• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.107-114
• /
• 2016

Background: Over the last few decades, because hospitals in South Korea also have undergone dramatic changes, Korean hospitals traditionally have provided specialized health care services in the health care market. Inner Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (IHI) measures hospital caseloads based on patient proportions, independent of patient volumes. However, IHI that rely solely on patient proportions might be problematic for larger hospitals that provide a high number of diagnosis categories, as the patient proportions in each category are naturally relatively smaller in such hospitals. Therefore, recently developed novel measure, category medical specialization (CMS) is based on patient volumes as well as patient proportions. Methods: We examine the distribution of hospital specialization score by hospital size and investigate association between each hospital specialization and length of stay per case and hospital cost per case using Korean National Health Insurance Service-cohort sample data from 2002 to 2013. Results: Our results show that IHI show a decreasing trend according to the number of beds and hospital type but CMS show an increasing trend according to the number of beds and hospital type. Further, inpatients admitted at hospitals with higher IHI and CMS had a shorter length of stay per case (IHI: B=-0.104, p<0.0001; CMS: B=-0.044, p=0.001) and inpatients admitted at hospitals with higher IHI and CMS had a shorter hospital cost per case (IHI: B=-0.110, p=0.002; CMS: B=-0.118, p=<0.0001). Conclusion: This study may help hospital policymakers and hospital administrators to understand the effects of hospital specialization strategy on hospital performance under recent changes in the Korean health care environment.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.126-133
• /
• 2018

The aim of this survey is to investigate the current state of pattern identification, treatment and management on chronic fatigue in the Korean medicine. From May 25, 2017 to June 7, we distributed contents of questionnaires to 17,992 Korean medical doctors via e-mail, and then received answers from 329 people. The surveys were conducted by a specialized research organizations. Researchers were blinded to the participant's personally identifiable information or whether they participated in the investigation. In Korea, almost Korean medicine doctors (94.5%) used pattern identification in the treatment of chronic fatigue patients. The main diagnostic methods were visceral (38.5%), qi-blood-fluid-humor (32.3%), and sasang constitutional pattern identification (14.3%). The high-frequent therapy were herbal medicine (37.0%), acupuncture (27.9%), moxibustion (11.7%), and cupping (8.6%). The primary goals of treatment were Improvement and relaxation of stress condition (18.1%), improvement of quality of life (13.1%), increase of functional vitality (34.0%), and fatigue management (23.3%). The key factors affecting treatment outcomes were the patient's aggressiveness in treatment (23.5%) and his/her lifestyle and environment(22.7%). This study was a pioneering research for chronic fatigue on the aspect of medical service provider in the Korean medicine. We hope that this study can be used as a basis for developing a more appropriate and reasonable practice guidelines for chronic fatigue.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
• /
• v.9 no.6
• /
• pp.151-158
• /
• 2010

In line with the requirement of appropriate protocol support for such mission-critical wireless sensor network (WSN) applications as patient monitoring, we investigate the framework for designing medium access control (MAC) schemes. The data traffic in medical systems comes with inherent traffic heterogeneity as well as strict requirement of reliability according to the varied extents of devise-wise criticality in separate cases. This implies that the quality-of-Service (QoS) issues are very distinctly delicate requiring specialized consideration. Besides, there are features in such systems that can be exploited during the design of a MAC scheme. In a monitoring or routine surveillance application, there are degrees of regularity or predictability in traffic as coordinated from a node of central control. The coordinator thus takes on the role of marshaling the resources in a neighborhood of nodes deployed mostly for upstream traffic; in a collision-free scheme, it schedules the time slots for each superframe based on the QoS specifications. In this preliminary study, we identify the key artifacts of such a MAC scheme. We also present basic performance issues like the impact of superframe length on delay incurred, energy efficiency achieved in the network operation as obtained in a typical simulation setup based on this framework.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.340-350
• /
• 2016

The Medical Service Act of Korea describes a clinic as providing services primarily to outpatients, while a large general hospital provides specialized medical services requiring a high level of expertise for treating serious diseases. The portion of medical revenue for clinics has been decreasing gradually compared with large hospitals. This article proposes two fundamental medical policies to fix the distorted medical delivery system of Korea. Firstly, uniform additional medical remuneration rates based on the type of medial institution should be divided into outpatient additional rates and inpatient additional rates. Secondly, to normalize the function of clinics and large general hospitals, an outpatient medical target budget system should be introduced. Finally, to properly implement the proposal, it is important to establish healthcare policy-making governance. The success of policy implementation strongly depends on the participation and incentives of the government, suppliers, and patients. Healthcare policy-making governance must be designed to encompass this fact and improve quality of care.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.261-273
• /
• 2012

To find an efficient solution for the globalization of Korean food in Brazil, we conducted a survey about the satisfaction of Brazilian natives who had visited a Korean restaurant, and possible suggestions for improvement. We also conducted indepth interviews with 13 owners of Korean restaurants in Seo Paulo, Brazil, about their plans to improve Korean food to be more appealing to the Brazilian palate. Our research shows that Korean restaurants had a below average reputation for employee kindness, menu taste and variety, interior, mood, and accessibility. As a result of the survey, we found that Korean restaurants were considered in general to be below average. The survey also showed that the higher the level of a person's economic standing, the less satisfaction they had with Korean food restaurants. We also found that the most common pieces of advice that Brazilian women had regarding Korean restaurants were to offer more variety in the menu, maintain a cleaner restaurant, and to actively engage in public relations. The general concerns of everyone surveyed focused on cleanliness and public relations of the restaurant. However, food-related people focused more on the taste and quality of the food. Sao Paulo is currently the most well-developed economic center in South America, so the world's food service industry is pushed to the front of its ongoing development. For Korean food to make inroads into Brazil, Korean restaurants need to change the niche that they occupy. First-generation family businesses and second-generation specialized family businesses coexist in that city. So first of all, to localize the Korean food for Brazilian tastes, a menu system that will easily allow natives to access Korean food must be established. And second of all, it must support the total food culture by improving distribution, sanitation management, and marketing methods that can get the natives to like Korean food ingredients.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.301-314
• /
• 2005

The purpose of this study is to inquiry specialized development strategies to revive the declining regional tourism in Japan, through the general characteristics of tourists and the evaluation of various tourism resources. Reaching its period of maturity after the bubble economy collapse, domestic tourism in Japan requires a change in quality of the regional tourism industry. The Kakeyu spa region, which has long history and abundant cultural resources, is specializing through rehabilitation strengthening theme of 'health seeking and recuperation'. The rate of the elderly women visitors is high in the Kakeyu spa, and the visitors use public transport and make a relatively long stay, because they want to recuperate their health or to cure their disease. In the evaluation of tourism resources, the visitors showed an increasing interest in the solemn temple scenery and the tranquil stroll road which are near by their lodgings. To reflect such demand characteristics, the Kakeyu community is actively developing the business such as rehabilitation, health-food development, voluntary service, and barrier free based on spa, culture, and nature.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.187-211
• /
• 2003

This study deals with activities in internet, including activities on consumer counseling, exchange of consumer information, and anti-sites. Among consumers having utilized those three types of internet sites, this study examines whether their satisfactions on them differ depending on their socio-demographic characteristics and types of activities and also explores which factors critically influence consumer satisfactions. According to the results of this study, consumers' satisfactions were higher when consumers evaluated counselors were objective, rapid, and reliable. Thus, Counselors must be more efficiently classify counseling contents, systematically manage, rapid, active and concrete answers for consumers applying for counseling. Second, in the case of consumer information site, the consumer satisfaction turns out to be positively related with exchange of consumer information, rapid provision of information, and reliability. Connection of relevant specialized information, encouragement of active information exchange among consumers, and objectivity and specialty in consumer information site are necessary to increase the quality of internet consumer information cite. Third, in the case of anti site, consumer satisfaction is higher in cases of consumer being joined in anti-site and in cases of objective and reliable sites. In order to facilitate the utilization of anti-sites, those solutions include systematic classification and management of writings listed in the site, active management of the site managers, reducing criticisms on the writings listed and objectivity of information provided, and active searches for solutions. Finally, in order to preserve consumer sovereignty, policy suggestions include improvements of service qualities provided in internet sites, active advertisement, improvement of site management through charging some fees for users, enhancing specialties.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.113-129
• /
• 1994

This study is designed to analyze the trends of professional services in Landscape Architecture during the past 5 years(1987-1991) in Korea. The data were collected from 1,117 projects from 56 engineering and landscape architecture firms. The findings are summarized as follows: 1) The projects have been increased annually by 19 percent in numbers and by 47 percent in money terms. 2) The main sources of projects are local governments and corporations. However the private sector comprise 31 percent in projects number and 46 percent in money terms. 3) The public park and tourism site development comprise a half of the projects. Recently recreational forest, golf, amusement and large housing site development have increased very rapidly. 4) In terms of workscope they are devided by 'complex' project which include extensive engineering works and 'simple' project which contain mostly planting design. The former include receational project with average 5 or 6 months contract period, and the later include housing and building site design with 2 or 3 months period. 5) Two types of consulting firms are typical. One is comprehensive engineering firms with urban planning section and few landscape section. The other is specialized professional firms with urban planning or landscape architecture. 50 percent of the project was done by comhensive engineering firms and 60 percent was done by urban planning section. The implication of these findings are broad: Firstly, We have to meet the demands in private secter mostly in recreation and leisure related projects. Secondly, landscape architects and project managers need more professional skills and coordination ability to deal with 'complex' projects. Thirdly, to enhance the quality of professional services it is required to have enough work time and higher service fee through legal and institutional enforcements.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.19 no.10
• /
• pp.303-317
• /
• 2021

The purpose of this study is to analyze the competitiveness of OTT operators by developing an analysis framework specialized for the OTT industry. Based on existing research on business model, platform business model, and OTT characteristics, the OTT platform business model framework was developed, and case analysis was conducted based on data from related materials, literature, and internal data to suggest the direction for domestic OTT operators. As a result of the study, domestic OTT operators should use advanced AI and big data technologies to produce original content and improve the infrastructure and service quality of the platform. This study is meaningful in that it provides an analysis framework for OTT operators to establish their own competitive strategies and suggests the direction for domestic OTT operators through case application.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.197-207
• /
• 2013

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of controlling consulting service quality in relation to the factors of success and performances of the social enterprises. In order to achieve the objective of this study, securement of market competitiveness, entrepreneurship and network activity was defined to be the factors of success and the research model and hypothesis was set according to the theoretical basis of the factors of success, performances and the quality of consulting services. The results showed that first, securement of market competitiveness, entrepreneurship and network activities as factors of success all had significant effects on performances pertaining to both profit-making and public interest, having great influence on the securement of market competitiveness of the social enterprises. Secondly, as a result of analyzing the effects of controlling the quality of consulting services in relation to the relationship between the factors of success and management performances of the social enterprises, network activity showed to have significant effect on performances pertaining to both profit-making and public interest. Through this study, the importance and the necessity of the improvement of consulting services and network activities of social enterprises were highlighted and the necessity of a new consulting principle in the consulting industry that can be specialized to social enterprises is proposed.