• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.28-34
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• 2018

Purpose With regard to the use of radioiodine in domestic medical institution, the case of exceeding the allowance of nuclear safety Act about radioactive concentration in drainage was found. Through understanding the cause of exceeding case and analyzing radioactive concentration in drainage, evaluating the relationship of the public waters in surroundings and usefulness. Materials and Methods From November 1, 2014 to April 30th, 2015, the research is aiming at domestic twenty hospitals for six months. By using a HPGe gamma-ray spectrometer(Canberra DSA-1000) and GENIE-2000 Analysis software for comparative analysis, measuring a radioactive concentration of radioiodine in drainage. Consequently, we confirm the excess of radioactive concentration of radioiodine in seven medical institutions. Results Conducting a survey of twenty hospitals and average radioactive concentration of radioiodine in drainage appears $42,100Bq/m^3$. The features of domestic hospitals where show a high radioactive concentration are a number of medical treatment patient when using radioactive iodine and the absence of private rest room. During I-131 whole body scan, the pretreatment procedure of urinating is considered emission of residual Iodine. In public waters, the cause of exceeding detect on radioactive concentration in drainage suppose a diagnostic radioactive iodine. Conclusion We confirm the importance of enhanced education, providing a safety control instructions and installing a private rest rooms for patients who injected a low capacity radioiodine. Also, constructing institutional and legal management system is considered about the Emission management standard in drainage.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.148-169
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• 2008

As the Korean Government began to perceive healthcare as one of foundational industries for national dynamics, there has been mounting advocacy for the introduction of for-profit hospitals with a view to bringing efficiency in healthcare services industries and improvement of their international competitiveness. The Government is now considering the issue from all angles in favor of permitting for-profit hospitals. However, There have been few precedent studies on this subject to provide helpful data for the discussion and in the health policy making. This study used private hospitals - for-profit and nonprofit - in Florida, USA as study subjects to accumulate basic data that may be utilized for those involved in debates and health policy making relating to the introduction of for-profit hospitals in Korea. Among all the private general hospitals in Florida, those surveyed by AHA(American Hospital Association) for four consecutive years from 2001 and 2004 and others reported about to MCR(Medicare Cost Report) included in the collected data for analysis. In total 139 private general hospitals consisting of 73 for-profit hospitals and 66 nonprofit hospitals were included in the collected analysis data. Results of analysis revealed no significant difference between for-profit hospitals and nonprofit hospitals in the usage aspects of healthcare services including the average length of stay and the ratio of Medicare vs Medicaid patients. However, financial performances indicated by such factors. as the pre-tax return on assets and the pre-tax operating margin showed to be significantly higher in for-profit hospitals compared with nonprofit hospitals. And the ratio of personnel expenses and the turn period of total assets showed to be significantly lower in for-profit hospitals. Based on the hypothesis that arguments about the introduction of for-profit hospitals have considerably different viewpoints depending on the size of hospital represented by the number of bed, these two hospital types were compared again using the number of beds as a controlled factor, but the results were similar. We, therefore, could conclude that the for-profit hospitals in Florida included in this study could, in their for-profit operation, improve their financial performance by pursuing cost reduction and effectively utilizing their assets without limiting the amount and the range of their services or avoiding less medically protected groups such as Medicare and Medicaid patients.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.105-112
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• 2016

Nurses in a children's hospital have to meet a special condition with their younger patients who need continuous supervision and cares. The planning of the ward where the nurse as well as the patient and his/her caregivers stay all day long should cover all the users need. This study focused on the nurse's need for the ward in children's hospital. The nurse stay longer than any users in hospital and their treatment have to be based on deep understanding of their patients. The survey research followed the literature review on the children's hospital and the nurses' task and behavior. 119 nurses answered the structural questionnaire and their answers were analyzed using the statistical process such as basic descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and actor analysis. Results and conclusions are as follows. (1) The subjects least satisfied with the accessibility for the children and the nature-and child-friendly design features among physical environment design factors of the hospital. (2) The Subject regarded the patients' room to a private place of the patients and their caregivers not to the work places. (3) The design factors of the nursing station were classified into four: the functionality-, the privacy-, the supervision-and the restfulness-factor. The functionality and supervision factor were highly required as a workplace, the privacy factor between the patients, their caregivers and subject were also represented high score, but the restfulness factor were least required.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.70-86
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to empirically investigate the relationship between hospital employeesʼ perceptions of organizational politics, organizational effectiveness such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention. We also evaluated the moderating effect of organizational trust on the relationships between POPs and organizational effectiveness. By analyzing 726 employeesʼ data including physicians, nurses, medical technicians, and administrators from one private hospital, POPs was found to have had a highly negative relationship with job satisfaction and organizational commitment while a highly positive relationship with turnover intention. Furthermore, organizational trust moderated the relationship between POPs and job satisfaction, and also POPs and turnover intention, while no moderating effect appeared between POPs and organizational commitment. Within the organization, employees who are in a group with high organizational trust have low job satisfaction and high turnover intention when they have high POPs rather than a group with low organizational trust. Further the implications of these results and future directions of the study have been discussed.

• Electronics and Telecommunications Trends
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.81-88
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• 2021

Post COVID-19, the medical legacy system will be transformed for utilizing medical resources efficiently, minimizing medical service imbalance, activating remote medical care, and strengthening private-public medical cooperation. This can be realized by achieving an entire medical paradigm shift and not simply via the application of advanced technologies such as AI. We propose a medical system configuration named "Medical AI Hub" that can realize the shift of the existing paradigm. The development stage of this configuration is categorized into "AI Cooperation Hospital," "AI Base Hospital," and "AI Hub Hospital." In the "AI Hub Hospital" stage, the medical intelligence in charge of individual patients cooperates and communicates autonomously with various medical intelligences, thereby achieving synchronous evolution. Thus, this medical intelligence supports doctors in optimally treating patients. The core technologies required during configuration development and their current R&D trends are described in this paper. The realization of the central configuration of medical AI through the development of these core technologies will induce a paradigm shift in the new medical system by innovating all medical fields with influences at the individual, society, industry, and public levels and by making the existing medical system more efficient and intelligent.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.29-39
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• 2021

Purpose: As the need for a hospital specializing in infectious diseases has increased, construction is being promoted. Hospitals specializing in infectious diseases receive some state subsidies, but in the case of private hospitals, hospital operation efficiency should be considered to prevent cost loss. Therefore, we aim to derive a building plan for a general ward in a hospital specializing in infectious diseases that can be used not only in normal times but also in times of crisis. Methods: In this study, relevant literature review and field interviews were conducted with medical staff working in facilities designated as infectious disease hospitals. Results: The general ward building plan of the hospital specializing in infectious diseases was classified into three categories and presented. 'Spatial composition' for nursing unit and ward zoning, 'Spatial plan' for ward space conversion in normal times and crises, 'Bedroom plan' for effective dimensions and area of the ward. Implications: It can be used as a guideline when designing an infection-facility ward. And it can be a basis for inducing improvements to prevent infection in the ward of existing medical facilities.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.99-128
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• 2008

Nearly all Koreans are insured through National Health Insurance(NHI). While NHI coverage is nearly universal, it is not complete. Coverage is largely limited to minimal level of hospital and physician expenses, and copayments are required in each case. As a result, Korea's public insurance system covers roughly 50% of overall individual health expenditures, and the remaining 50% consists of copayments for basic services, spending on services that are either not covered or poorly covered by the public system. In response to these gaps in the public system, 64% of the Korean population has supplemental private health insurance. Expansion of private health insurance raises negative externality issue. Like public financing schemes in other countries, the Korean system imposes cost-sharing on patients as a strategy for controlling utilization. Because most insurance policies reimburse patients for their out-of-pocket payments, supplemental insurance is likely to negate the impact of the policy, raising both total and public sector health spending. So far, most empirical analysis of supplemental health insurance to date has focused on the US Medigap programme. It is found that those with supplements apparently consume more health care. Two reasons for higher health care consumption by those with supplements suggest themselves. One is the moral hazard effect: by eliminating copayments and deductibles, supplements reduce the marginal price of care and induce additional consumption. The other explanation is that supplements are purchased by those who anticipate high health expenditures - adverse effect. The main issue addressed has been the separation of the moral hazard effect from the adverse selection one. The general conclusion is that the evidence on adverse selection based on observable variables is mixed. This article investigates the extent to which private supplementary insurance affect use of health care services by public health insurance enrollees, using Korean administrative data and private supplements related data collected through all relevant private insurance companies. I applied a multivariate two-part model to analyze the effects of various types of supplements on the likelihood and level of public health insurance spending and estimated marginal effects of supplements. Separate models were estimated for inpatients and outpatients in public insurance spending. The first part of the model estimated the likelihood of positive spending using probit regression, and the second part estimated the log of spending for those with positive spending. Use of a detailed information of individuals' public health insurance from administration data and of private insurance status from insurance companies made it possible to control for health status, the types of supplemental insurance owned by theses individuals, and other factors that explain spending variations across supplemental insurance categories in isolating the effects of supplemental insurance. Data from 2004 to 2006 were used, and this study found that private insurance increased the probability of a physician visit by less than 1 percent and a hospital admission by about 1 percent. However, supplemental insurance was not found to be associated with a bigger health care service utilization. Two-part models of health care utilization and expenditures showed that those without supplemental insurance had higher inpatient and outpatient expenditures than those with supplements, even after controlling for observable differences.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.147-158
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• 2013

This article describes the orthodontic treatment of a 31-year-old Korean female patient with gummy smile and crowding. The patient showed excessive gingival display in both the anterior and posterior areas and a large difference in gingival heights between the anterior and posterior teeth in the maxilla. To correct the gummy smile, we elected to intrude the entire maxillary dentition instead of focusing only on the maxillary anterior teeth. Alignment and leveling were performed, and a midpalatal absolute anchorage system as well as a modified lingual arch was designed to achieve posterosuperior movement of the entire upper dentition. The active treatment period was 18 months. The gummy smile and crowding were corrected, and the results were stable at 21 months post-treatment.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.101-110
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• 2005

In Korea, EMS Fund Operation seems to move the opposite direction to right way. The most initial EMS fund was consumed loan for some emergency patients without any particular results. Since 2002, the use of EMS fund also has shown a tendency to shift one side. By the results, it was 44.3% to support emergency medical centers, so called hospital EMS system and 28.4% to purchase ambulances and helicopters, and 1.6% to operate Central Medical Center, prehospital base in the EMS fund consumed in 2004. It was never supported for the environmental improvement and development of universities, colleges, and private EMS units having the primary responsibilities. The initial EMS fund using should be used for prehospital base, e.g., prehospital staffs, communications, and facilities and balanced development between public and private EMS units than any other fund using.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.147-163
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to find out the restructuring strategy for five provincial hospitals through the business analysis and survey of the service area. Through the survey of the service area of 5 hospitals. service area was classified into three groups, such as underserved area, adequate area, and overserved area. The strategy for the restructuring the clinical departments was set up based on the result of the business analysis and characteristics of the service area. The result of the study was as follows; 1) Whether or not a provincial hospital has specialized in specific area according to the circumstances and the needs of the community was the major factor influencing on the operating result of the hospital. 2) Provincial hospitals at the underserved area has to invest according to the changes of the occupancy rate and increasing pattern of the number of patients while maintaining the status as a general hospital. 3) Provincial hospitals at the adequate area has to lower the grade from the general hospital down to the hospital first and has to upgrade the competency through the restructuring the clinical departments and investment in specific area. 4) Provincial hospitals at the overserved area has to lower the grade from the general hospital down to the hospital first and has to seek ways to change the hospital fundamentally into geriatric hospital, pneumoconiosis hospital or psychiatric hospital etc. Provincial hospitals incapable to compete with private hospitals and clinics has to lower the grade from the general hospital down to the hospital first, to specialize in specific area and to restructure some clinical departments into rental base or self-operating basis. In case such methods are judged not so good solution, provincial hospitals has to find out ways such as shut-down of several departments or operating under the attending system.