician characteristics associated with the gap. All of the 6 interpersonal care categories showed lower performance than perceived importance. The respondents tended to have a worse performance than perceived importance as the number of patients per outpatient care session ($\beta$=-0.0204, p<0.05) and the need for customer satisfaction education increase ($\beta$=-0.2226, p<0.05). Female physicians ($\beta$=0.2336, p<0.05) and those with higher job satisfaction($\beta$=0.0096, p<0.05) showed a better performance than perception. Overall, it appears that lower quality of interpersonal care was delivered to patients than the desired level considered by the responding physicians. Based on the regression analysis results, it is suggested that reducing patient volume per session, fulfilling education need for customer satisfaction, and improving job satisfaction may contribute to reduce the gap between physician's perceived importance and performance of interpersonal care.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제24권1호
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• pp.47-55
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• 2014

Background: Korea is considered to have an integrative health system where both western medicine and Korean (traditional) medicine are officially recognized and provided. Although Korean medicine has been covered by National Health Insurance over 20 years, equity in the utilization of Korean medical care has rarely been examined. Methods: We examined medical care utilization and expenditure of outpatient Korean medicine using panel fixed effects model to remove selection bias. Then we compared it with pooled ordinary least square (OLS) model. This study used Korea Health Panel data, which provides accurate information on out-of-pocket health care payment, including non-covered medical services. Results: Principal findings indicate that the frequency of the utilization of Korean medicine is related with unobservable individual choices different from western medicine, so the panel fixed effect model is appropriate. But pooled OLS model is better fitted for the expenditure of Korean medicine, after controlling for western medical care expenditure. After adjusting for the selection bias, socioeconomic status (income, education) was significantly associated with the expenditure of Korean medicine, but not with the frequency of the utilization of Korean medicine. Conclusion: This study shows that expenditure of Korean medicine utilization is inequitable across socioeconomic groups, which implies that health insurance coverage of Korean medicine is not sufficient.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제21권4호
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• pp.527-540
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• 2011

Some patients tend to visit tertiary hospitals instead of non-tertiary hospitals for minor illnesses, which is a chronic problem within the Korean health care delivery system. In order to reduce the number of patients with minor severity diseases unnecessarily utilizing the tertiary medical services in Korea, the Ministry of Health and Welfare raised the outpatient co-insurance rate for the tertiary hospitals in July, 2009. Another increase in the prescription drug co-insurance rate by the general and tertiary hospitals is scheduled to take place in the second half of 2011. An increase in copayments may discourage the utilization rate of medical services among the underprivileged or patients who require complicated procedures. This study aims to analyze the diabetic patients' utilization rates of tertiary hospitals according to the Comorbidity score. Diabetic patients' data was gathered from the Health Insurance Claims Records in the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service between 2007-2009. Comorbidity scores are measured by the Charlson Comorbidity Index and the Elixhauser Index. Chi-square and logistic regressions were performed to compare the utilization rates of both insulin-dependents (n=94,026) and non-insulin-dependents (n=1,424,736) in tertiary hospitals. The higher Comorbidity outcomes in the insulin-dependent diabetic patients who didn't visit tertiary hospitals compared to those who did, was expected. However, after adjusting the gender, age, location, first visits and complications, the groups that scored >=1 on the comorbidity scale utilized the tertiary hospitals more than the O score group. Non-insulin-diabetic patients with higher Comorbidity scores visited tertiary hospitals more than patients who received lower grades. This study found that patients suffering from severe diabetes tend to frequently visit the tertiary hospitals in Korea. This result implied that it is important for Korea to improve the quality of its primary health care as well as to consider a co-insurance rate increase.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제26권2호
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• pp.135-147
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• 2016

Background: The voluntary diagnosis-related groups (DRG)-based payment system was introduced in 2002 and the government mandated participation in the DRG for all hospitals from July 2013. The main purpose of this study is to examine the independent effect of mandatory participation in DRG on various outcomes of patients. Methods: This study collected 1,809,948 inpatient DRG data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment database which contains medical information for all patients for the period 2007 to 2014 and examined patient outcomes such as length of stay (LOS), total medical cost, spillover, and readmission rate according to hospital size. Results: LOS of patients decreased after DRGs (large hospitals: adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.87; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.78-0.97; small hospitals: aOR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.91-0.92). The total medical cost of patients increased after DRGs (large hospitals: aOR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.14-1.30; small hospitals: aOR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.21-1.23). The results reveals that spillover of patients increased after DRGs (large hospitals: aOR, 1.27; 95% CI, 0.70-2.33; small hospitals: aOR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.16-1.20). Finally, we found that readmission rates of patients decreased significantly after DRGs (large hospitals: aOR, 0.28; 95% CI, 0.26-0.29; small hospitals: aOR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.56-0.63). Conclusion: The DRG payment system compared to fee-for-service payment in South Korea may be an alternative medical price policy which can reduce the LOS. However, government need to monitor inappropriate changes such as spillover increase. Since this study also is the results based on relatively simple surgery, insurer needs to compare or review bundled payment like new DRG for expansion of various inpatient-related diseases including internal medicine.

• 대한영양사협회학술지
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• 제2권2호
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• pp.199-215
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• 1996

In Korea, the majority of hospital dietitians expend most of their time performing food management related activities, and only a few carry out nutrition care activities in full-time. This study was designed to measure productivity of the clinical nutrition team and assess the role of clinical dietitians in the only 2200-bed teaching hospital in Korea. Six full-time clinical dietitians collected time data for four weeks according to the nutrition care activities outlined. Three clinical dietitians assigned to 7 units recorded how often physicians implemented their recommendations for two months. Two kinds of survey questionaire were developed and sent to the patients and the health care team. The followings are a summary of the results. 1. The clinical nutrition team of 6 full-time dietitians expended 75% of their time performing patient care activities, 20% in non-patient care activities and 5% in delay and transit. 2. Each clinical dietitian assigned to the units carried out 56 patient care activities on daily basis. 3. The average time required for the clinical nutrition services was 60.2 minutes for outpatient counseling, 89 minutes for inpatient counseling, 72.5 minutes for nutrition management, 95 minutes for malnutrition consult and 121 minutes for dysphagia diet management. 4. Physicians' implementation of clinical dietitians' recommendations was 98.5%. 5. Most physicians and nurses viewed the clinical dietitians on the units assertive, contributing to the quality improvement of medical services, and helpful to the patients as well as the health care team. 6. Most patients viewed the clinical dietitians on the units considerate, attentive and helpful. Based on these results, it is suggested that (1) daily meal round and nutrition care monitoring are effective tools for nutrition intervention in the hospital setting. (2) unit assignment of clinical dietitians enhances the patients' satisfaction in the nutrition services provided as well as the perceptions of health care team on clinical dietitian's expertise.

• 의료법학
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• 제19권1호
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• pp.23-80
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• 2018

정신질환자의 인권이라는 관점에서 우리나라의 정신질환자에 관한 법과 정책도 강제입원과 치료가 중심이 아니라, 정신질환자의 삶에 주목하여 그들의 회복(Recovery)과 사회통합(Inclusion)을 목표로 지역사회에서의 복지와 지원에 중점을 두어야 한다. 정신건강복지법으로의 개정으로 강제입원의 요건과 절차를 엄격하게 강화하였지만, 지역사회에서 정신질환자의 안정적 치료와 사회복귀를 지원할 서비스가 충분히 확보되어 있지 않다. 그 중에서도 지역사회에 복귀한 정신질환자들의 안정적인 치료의 유지와 위기상황에 빠졌을 때에 지원받을 수 있는 서비스 체계를 구축하는 것은 정신질환자의 회복과 지역사회에서 살아갈 권리를 실현하는 데에 매우 중요하다. 이 점에 있어서 미국의 외래치료명령제도와 위기대응프로그램이 많은 시사를 제공해 줄 수 있다. 먼저 미국에서의 외래치료명령제도의 발생과 최신 동향으로부터 다음과 같은 시사를 얻을 수 있다. 첫째, 미국의 AOT와 같이 외래치료명령 신청 주체를 넓게 확대하는 것, 둘째, 사법기관에 준하는 독립성을 갖춘 기관의 심의와 절차적 권리를 보장하는 것, 셋째, 실효성 확보를 위해 정신보건전달체계에도 동일한 내용의 명령을 하는 것, 넷째, 외래치료명령에서 반드시 사례관리를 포함하는 '치료계획'을 수립하는 것, 다섯째, 외래치료명령과 병행하여 동의에 기반한 외래치료지원제도를 시행하는 것, 여섯째, 대상을 자 타해행위의 이력이 있는 입원환자로 제한하지 않는 것에 주목할 필요가 있다. 나아가 지역사회에 복귀한 정신질환자가 병상(病狀)의 변화에 따라 겪게 되는 정신과적 위기상황을 안전하게 극복하기 위해서는 미국의 위기대응 프로그램과 같은 사회서비스의 제공이 반드시 필요하다. 특히 정신과적 위기상황에서 강제입원이나 자살, 중대범죄의 위험으로부터 본인과 타인을 보호하기 위해서 위기대응 프로그램은 중요한 역할을 할 수 있을 것이다. 이때 미국이 경험한 위기대응서비스 제공의 기본원칙과 다양한 형태의 위기대응 서비스가 우리나라의 제도 설계와 운영에 많은 참고가 될 것이다.