• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.324-334
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• 1998

Background : Strategic planning is an organizationwide or systemwide, ongoing look into the future usually of 2~3 years, based on objective analysis of the current environment and trends, but it can incorporate both short-term and long-term goals. The strategic planning process includes external analysis, internal analysis, issue analysis, development of mission, vision and values, and lastly development of organizational goals and objectives. As a part of the strategic quality planning process, certain service lines, important organizationwide functions, or key processes supporting these functions can be prioritized to expedite and roll out certain strategic goals. This is called strategic quality initiatives. Methods : We organized a quality improvement team, a subgroup of 21st century vision planning corps of our medical center, and pursued QI activities for improvement of healthcare environment, particularly in the admission setting. We developed a strategic quality initiative based on the results of patient satisfaction surveys, and carried out functions of self-directed work team. Results : The strategic goal was to be the benchmark for peer group hospitals in Korea for providing cost-effective best-practice. The QI team included 3 medical doctors, 1 nurse, 1 social worker, and 1 QI consultant as well as many operational members to support services and quality initiatives met every Tuesday for 18 weeks. Outcome objectives were to improve patient satisfaction score. The issues included in the objectives were comfort, temperature, noise, cleanliness of the admission wards, quality and education of patient meals, matters regarding the admission process, and an appurtenant facility such as restaurant or convenience store. Every issue was discussed and recommendations, conclusions and opportunities were implemented. Conclusions : By developing a strategic quality initiative as a part of the strategic quality planning process, and pursuing a self-directed work team, certain sen/ice lines, important organizationwide functions, or key processes supporting these functions can be improved effectively within a short period. Strategic quality initiatives serve to support, or roll out, certain strategic goals that are relevant to performance improvement and development of specific measurable outcome objectives, and associated performance measure for each initiative. Each strategic quality initiative should include a statement of intent outcome objectives, and performance measures. We will come back with follow up of the strategic quality initiative, for improvement of healthcare environment, and results of patient satisfaction re-survey.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.8297-8305
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• 2015

A cultural and art performance is a domain of the service from which consumers want to get a value through the experience, and a comprehensive study of the service quality the consumers judge to be important is necessary. Also, there are active studies of service quality in various service industries and fields, but there are not many studies related to service quality in the performance business. In the performance industry, the service quality of the theater has a great influence in order to express the distinct theme, and yet, there has been no study of the influences of the choice factors of performing arts, the quality of the physical environment, in other words, the quality of interaction and the quality of the outcome of their selection of a performance of each type of use by the audience of performing arts. Thus, this study aims to understand the quality of physical environment considered by the audience of a choir performance in the selection of the performance according to the type of use of the choir performance and analyze the influences of these factors on the quality of interaction, the quality of outcome and behavioral intention to provide suggestions for the establishment of marketing strategies in the future.

• Asian Oncology Nursing
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.195-203
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• 2012

Purpose: To summarize and review the methodological quality of the evidence from trials examining the effectiveness of physical exercise in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (Allo-HSCT). Methods: Six randomized clinical trials (RCTs) were identified, reviewed for substantive results, and assessed for methodological quality. Results: Six trials met all methodological criteria on the modified Jadad score above 3 out of 5 points. Failure to blind the outcome assessor, and failure to describe the method of blinding of outcome assessor appropriately were the most prevalent methodological shortcomings. Various exercise modalities have been applied, differing in content, frequency, intensity, and duration. Positive results have been observed in part for a diverse set of outcomes, including physical and psychological performance. Conclusion: The trials reviewed in this study were of moderate methodological quality. They suggest that exercise in patients undergoing Allo-HSCT may be safe and feasible, and in part patients benefit from increased physical performance both during and after transplantation. Future RCTs should use larger samples, appropriate comparison groups, and a standard of outcome measures, and examine what kind of exercise intervention (aerobic vs. resistance vs. combined) is the most effective for Allo-HSCT patients. It would be necessary to define contraindication for exercise to guarantee its safety.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2013

Outcome-Based education (OBE) is reviewed from the institutional perspective. The demand for and international trends in OBE are briefly examined and several term related to OBE, especially educational objective and program outcomes (POs), are introduced. It is stressed that systems for continuous quality improvement and quality assurance should be established to ensure the maintenance of the OBE system. Because the criteria for accreditation contain a criterion regarding the quality assurance related to program outcomes, several critical issues are considered regarding the POs themselves and the reduction of the POs. The core value of OBE is not only to provide appropriate education services to students to prepare them with the minimum skills and abilities for advancing their professional service, but also to guarantee the quality of graduates. In addition, the educational program should be continuously improved by employing the evaluation results acquired during the operation of the OBE systems. It is certain that an OBE system is one important aspect of student-centered education.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.183-197
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• 2016

This study was conducted to investigate the relationships among service quality, perceived benefit, perceived value and behavioral intention as perceived by franchise snack bars customers. The service quality of franchise snack bars' was tested in three sub-dimensions: environmental quality interaction quality, and outcome quality, which are based on Brady & Cronin's third-dimensional model. A total of 450 survey questionaires were distributed from March 9th to November 12th in 2015, of whi 411 questionnaires were deemed suitable for statistical analysis. SPSS 20.0 program was employed to conduct frequency analysis and reliability analysis, while AMOS 20.0 program was used to test the hypotheses. The results revealed that all three elements of service quality have a positive impact on perceived benefit. In particular, the outcome quality element had the greatest influence on perceived benefit. In sum, customers of a franchise snack bar considered outcome variables such as food taste, reasonable amount, and general quality of food as the most important factors to fulfill the benefit. This results suggest that Korean snack bar franchise companies need to consider improvements to outcome quality features, such as food quality. In addition, perceived benefit was a critical antecedent of perceived value, which was itself a significant predictor of behavioral intention. In conclusion, this study applied the means-end chain theory on franchise sank bar segmentation, as well as three dimension service quality model as developed by Brady and Cronin, and found results that will enable meaningful strategics for snack bar foodservice segmentation in pursuit of the development of efficient business plans, and that can be utilized as a theoretical data for future studies.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.757-766
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• 2020

Objective : Spinal epidural abscess (SEA) is a severe and life-threatening disease. Although commonly performed, the effect of timing in surgical treatment on patient outcome is still unclear. With this study, we aim to provide evidence for early surgical treatment in patients with SEA. Methods : Patients treated for SEA in the authors' department between 2007 and 2016 were included for analysis and retrospectively analyzed for basic clinical parameters and outcome. Pre- and postoperative neurological status were assessed using the American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (AIS). The self-reported quality of life (QOL) based on the Short-Form Health Survey 36 (SF-36) was assessed prospectively. Surgery was defined as "early", when performed within 12 hours after admission and "late" when performed thereafter. Conservative therapy was preferred and recommend in patients without neurological deficits and in patients denying surgical intervention. Results : One hundred and twenty-three patients were included in this study. Forty-nine patients (39.8%) underwent early, 47 patients (38.2%) delayed surgery and 27 (21.9%) conservative therapy. No significant differences were observed regarding mean age, sex, diabetes, prior history of spinal infection, and bony destruction. Patients undergoing early surgery revealed a significant better clinical outcome before discharge than patients undergoing late surgery (p=0.001) and conservative therapy. QOL based on SF-36 were significantly better in the early surgery cohort in two of four physical items (physical functioning and bodily pain) and in one of four psychological items (role limitation) after a mean follow-up period of 58 months. Readmission to the hospital and failure of conservative therapy were observed more often in patients undergoing conservative therapy. Conclusion : Our data on both clinical outcome and QOL provide evidence for early surgery within 12 hours after admission in patients with SEA.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.9-18
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• 2013

An outcome-based curriculum is perceived to be one alternative educational approach in medical education. Nonetheless, it is difficult for curriculum developers to convert from traditional curriculum to an outcome-based curriculum because research documenting its development process is rare. Therefore, this study aims to introduce the development process and method of outcome-based curriculum. For the purpose of this study, we used diverse data analyses, such as an existing literature search, development model analysis, and case analysis. We identified five phases from the analysis. First, the curriculum developers analyze the physician's job or a high performer in a medical situation. Second, curriculum developers extract outcomes and competencies through developing a curriculum, affinity diagraming, and critical incident interviews. Third, curriculum developers determine the proficiency levels of each outcome and competency evaluation methods. Fourth, curriculum developers conduct curriculum mapping with outcomes and competencies. Fifth, curriculum developers develop an educational system. Also, it is important to develop an assessment system for the curriculum implementation in the process of developing the outcome-based curriculum. An outcome-based curriculum influences all the people concerned with education in a medical school including the professors, students, and administrative staff members. Therefore, curriculum developers should consider not only performance assessment tools for the students but also assessment indicators for checking curriculum implementation and managing curriculum quality.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.368-377
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• 2012

In this study, a survey was held of m-learning educators in order to find out about the influence given to motivation by the characteristics of m-learning based on the parameters of the learning outcome. As a result of the analysis, it was revealed that the characteristics of m-learning provide a significant effect on the learning outcome and it was shown that the learning outcome provides a significant effect on the learning flow as well. This study aims to provide direction and guidelines for support service for learners for the improvement of the quality of m-learning to bring about enhancement in results and the fulfillment of successful learning by students.

• Journal of Menopausal Medicine
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.188-195
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• 2018

Objectives: This study investigated the association between menopausal-specific quality of life (MENQOL) and breast cancer screening beliefs among Hong Kong Chinese menopausal and postmenopausal women. Methods: A cross-sectional study was employed to collect data. The questionnaire was distributed to a convenience sample of 218 women aged above 45. The outcome variables were breast cancer screening beliefs and breast examination. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to test the effect of 4 domains in MENQOL (vasomotor, psycho-social, physical, and sexual symptom) and the health behaviors on the 2 outcome variables. Results: This study found that the overall MENQOL scores (in particular psycho-social, and physical aspects) were significantly associated with positive attitudes toward health check-ups and better knowledge and perceptions in breast cancer. Regular exercise was also significantly related to breast examination. Conclusions: MENQOL (especially psycho-social and physical domain) and regular exercise are important factors associated with breast cancer screening beliefs. The results of this study illuminate health care professionals to develop primary health care strategies to improve the quality of life of mid-life women.

• Educational Technology International
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.1-18
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• 2011

This study intends to examine the effects of motivational scaffolding in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). This study was focused on the following two questions. Do motivational scaffolding lead to positive effects on the process in CSCL? Do motivational scaffolding lead to positive effects on the outcome in CSCL? In order to identify strategies for motivational scaffolding, we reviewed the "Flow Theory." Based on literature reviews, principles and strategies were drawn for the motivational scaffolding. An experimental study was conducted in order to investigate the effects of motivational scaffolding on process and outcome. In this study, 87 undergraduate students were divided into two different groups (control group, experimental group). Motivational scaffolding was provided to experimental group. The process was analyzed by examining learners' satisfaction in process. The outcome was analyzed by examining learners' satisfaction in product, group coherence, and quality of product. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant. From these results, we concluded that motivational scaffolding led to positive effects on process and outcome in CSCL environment.