• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.125-148
• /
• 2011

Although the patient's problem with access to health information has been improved due to rapidly developing information technologies, such as the internet, some patients still do not have enough ability to understand, interpret, and analyze the health information. Given this view on the patient's asymmetric information problem, if a doctor provides sufficient effort to help patients understand and interpret medical information, the efficiency of patient's medical care use could be improved. This paper shows firstly that the patient's inefficient use of medical care originates from his information problems, such as the misperception of the effectiveness of medical care and secondly suggests that if the doctor makes sufficient effort to correct patient's information problems, the inefficiency can be ameliorated. This paper also suggests the manipulation of a doctor's payment method can lead a doctor to provide optimal level of efforts which can in turn lead patients to use the optimal level of medical care. With an optimal level of effort, a doctor can more easily achieve a patient's compliance with the newly recommended amount of medical care.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.56-80
• /
• 1984

The main objectives of the present study is to evaluate Physician's Health Education Activities by means of physician's direct response to the prepared questionnaire and patient's perception to the physician in the course of medical care. For the data collection, the present study was conducted from Aug. 16 to Oct. 7, 1983 for 739 patients and 91 physicians who were attended outpatient clinics of 5 general hospitals in Seoul. The major findings are summarized as follows: 1. Self-evaluation on Physician's Health Education Activities (1) In consideration of health education services for the patient, the data revealed that 9.9% of the sampled physician wanted to strength public health and preventive medicine lecture in the curricula at medical education. On the other hand, only 1.1% expressed that they wanted to make it short. (2) In consideration of the necessity of health education service, it was shown that 95.6% of physicians agreed to take it into consideration. Self expression for the practice of health education was placed on the 3.15 score when 5 point scale used. (3) To evaluate the degree of an explanation about medical care for the patient, Index score with 4 point scale was employed. The Index score for the first time was shown that scale was placed on 3.23 for 'diagnosis', 3.12 for 'progress of the disease', 3.11 for 'discription of procedure' and 3.02 for 'cause of the disease' respectively. In comparison of the physician's explanation about the status of disease for the first and the second visitors to clinic, they evaluated themselves as giving more detailed explanation for the second visitors rather than the first visitors. 2. Physician's Health Education Services evaluated by patients (1) To evaluate physician-patient communication at beginning time for taking history about disease, the Index score with 5 point scale was employed. The data on taking history have shown that the score placed on 3.07 for those patients who visited the first time and 2.53 for second visitors. And the score about listening from the patients was placed on 3.52 and 3.42 respectively. (2) The Index score with 5 point scale, as used before, was also employed to evaluate medical care services for the patient. The data evaluated by the patients was shown that the score placed on 4.21 for patient treatment in general, 4.58 for physician's credibility, and 3.6 for physician's kindness. However, approximately 80% of those who failed to understand physician's explanation was caused by highly sophisticated medical terminology. (3) According to the Index score with 4 point scale, to evaluate physician's explanation, the data was shown that the patient who visited the first time gave 2.51 for 'diagnosis', 2.35 for 'progress', 2.11 for 'cause of the disease' and so on. It is acknowledged on the whole that the patients who visited the second time have more satisfaction in physician's explanation about their disease, than those who visited the first time. 3. Comparison of self-evaluation of Physician's Health Education Activities and patient's perception. (1) There was communication barriers between physicians and patients in expressing some medical terminology. For example physician understood that they explained more than 50% of medical terminology into common words for the patient, but 30% of patient complained medical terminology used by physician. (2) Comparing the index score of health education practice recognized by patients and physicians for both first visit and revisit groups, it was shown that the Index score of health education activities evaluated by physicians themselves were slightly higher than the score evaluated by patients.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
• /
• v.25 no.10
• /
• pp.249-253
• /
• 2020

Medical tourism refers to visiting overseas to receive medical services and tourism at the same time. In other words, it can be said that it is a tourism activity that combines medical service, various cultural activities, leisure, and shopping. As such, medical tourism is not limited to simple medical services, but is a new high-value-added industry that creates new profits by fusion with tourism services. Many countries are making continuous efforts to foster their own tourism industry by attracting foreign tourists. Therefore, in order to secure competitiveness in dental services among the medical tourism industry in Korea, this study was to examine the relationship between dentist's treatment, hospital facilities, dental staff, and patient satisfaction. As a result, it was found that the dentist's treatment had a positive effect on both the staff of the dental facility in the hospital and the satisfaction of the patient.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.256-263
• /
• 2015

Background: Initial treatment of acute upper respiratory infection (AURI) should not include antibiotics because most AURIs are caused by virus. However, the prescription rate of antibiotics in Korea is higher than in any other countries. Inappropriate use of antibiotics in Korea accelerated the emergence of antibiotics resistance and increased the social and economic burden. The objective of this study was to investigate the factors related to antibiotics use for the AURI among children-adolescents and adults. Methods: This study analyzed the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service-National Patient Sample data which was nationally representative sampling stratified by sex and age. Results: The influencing factors of antibiotics use for AURI are gender, age, types of medical security, primary disease, existence of concomitant disease, treatment seasons, first visit or revisit, indicated specialty, types of medical institution, and location of medical institution. Conclusion: The results showed health policy makers are required to place more efforts to resolve inappropriate antibiotics use. Especially they need to establish a health policy to reduce the gap between areas and specialties and recommend standardized clinical guidelines according to the subgroup code of AURI and the age group of patients.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
• /
• v.41 no.6
• /
• pp.693-701
• /
• 2014

Background A thin perforator flap is one of the best methods for covering defects. This study aimed to revisit and further test the rapidly advancing field of flap thinning techniques. Methods We performed two cadaveric studies to test the known flap thinning methods, and then applied these methods to a clinical series. In the first study, five cadavers were used to observe the anatomical relation of the perforator with the subdermal plexuses and the subcutaneous fat layer by injecting a colored latex solution. The second study was done on four cadavers independently from the first study. Last, a clinical series was performed on 15 patients. Results The areolar fat lobules of 10 anterolateral thigh perforator (ALT), seven deep inferior epigastric artery perforator (DIEAP), and six thoracodorsal artery perforator (TAP) flaps were dissected to reduce the flap thickness guided by the colored vascular pattern. On average, the ALT, DIEAP, and TAP flaps were reduced to $32.76%{\pm}9.76%$, $37.01%{\pm}9.21%$, and $35.42%{\pm}9.41%$, respectively. In the second study, the areolar fat lobules were directly dissected in six ALT, six TAP, and four MSAP flaps, and an average reduction in flap thickness of $53.41%{\pm}5.64%$, $52.30%{\pm}2.88%$, and $47.87%{\pm}6.41%$, respectively, was found. In the clinical series, 13 out of the 15 cases yielded satisfactory outcomes with an average thickness reduction of $37.91%{\pm}7.15%$. Conclusions These multiple studies showed that the deep fat layer could be safely removed to obtain a thin yet viable perforator flap. This evidence suggests that the macroscopic flap thinning technique can achieve thin flaps. Surgeons should consider this technique before embracing the latest technique of supermicrosurgery.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.14 no.12
• /
• pp.895-903
• /
• 2014

Medical communication has the effect of increasing the patient's medical treatment satisfaction and medical facility revisit rate through better understanding of the patient, and decreasing the medical law suit rate. One of the methods to enhance medical communication is through doctor coaching. Doctor coaching is a series of coaching procedure that helps the doctors have a better understanding with the patients by enhancing the communication skills of the doctors. The current study analyzed the effect 'coach and coatee's relationship', 'coaching per se', and 'coaching activity' have on coaching satisfaction. As the result, 'coaching activity' related to the coaching program showed the most influence on the coaching satisfaction On the other hand, 'coach and coatee's relationship' and 'coaching per se' did not show any significant influence while 'coach and coatees relationship' even showed negative correlations. Such result gained agreement amongst the doctors about the medical communication enhancement and necessity of doctor coaching and it also implies that intensifying the coaching qualifications and professionalism is necessary for the doctor coaching model. The coach should not only have knowledge regarding the doctor(medical??) communication, but also should endeavor to obtain understanding and knowledge about coaching strategies.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.18-30
• /
• 2017

This study was performed to analyze systematically and validate empirically the influence of korean medicine service quality on satisfaction factors and revisiting intention. The candidates were patients visiting the one korean medicine hospital in Gyeongnam. We took a direct survey collected during 15 days May 1 to 15, 2016. For the survey I distributed a total of 250 questionnaire and used the final 230 of them in verifying this research model except unreliable data. The collected data were used statistics program SPSS WIN 22.0 and the research model were examined by AMOS 18.0. The main research results are follows. First, the most influencing factors on consumer satisfaction were public image factors and then human factors. and then effectiveness factors. Second, the most influencing factors on reuse intention were public image factors and then physical factors. Third, human and effectiveness factors of service quality factors in korean medicine hospital did not effect on revisiting intention directly but, effected on revisiting intention through mediation role of the customer satisfaction. Forth, satisfaction on the significant effect on reuse intention. so satisfaction has proved to be a important factor for reuse intention. The results of this study are expected to contribute to management efficiency and developmental improvement on korean medicine hospital policy and management efficiency and be used as a basis for leading to national health promotion through the development of korean medicine service.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.36-47
• /
• 2019

Purposes : The purpose of this study is to analyze empirically the consturct development of brand trust in dental clinic service and its influence on both satisfaction and brand loyalty of clinic users in Seoul area. Methodology : To test the hypotheses, the structured instrument was employed to question to patients and their guardians who had used dental clinics in the metropolitan area. 207 cases were analyzed with structural equation method through SPSS 18.0 and AMOS 22.0, and findings of the test as follows. Findings : Firstly, both functional and associative images had a positive impact on the brand trust. Especially we found the influence of functional images was greater than that of the brands' associative images. Secondly, the satisfaction of dental clinic users had greater positive influence on the clinics with greater trust. Thirdly, the higher the satisfaction of health service consumers, the more positive effect on brand loyalty. This relationship between the satisfaction of dental clinic users and brand loyalty match the findings of previous studies on relations of similar variables. Practical Implications : This study shows that with greater satisfaction, the referral rate and the revisit rate of users would increase. This implies that dental clinics need to take appropriate actions to build brand trust with advertising and/or PR strategies for a good brand image. It would be necessary to research further expected variables that influence users' brand loyalty in the service, such as the dentists' level of expertise, their relationship level with customers, the quality of dental services and et al..

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.34-44
• /
• 2022

Purpose:We investigated physicians' responses to a series of clinical vignettes consisting of patient safety incidents, with and without disclosure of patient safety incidents (DPSI). Methods: An anonymous survey was conducted to investigate physicians' responses to the DPSI via online communities of physicians, and additional participants were recruited using a snowballing sampling method. We evaluated physicians' responses to the DPSI using eight hypothetical scenarios (HS) from the following perspectives: thoughts regarding medical errors, revisiting the physician, recommendation, lawsuit, criminal prosecution, trust score, and compensation amounts. We used the chi-square test to evaluate the overall differences in response rates among the scenarios. Statistical analyses were performed using the Student's t-test to compare the trust scores and compensation amounts. Results: A total of 910 physicians participated in this survey. An overall comparison of trust scores among HS showed that HS 1 (unclear medical errors, minor harm, and DPSI) had the highest trust score. In contrast, in the opposite scenario, HS 8 (clear medical errors, major harm, and DPSI not conducted) received the lowest scores. Cases with minor harm to patients (HS 1, 2, 5, and 6) showed lower compensation amounts than the others (HS 3, 4, 7, and 8). Physicians were more likely to think of situations with DPSI as not having medical errors (53.1% vs. 55.2%). In addition, the scenarios with DPSI were evaluated favorably in terms of intention to revisit, recommend, suit, and engage in criminal proceedings. Physicians showed higher trust scores (6.2 vs 5.4) and gave lower compensation amounts ($27.7 million vs $28.1 million), although there was no significant difference in terms of compensation amounts to the physician conducting DPSI. Conclusion: Our study showed overall positive perceptions regarding DPSI among Korean physicians.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.585-593
• /
• 2015

This study, the value of dental hygiene process and business performance among the dental clinics located in Gyeonggi province by comparing and analyzing the financial and non-financial results specifically in the department that provides and did not provide dental hygiene process (ADPIE). The collected data treated with percentage and t-test in utilization of IBM SPSS Statistics ver. 20.0. In terms of the medical cost per patient, the Department A (DA) that applied the dental hygiene process were 216,664 Korean Won (KRW) in 2013 and 324,810 KRW in 2014 whereas Department B (DB) which did not apply the dental hygiene process resulted in 184,655 KRW in 2013 and 225,698 KRW in 2014 (p<0.01). Regarding the number of daily patients, the DA showed increase of 8.08 (p=0.01) while DB showed increase of 2.42 patients (p>0.05). The medical consent rate was 89.17% in DA and 60.09% in DB in 2013 while showing 89.68% and 66.98% respectively in 2014 (p<0.001). The patients' revisit rate was 87.48% in DA and 44.92% in DB in 2013 and that of the DA and DB was 85.89% and 45.55% respectively in 2014 (p<0.001). The rate of regular check-up was 16.01% in DA and 2.53% in DB in 2013 and the same rate in 2014 showed 19.03% and 6.84% respectively in 2014 (p <0.001). The rate of referred patients was 38.46% and 29.98% respectively in DA and DB in 2013 whereas DA showed 47.59% and DB showed 30.77% in 2014 (p<0.05). According to the results, the medical system with dental hygiene process is verified to be a premium medical program that can improve satisfaction as well as management effectiveness in dental service.