• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.37-49
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• 2017

In order to maximize the efficiency and the quality of care in a hospital, hospitals in general operate by appointments. Patient no-shows or missed appointments waste the time of staffs who prepare for appointments, deprive patients of needed care, and increase burden on clinic capacity. The purpose of this study is to examine the importance and significance of factors that affect patient no-shows. The actual data of 50,000 outpatient appointments is compiled and analyzed from a VAMC in the United States with aims to identify the factors that contribute to outpatient no-shows and to draw meaningful implications. Random forest along with logistic regression analysis identify the factors affecting no-shows; appointment leadtime, show-up rate, travel distance, no-show rate in previous period, patient age, severity, complexity of disease, chronic pain, depression, drug dependence. The appointment leadtime, show-up rate, travel distance and previous no-show rate can be improved by enhancing SMS pre-notification and by improving afterwards telephone counseling. For other factors, it needs to study on the service differentiation with the characteristics of each patient group.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.231-245
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• 2007

This study aims to discuss plans to improve the satisfaction level of dental services by understanding characters of beliefs about dental manpower and analyzing its related factors. Data were collected by structured questionnaire whose subjects consist of 1607 persons from 13 years old to 69 years old, who have ever experienced dental institution. Both univariate and biovariate analyses were employed to analyze level of dentist and dental hygienist's beliefs and its related factors and the results gained from the surveys and search are as follows. 1. Among the questions to measure dentist's beliefs, 'Respect for patients' was evaluated as the best, and the lowest items were 'not-hopeful explanation about prognosis of dental treatment', 'satisfactory explanation' and 'whether treatments are stopped by pains or not'. In addition, among questions to measure dental hygienist's beliefs, 'kindly welcome' and 'detailed explanations about medical directions' are the items evaluated as the best and 'notice of waiting time' marked the lowest evaluation. 2. The factors related to beliefs about dentists were age, ache experiences, dental fear, self-reported dental health status, frequence and primary purposes of the visits dental institutions, elapsed time from recently visited, present of favorite dental clinic to visit regularly. 3. The factors related to beliefs about dental hygienists were age, education, occupation, ache experiences, frequence and primary purposes of the visits dental institutions, periodic check of teeth, present of favorite dental clinic to visit regularly. 4. Direct painful, painful treatment experience under insufficient local anesthetic, indirect painful experience and dental fear were positively correlated. And the relationships were positive between ache experiences, dental fear and self-reported dental health status, but relationships were negative between ache experiences, dental fear and dentist! dental hygienist's beliefs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.109-116
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• 2017

Upper gastrointestinal series is non-invasive examination, and it is useful for patients or elderly patients who have difficulty in endoscopic examination because of absence of any side effects other than temporary constipation or abdominal pain. The entire image of the gastrointestinal tract can be seen and have been widely used in the diagnosis of upper gastrointestinal diseases. However, there is a possibility that radiation dose increases due to improper movement and breath control, when examination is carried out by lack of understanding the overall inspection process for the upper gastrointestinal series. In upper gastrointestinal series to increase understanding of examination, to induce appropriate cooperation during examination, to reduce the number of retakes and shorten examination time, and to reduce dose of the subject, the procedure and precautions of the gastrointestinal test were made as a movie. We investigated the effectiveness of pre-education using the movie to reduce the inspection time, the number of re-shoots, and the reduction of exposure dose by watching the movie during the waiting time before examination. 120 patients that were selected each 20 patients aged from 30s to 80s were evaluated were evaluated for exposure dose, examination time, and the number of retakes before and after the movie training. The radiation dose, the examination time, and the number of retakes were respectively $3171.83{\mu}Gy{\cdot}m^2$ and $2931.73{\mu}Gy{\cdot}m^2$, 8.05 min, and 6.75 min, and 1.68 times and 1.22 times before and after movie training. It can be concluded that the movie training on the gastrointestinal examination influences the reduction of the examination time, the number of retakes and the reduction of the radiation dose.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.149-152
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• 2014

Purpose: At our hospital blood is collected from a patient before an imaging test, with the concern of any effect possible when a nuclear medicine imaging test and an in-vitro test are carried out at the same time. However, occasionally, the blood collection is performed after an imaging test, with the reasons that the patient is not properly guided or the patient doesn't follow the guide correctly. In that case, we prefer to gather blood again after a few days. The purpose of this study is not only to see whether there is any effect of an imaging test on the result of the in-vitro test performed with the blood collected after the imaging test, but also to study how many days waiting after each test is appropriate to take a blood sample, if the effect exists. Materials and Methods: From September to October 2013, blood were collected from 13 patients in our hospital regardless of age and sex each time before and after the injection of the radioactive isotope from the tests : PET-CT, Gated Myocardial SPECT, and DTPA GFR Scan. Considering a half-life, AFP, CA19-9, CEA, TSH, and T3 were carried out right after the blood collection. In case of an iodine therapy, blood were taken each time before and after taking radioactive iodine, and, after AFP, CA19-9, and CEA, the difference between them in consistency and in cpm were compared. Results: With 10 patients after the imaging tests and 3 patients after the iodine therapy, their serum cpm was over 10,000. Over time, the cpm decreased in accordance with the half-life ($^{18}F$ 110minutes, $^{99}mTc$ 6hours, $^{201}Tl$ 72hours, $^{131}I$ 7days). Between the two cases, one before and the other after the injection of the radioactive isotope, the cpm and the results of AFP, CA19-9, CEA, TSH, and T3 from three patients each test, PET-CT, Gated Myocardial SPECT, and DTPA GFR Scan, were very similar. In addition, in case of an iodine therapy, there was also not a meaningful difference in the cpm and the results of AFP, CA19-9, and CEA, from three patients in an iodine therapy, between the two cases, one before and the other after taking the radioactive iodine. Conclusion: In case a blood collection was performed after the imaging test which required a radioactive isotope injection, the cpm increased, differently according to the kind of the radioactive isotope. However, the results of the in-vitro tests like AFP, CA19-9, CEA, TSH, T3, etc were nearly not affected. As the result, it's considered that there will not be any significant effect also from other tests, as the result from the performed seven tests.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.83-98
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• 1997

The purpose of this study were to find out the practical way to enlarged child-raising knowledge and to enhance their satisfaction with out-patient care by evaluating how effectively the education is done by nurses for mothers with ill-child and how their satisfaction with out-patient care changed. This study was designed as a Nonequivalent Control Group study. The subjects studied were consisted of the experimental and control group. Each consisted of 50 mothers with ill-child in pediatric department at one university hospital in Seoul. The period of this study is from May 20, 1996 to J one 28, 1996. The first data were collected from both of experimental and control groups in which mothers with ill-child come to the hospital for the first time. After this being done, the experimental group had been educated by the planned program and then the second data were collected from them. On the contrary, as for the control group, there had been no education and the second data were col looted on the same method. The data analysis was done by SPSS program. The results of this study are as follow, 1 The child-raising knowledge level of mothers with education was higher than that of with no education. (t=18.84, df=49, p=0.000) 2. The satisfaction with out-patient care level of mothers with education was higher than that of no education. (t=10.51, df=49, p=0.000) Based on these results, I suggest as follow, 1. The research on the patients and their family should be made not only in pediatric department, but in every out-patient department. 2. For more effective education, it is required for all out-patient nurses to research the education demand of patients and their family. 3. To increase the effect of education, there must be the consultation room in out-patient department. 4. The meetings with the mothers with ill-child of the same illness have to be established and periodical education must be executed. 5. Audio-visual education programs like video tapes are needed to make use of waiting time for the medical treatment. 6. On-line consulting programs are needed.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.88-104
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• 2002

According to the change of mandatory referral system in July 1, 2000, the effect to the medical utilization of outpatient clinic and medical income in ophthalmology of tertiary care medical institute, S Hospital in Seoul was evaluated for 6 months before(1999. 12$\sim$2000. 5) and after(2000. 12$\sim$2001. 5). The results were as follows: 1. The number of outpatients was reduced by 16.6%. The number of patient with blindness low vision, retina, glaucoma increased and that of patient with accommodation refractive error, cataract decreased. 2. The number of cataract patients was reduced by 36.6%. The major location of patient's address was changed to nearer to the hospital. The number of cataract surgery reduced in 4.1%, the waiting time reduced in 42.2%, however surgery time increased in 20.2% and number of postoperative complications increased in 11.4%. 3. The income of outpatient clinic and cataract surgery reduced. Among items of outpatient clinic income, the most increased was ocular examination and the most reduced was injection and drugs. Among items of cataract surgery income, the most increased was operation fee and the most decreased was doctor's fee. In conclusion, for the patient, due to the lowered density of outpatient population more space was provided to the patients with more severe disease entity such as blindness' low vision, retina and glaucoma. For the hospital, the need for the expansion of ophthalmology was not found, however that for creation of the special clinics dealing with more severe disease entity was found. Due to reduced income and increased need of financial investment for the equipment and manpower for the more severe disease entity, the ophthalmology of tertiary care medical institute is faced with financial disaster. It is strongly suggested that the cost of medical practice of more severe disease entity be raised to achieve the success after change of mandatory referral system in ophthalmology.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.20-44
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• 2004

The National Health Insurance Expenditure has been increased rapidly since the introduction of the separation of prescription and dispensing in 2000, and this trend of rapid growth in overall spendings rate has been observed predominantly among medical practitioners. This study was conducted to investigate the growth rate and distributional changes in private medical practitioners' expenses from 1999 to 2002 and its determinants using the National Health Insurance claims data. The total increasing rate of all medical practitioners' expenditure paid by the National Health Insurance between 1999 and 2002 was $41.71\%$, which exceeding that of general hospitals by $20\%$p. But the income distribution among each practitioner was improved as the changes in Gini coefficient(from 0.40 to 0.38) and decile distribution ratio(from 0.25 to 0.29) during the same period showed. However, this improvement in distributional patterns is not enough since even in 2002 it turned out that the highest $10\%$ income group earned 33times more than the lowest $10\%$ income group did. Also, higher Gini coefficient was observed in larger cities and some department like plastic surgery, obstetrics and gynecology. The major causes of this differentials in medical practitioners' expenses were factors related to medical demand like proportion of old population, residential economic status in a given area. In addition, providers' economic incentives also played an important role in determining their income distribution. The large income differentials among physicians may imply a skewed distribution of patients and thus long waiting time, inefficient utilization of resources and potential inadequate quality of care. In this sense, unreasonable distributional gaps should be reduced, so effective measures as well as ongoing monitoring would be necessary to correct current distributional problems.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.72-82
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• 1983

The purpose of this study is to provide the basic data necessary for the effective performance of administrative readjustment and demend and suppley medical care service by of analysing the extent of satisfaction of outpatient toward hospital. The subjects of this study are the 832 outpatients (398 male and 434 female) visit to 2 different university hospital in Seoul. The data were collected through self-administered techniques with a structured questionnaire from Oct.21 to Nov. 9, 1982. All the collected data were analyzed by means of percentage, mean and standard deviation. The results were as follows: 1. Those who are between :30 and 39 of age constitute the largest part of them as being 31.7 percent of the whole body. 40.0 percent of them graduated from the college and they take the lergest part of those who answered the questionnaire. 43.3 percent of the patients visit to the hospital by the reason for the reputation of a doctor and they take the largest part of the subjects. 2. The extent of satisfaction for hospital system. The mean extent of satisfaction for hospital system was revealed 2.50 scores, which is evaluated to neutral. The mean extent of satisfaction for waiting time of prescribed medicine presented 1.51 scores, the lowest among the component of hospital system, which is evaluated to high dissatisfaction. 3. The extent of satisfaction for the environment and facilities of hospital. The mean extent of satisfaction for the environment and facilities of hospital was revealed 3.08 scores, which is evaluated to moderate satisfaction. 4. The extent of satisfaction for doctor and other hospital employees. The mean extent of satisfaction for doctor and other hospital employees was revealed 3.05 scores which is evaluated to moderate satisfaction. The mean extent of satisfaction for doctor presented 3.39 scores, the highest among the components of doctor and other hospital employees. 5. The extent of satisfaction for charge of hospital. The mean extent of satisfaction for charge of hospital was revealed 2.74 scores, which is evaluated to neutral. 6. The extent of whole satisfaction for hospital. The mean extent of whole satisfaction for hospital was revealed 2.84 scores which is evaluated to neutral.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.26-36
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• 1998

This primary study was done to develop an ethical guideline for organ transplantation, a life-saving treatment which helps improve the quality of life. This study tried to identify the current situation in Korea, in terms of ethical considerations in organ transplantations. This study collected basic data in organ transplantations, in the hope that procedure of organ transplantations could be developed that would be fair to both organ donors and recipients. The immediate goals of this study were : 1)to identify staff in charge of organ transplantations and their jobs in the hospital, 2)to survey whether there exists a Hospital Ethics Committee(HEC), 3)to research what consideration are formally taken in selecting recipients, and 4)to accumulate data on how consent from donors are currently obtained. The study used a survey questionnaire and received responses from 31 hospitals out of 45 hospitals where organ transplantation are being done. Organ transplantation coordinators were found in 16 hospitals, but the job description varied among hospitals. The survey showed that all 16 hospitals with an HEC that health care personnel unnecessarily dominate the committee. The study notes that HECs should be vitalized by recruiting, as members, ethicists, theologians, patients, guardians, as well as the general public outside of the hospital. The study revealed that in selecting recipients the hospital take into account ABO blood type, histocompatibility, age, waiting time. and level of patient compliance. Finally, it was shown that in the cases of living donors the transplanting hospitals seek a formal consent, whereas there are no common consenting practice established for cadaveric donors. The study concludes with three proposals. First, a nationwide institution responsible exclusively for procurement and distribution of cadaveric organs for transplantation should be established. Second. we should rebuild the national health insurance system so that have costly organ transplantation expenses are substantially covered. Last, but certainly not least. there is a need to emphasize the HEC's committment to prepare a proper ethical guideline for organ transplantation in general.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.70-78
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• 1998

Alternative medicine is defined as the practices used for the prevention and the treatment of diseases that are not taught widely in medical schools, nor generally available inside hospitals. Alternative medicine or therapy is of growing interest to the general public. We conducted a survey to determine the prevalence and patterns of using alternative medicine such as herbal medicine acupuncture, folk medicine, health food and diet, yoga, qi therapy, shiatsu, chiropractics, homeopathy etc.. Based on 794 completed questionnaires, 484 respondents(61%) reported using at least one form of alternative medicine for their medical problems. The major medical conditions for which they used alternative medicine were back pain(85.6%), arthritis(85.4%), hypertension(85.2%), cerebrovascular disorders(86.4%), and insomnia(84.6%). The types of alternative medicine frequently used were herbal medicine, acupuncture, folk medicine, and health food. The reasons why the vast majority of people sought after alternative medicine was that: less side-effect, it is not harmful, it is more effective, there is a shorter waiting time, and a better explanation fur the conditions and a kinder therapist. We found that the frequency of using alternative medicine in the health care system was high. Physicians need to be more aware that many patients may be using alternative medicine. Further survey of the nation-wide prevalence of alternative medicine, and scientific study into the efficacy of this medicine should be followed. In the meantime, we suggest paying attention to possible harmful effects caused by some sorts of alternative medicine.