• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.126-135
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• 1995

Background: Korean Hospital Standardization Program(KHSP), as a hospital accreditation program initiated and promoted by Korean Hospital Association since 1981, has played a key role in the hospital quality improvement in structural aspect particularly. Recently, however, KHSP has been critisized by hospitals and health personnels in that it is unpractical to be utilized as an initiative to improve hospital quality. In particular, the section of quality assurance in KHSP, strongly influenced by old version of Hospital Accreditation of Joint Commission in U.S.A., has been required to be fundamentally revised. For design of new criteria in quality assurance section, a survey for evaluation of existing program and collection of opinions for ideal one was conducted. Methods: For a month in 1994, structured questionnaires were administered by mailing to 470 hospital staffs from 200 hospitals, participated in the survey for the 1994 KHSP in each hospital. The total number of respondents was 116. Results: Less than half of the respondents(34.5%) value positively on the impact of current KHSP in general on the quality improvement of their hospitals. Moreover, most responses indicated that KHSP should be reorganized towards more practical and applicable one. Current KHSP criteria for quality activities in hospitals were regarded as a unpractical one which should be basically renewed. For new criteria and standards, most respondents emphasized the importance of applicability of those in real situations. Conclusion: For the KHSP to be effective, new evaluation criteria for quality activities should be more practical and fully accommodated to hospital situations in reality.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.1221-1222
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• 2005

Interface control activities during the nuclear power plant (NPP) construction and operation have been reviewed for enhancing the safety of NPP. The primary focus of the study is given on analysis of lessons learned from the recent significant events of Korean Standard Nuclear Power plant (KSNP), such as a series of break-off of thermal sleeves at YGN 5 & 6 and radioactivity leak at YGN 5, in respect of interface control. Based on the results of the analysis, this study recommends measures for the improvement of interface control among utility and technical supporting organizations (TSO), and suggests new regulatory systems, such as reporting of safety significant non-conformances, to effectively verify the adequacy of interface control activities during construction and operation of NPPs.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.120-123
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• 1994

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.75-90
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• 2017

The study was intended to identify the effect of the rural development projects (comprehensive improvement of the seats of Eup and Myeon and regional unit comprehensive development projects) on the quality of life in rural areas against local residents living in areas subject to those projects by means of structural equation modeling based on covariance structure analysis. The result indicated that perception factors affecting the quality of life for residents in rural areas by the projects included 'improvement in spatial environment', 'increase in vitality of rural areas', and 'promotion of community activities.' It was also suggested that 'improvement in spatial environment' and 'increase in vitality of rural areas' have significantly positive effect on the quality of life for residents in rural areas while the former has relatively higher correlation. In comparison between comprehensive improvement of the seats of Eup and Myeon and regional unit comprehensive development projects, it was analyzed that all the perception factors of the comprehensive improvement of the seats of Eup and Myeon have effect on the quality of life for residents in rural areas indicating that comprehensive improvement of the seats of Eup and Myeon is more effective than regional unit comprehensive development projects in promoting the community activities. It means that existing rural development projects have been promoted to improve spatial environment rather than improving the quality of life for residents in rural areas. Thus, it is considered that the rural development projects in future should seek for a sense of community so that they can induce voluntary participation by local residents.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.232-243
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• 2001

Background : the hospitals in Korea are in a situation of a severe competition than the past. This situation was resulted from the increase in the number of hospitals and also from the government policy controlling the medical insurance fee. Moreover, consumer's desire for the high quality medical service g\has been significantly increased. Many programs to improve the quality of medical services are being performed in hospitals since the middle of 1990's. Studies up to now reported that more than 10 programs are being performed per hospital in Korea. So far studies have been performed to measure only the number of such programs in a hospital. The purposes of this study are to examine a specific area involved in the programs designed to improve the medical service quality and to suggest a future direction of the such programs. In addition, we hope that the results from this study could assist the programs for the medical service quality. Methods : A mailed questionnaire survey of the QI staffs at hospitals with 400 beds or more was conducted between September 15 and October 30, 2000. Of the 108 hospitals eligible for inclusion in our study, 69 participated, yielding a response rate of 63.9%. Excluding 7 hospital which are not responsed about activities of hospital then 62 hospitals were used for the analysis. Result : The total number of programs was 1,081 from the 62 hospitals participated in the survey. The highest number (24.8 programs) was found in the hospital having more than 800 beds and performing the programs more than 5 years. The 1,081 programs were consisted of 445 from the medical examination area, 343 from the medical examination support area, and 296 from the management area. Conclusion : This study showed the present situation of hospitals in Korea regarding to the quality improvement programs. The results from this study suggest that the pattern of the program for the medical service improvement is being changed to service process and result-centered programs from the structural area.

• Proceedings of the Korea Inteligent Information System Society Conference
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• 2001.01a
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• pp.352-357
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• 2001

This study presents an analysis of healthcare quality indicators using data mining for developing quality improvement strategies. Specifically, important factors influencing the inpatient mortality were identified using a decision tree method for data mining based on 8,405 patients who were discharged from the study hospital during the period of December 1, 2000 and January 31, 2001. Important factors for the inpatient mortality were length of stay, disease classes, discharge departments, and age groups. The optimum range of target group in inpatient healthcare quality indicators were identified from the gains chart. In addition, a decision support system was developed to analyze and monitor trends of quality indicators using Visual Basic 6.0. Guidelines and tutorial for quality improvement activities were also included in the system. In the future, other quality indicators should be analyze to effectively support a hospital-wide continuous quality improvement (CQI) activity and the decision support system should be well integrated with the hospital OCS (Order Communication System) to support concurrent review.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.259-279
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• 2000

This study is a descriptive analytic research measuring nursing service quality, using SERVQUAL model, to make fundamental data and strategies for nursing service improvement. Data were collected by self-reported questionnaire from 202 patients and 142 nurses, from June 7 to 14, 1999. The reliability of instrument were adequate(Cronbach ${\alpha}=.94$). SAS program was utilized for statistical analysis of collected data. The results were as follows; 1. There was a gab between patient's expectation and perception on nursing service(Gap B). Gap D was indicated an affecting factor to decide nursing service quality. Gap C was indicated an indirect affecting factor of nursing service quality. Because it was not statistically significant in total item analysis, but in individual item analysis, 7 items were appeared statistically significant. Gap A was not a gap occurrence factor of nursing service quality. 2. Focuses of nursing service quality improvement strategies were; (1) to direct qualitative improvement of nursing service in order to correspondence patient's nursing service expectation. (2) to make nurse's service activity modified because nurse's practice were not reached patient's expectation level. (3) to need internal, external factor analysis affecting nurse's service activity. 3. Nursing service quality was decided by rather environmental inappropriateness provided nursing service than itself. Therefore, to make nursing service quality improvement, it is required to improve nursing service environment. For this, followings are required; (1) to strengthen nurse's education on lower part of nursing service satisfaction and QI activities. (2) to balance demand and supply of nursing personnel. 3) to fix computerized system for reducing other duties weight except nursing care through analysis of nursing activity. (4) to construct rational cooperating system among related departments. 4. The important parts for nursing service quality improvement were indicated as follows: (1) Gap B: 'prompt reaction', 'examination symptom before patient's complaint', 'hearted nursing service reducing patient's dissatisfaction', 'explanation goals of nursing activities', 'having special Knowledge enough', 'maintenance position comfortably', 'management of patient's physical hygiene'. (2) Gap C: 'maintenance physical safety', 'explanation about hospital rules and facilities'. (3) Gap D: 'tender, safe injection and wound care'. Because above items are mostly improved through nurse's attitude change and quality improvement, it is required to establish nursing standardization and to strengthen nurse's clinical education. As the based on above results, followings are suggested; 1. SERVQUAL model is very useful to make strategies for nursing service quality improvement because it indicates multiple factors affecting hap occurrence. 2. At individual items analysis of Gap C, statistically significant 7 items appeared higher nurse's perception level than patient's perception level on nursing service were trouble perception level on nursing service quality improvement. So. it need further research to analysis about these difference occurring factors. 3. At analysis of Gap D, it is indicated that in nursing service performance process, multiple factors lowing nursing service quality were intruded. So it needs further research to analysis what these factors are and how each factors affect on nursing performance process. 4. nursing service quality measurement is changeable according to sample select time or sampled subject's characteristics. So to develope strategy for nursing service quality improvement is based on the results of periodical analysis.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.674-681
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• 2008

Hospital malnutrition could be caused by not completing the food served in the hospital. This has been a big problem since it delays the recovery of the patient and extends the length of hospital stay. The purpose of the study was to reduce the plate waste for the DM diet by performing several nutrition service improvement activities. The study was performed in a general hospital with 900 beds. A questionnaire survey was taken by 39 DM patients to obtain their aspect of the hospital foodservice systems and the quality of the meals at the beginning of the study. The amounts of foods served in the hospital kitchen and returned were measured by weights. After the improvement activities, the measurement of the plate waste was performed again for comparison. The average percentage of plate waste for the DM diet was 23.2%. The survey showed no difference by sex, age or duration of admission in plate waste. However, this food wastage percentage showed differences between the patients having a chance to get information about the diet therapy (12.21%) and not having one (26.06%) (p < 0.05). Using a five-point Likert-type scale, the quality of food by its taste was 2.49 (1: very poor, 5: excellent), the temperature score was 3.56 (1: very poor, 5: excellent), and the amount of food served score was 2.95 (1: very poor, 5: excellent), and the preference score was 3.13 (1: very dislike, 5: very like). Nutritional care improving activities were performed by adjusting seasonings, developing new menus, and standardizing cooking methods in order to increase the satisfaction of meal quality. The dietitian's inpatients care protocol was adjusted to expand the nutritional counseling chance for the DM patients. After the improvement activities, the average plate waste was reduced to 14.6%, and the satisfaction of food taste and preference increased to 3.21 (p < 0.001), and 3.36 (p < 0.05) correspondingly. The result shows that, for therapeutic diet patients, food intake could be increased by improving the food service satisfaction by controlling the meal quality and clinical nutritional service activities.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.35-38
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• 2004

Global competitive pressures are asking industrial companies to find the best way to meet their customer's requirements, reduce the costs of products, and increase productivity. Quality improvement has been proposed and implemented as a primary means of achieving these purposes. The quality improvement usually includes a goal of reducing the costs due to poor quality. While these costs of poor quality (COPQ) are not known precisely, they are known to be very high. Also, they may be underestimated by the hidden costs due to non-value activities, such as potential lost sales, costs of redesign due to quality reasons, and extra manufacturing costs due to defects, etc. In any manufacturing or service operation, all actions and resource expenditures of a company should be focused on creating value for customers. Any activity or resource of not creating the value for customers could be regarded as waste, which consequently causes the COPQ. Some companies did use dashboards to understand and identify value added or non-value added activities in order to reduce or eliminate wastes. These dashboards must be properly designed to consider inherent differences in manufacturing or service operations among business organizations. In addition, a structured quality improvement program such as the Six Sigma must support these dashboards. In this paper, a case study of designing dashboards for evaluating and reporting the COPQ in business units is presented.

• Proceedings of the Safety Management and Science Conference
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• 2012.04a
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• pp.75-80
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• 2012

The research presents a guideline for quality practitioners to provide a full comprehension of differences in theoretical and practical interpretations of assumed sampling errors of and significance probability of calculated p-value. Besides, the study recommends the use of statistical inferences methods with known parameters to identify the improvement effects. In practice, the quality practitioners obtain the known parameters through systematic quality Database (DB) activities.