• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.255-264
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• 2014

Objective: The aims of this study are to investigate the total volume of prescribed medicines against Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the trends of usage by analyzing the claims-data from the Korea National Health Insurance Service. Method: The demographic and claims-data were included the major AD treating medicines such as donepezil, galantamine, rivastigmine and memantine, and analyzed during the period of 2010~2012. The assessing criteria were gender, age, habitation, types of medical institution, code of ingredients, outcomes of treatment, volume and amount of claims, and the numbers of patients with dementias. After trimming the data, it were analyzed by the market size, demographic traits, characteristics of medical service, characteristics of each anti-AD medicine, etc. Results: Among the chosen 4 medicines, donepezil had the top prescription volumes. Most prevalent prescribing preparations of donepezil were conventional types. However, among the non-conventional types, oro-dispersible formulation is the fast increasing one in both volume and growth rate. This specialized preparations to improve both toleration and adherence, tend to being prescribed generally at the tertiary medical institutions. While the younger patients with mild-to-moderate AD mostly treated by expensive medicines in resident at the tertiary hospitals, the rest older patients with severe AD have been treated non-expensive one at long-term care facilities. Conclusion: AD is a chronic illness therefore, long-term use of therapeutic medications are highly important. If an anti-AD treatment was applied steadily in the earlier stages, it would be achieved not only improving the quality of life of patient but also reducing the expenses in the medical and nursing cares. As the socioeconomical impacts of AD is expanding, healthcare professionals need to aware the importance of pharmacotherapy and to improve sociopolitical fundamentals.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.322-333
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• 2013

This study aimed at analyzing and understanding medical tourism patients' pattern of different countries. For this purpose it followed up the international patients who visited W hospitals for spine treatment for last 3 years. In additon, it proposed key marketing strategies for attraction of more patients in the future. Satisfaction survey for 91 foreigner hospitalized patients were conducted from year 2010 to 2011. Each country of the patients showed slightly different motivations of visiting, consumer pattern and satisfaction of medical and non medical services. The current study analyzed factors, socio-demographic characteristics, purposes of visit, duration of stay in Korea, total number of visits to Korea, companions, plan of care, reasons for choice of W Hospital, expenses for medical care, total cost of staying in Korea. The results of this study showed that patients visited Korea more frequently were more satisfied with the medical care. Patients who planned to use medical care prior to visit Korea were more satisfied. Patients who thought he/she paid reasonable medical cost were more satisfied. Invitation to familiarization tour, clarification of medical cost, and provision of high quality medical care were recommended for the higher satisfaction of foreign patients. Fostering of specialized hospitals were recommended.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.3-13
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• 2022

Health centers provided intensive health care services for local residents according to changes in the times and environment. Public health centers were given various roles such as medical treatment, administration, and service, and the demand for functional reorganization has emerged. We analyzed the literature on the functional restructuring of public health care institutions. In addition, the current status of medical services, which is the main function of institutions, will be analyzed through health insurance statistical data, and detailed contents will be analyzed according to regional types and income levels. As a result of the analysis of medical services at institutions, the total number of patients was 2,238,000, and the number of visits was 11,806 times. Total medical expenses were 169.6 billion won, of which 132 billion won was found to be benefit. When analyzing the number of patients per institution, public health centers had the largest number of 4,326, and the share of benefit was also the highest at public health centers. It should focus on the function of providing local health and medical services related to health promotion and disease prevention in the community. This functional reorganization of public health centers can contribute to forming cooperative relationships with private medical institutions in the local community. For this, first, to establish the role, essential functions for public health centers for preventive health management are established. Secondly, regular manpower expansion and flexible manpower management are required in the human resources sector. Finally, in the organizational sector, it is necessary to establish a step-by-step organizational system according to environmental changes.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.311-320
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• 2018

In this study, we conducted a survey on the 20 - to 30-year-olds woman and men in a total of 291 questionnaires to analyze the impact on the level of customer satisfaction and revisit the factors of service quality and hospital selection. Analysis result, found that there was a correlation between the quality of service, customer satisfaction, and factors of re-intervient inquiry when selecting hospitals. In particular, it was found that hospital expenses and hospital map were affected by customer satisfaction and re-investigation companies, and the quality of the service after treatment had the greatest impact on other variables. As such, these results are considered to be of overall concern to the physician's ability to perform the procedure as well as to the service of the staff. Various follow-up studies are needed depending on the region.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.255-259
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• 2005

Financial standing of National Health Insurance has been experiencing a grave deterioration during the last 4-5 years, and the yearly amount paid by the insurance for drug expense rose up to 4 trillion won recently. Furthermore, the ratio of drug expenses in the total expenditure of the insurance reached about $25\%$, showing the tendency to be levelled off. As a measure to improve the financial deterioration of the insurance and to encourage generic substitution among the health professionals, we compared pharmacokinetic parameters of brand name drug (Lamisil) and generic drug (Muzonal) containing terbinafine HCl in healthy volunteers. The area under the curve (AUC) of the two drugs showed $2220.4\pm784.7\;and\;2143.1\pm861.6hr{\cdot}ng/ml$ in the corresponding order and no statistically significant difference was identified. The peak concentration $(C_{max})$ of the generic drug demonstrated $566.6\pm246.2 ng/ml$ compared to $550.8\pm204.0$ of brand name drug, which was not significantly different either. Time to reach peak concentration showed about 6 minutes difference between the drugs, which has no clinical significance to the treatment of dermatomycosis and dermatophytosis.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.24-34
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• 2014

Background: Bankrupted households have recently been increased due to excessive medical expenditure in Korea. They have not been protected from economic risk when household's member has severe diseases that need a lot of money for treatment. Purpose of this study examines policy effect by comparing unmet needs' change of policy object households and non-object groups. Methods: We used Korea Health panel 2nd 4th data collected by Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs and National Health Insurance Service. Analysis subjects were 381 households (pre-policy) and 393 households (post-policy) that had cancer and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Since it was major concern that estimates benefit strengthening policy started by certain time, we setup comparing households which had diabetes, hypertension disease. Comparison subjects were 393,247 households, respectively and we evaluated policy effect using difference in difference (DID) model. Results: Although unmet needs of policy object households were higher than non-object groups, policy execution variable affected negative direction. But interaction-term which shows pure effect of policy was not statistically significant. We utilized multi-DID model to examine factors affecting unmet needs causes. Copayment assistance policy did not significantly affect households that responded to 'economic reason,' and 'no have time to visit' for unmet needs causes. Conclusion: The second copayment assistance policy did not significantly give positive effect to beneficiary households than non-beneficiary groups. When we consider that primary purpose of public insurance guarantee high medical expenditure occurred by unexpected events, it needs to deliberate on switch of benefit strengthening policy that can assist vulnerable people. Also, we suggest that government forward a policy covering non-reimbursable medical expenses as well as switch of benefit strengthening direction because benefit policy do not affect non-covered medical cost which accounts for quarter of total health expenditure.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.1543-1555
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• 2000

Home health care is moving into a set of new realities. An era of competition and cost containment has arrived. Before nurses are able to contain costs or describe the relationship between nursing activities, cost must be accurately measured based on the nurse's workload. Nurses in home health care usually desire to measure expenses for one of three reasons : reimbursement, management, or research. The purpose of the study was to investigate the work input by Registered Nurse in each of the home health care activities by relative value units and identify the factors affecting the nurses' total work input in health care services. To measure the work input by nurses, work was defined by four dimensions: time, physical effort, mental effort, and stress. This study used a descriptive-correlational design. Data collection consisted of two phases. In phase I, data on home health activities performed by nurses were collected. In phase II, data on nurses' time, physical effort, mental effort, and stress in each of home health care activities discovered phase I were collected. In this method, the respondent was asked to rate a service in relation to a reference service using a ratio scale. The sample included 39 home health care nurses. The results of the study indicated that home health care activities performed by the nurses were in 10 categories and 69 items. Measuring the relative work inputs in each of home health care activities, and foley catheterization was selected as the reference to service. In terms of time and physical effort dimensions, full bath service was rated as the most strenuous among 69 activities by the respondents, and intramuscular injection was rated as least. It was found that emergency treatment required the highest mental effort and the highest stress, while blood sugar tests required the lowest mental effort. Approximately 91.3% of the variance in total work input was accounted for by the linear combination of time, physical effort, mental effort judgement, and stress. Examining the regression coefficients of those variables, physical effort, time, and stress were found as the predictors which were significantly associated with the total work of nurses in home health care. Professional nursing's next step in the conundrum of economic volatility is to develop a tool to reflect the interaction of functional deficiency and direct professional nursing care. And this will be a more accurate predictor of nursing resource use and ultimately a great forcaeter cost.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.215-222
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• 2013

In this study, the nutrient concentration changes along the hydrologic flow path of a free water surface flow constructed wetland (CW) treating agricultural stream runoff was investigated. Dry sampling was performed from April 2009 to November 2011 at five locations representing each treatment units of the CW. Grab water samples were analyzed for nitrogen forms such as total nitrogen (TN), total Kjeldahl nitrogen, nitrate, and ammonium; and phosphorus forms including total phosphorus (TP) and phosphate. Findings revealed that the physical properties such as temperature, dissolved oxygen and pH affected the TP retention in the CW. High nutrient reduction was observed after passing the first sedimentation zone indicating the importance of settling process in the retention of nutrients. However, it was until the 85% of the length of the CW where nutrient retention was greatest indicating the deposition of nutrients at the alternating shallow and deep marshes. TN and TP concentration seemed to increase at the final sedimentation zone (FSZ) suggesting a possible nutrient source in this segment of the CW. It was therefore recommended to reduce or possibly remove the FSZ in the CW for an optimum performance, smaller spatial allocation and lesser construction expenses for similar systems.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.138-153
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• 1996

Intending to offer basic information for a prospective health services in Korea, this study is to investigate the complication caused by sterilization in goverment family planning program from 1962 to 1995. The results are as follows: 1. Total number of sterilization performed during the period from 1962 to 1995 were 1.367,772 cases of male sterilization and 2,889,635 cases of female sterilization. 2. Incidence of the complication caused by sterilization operation from 1980 to 1995 were 1,883(0.20%) out of 925,801 cases in vasectomies and 15,866(0.70%) out of 2,256,020 cases in tubal sterilizations. 3. Major complications in vasectomy were epididymities of 658 cases (34.9%), vas recanalization of 326 cases(17.3%), hematoma of 266 cases(14.1%), scrotal abscess of 184 cases(9.8%), sperm granuloma of 76 cases(4.0%),and other of 373 cases(19.8%). On the other hand, in tubal sterilization, ectopic pregnancy was the most significant complication of 15,078 cases (95.0%) among 15,866 total complications, followed by pelvic inflammatory diseases of 155 cases(0.9%), peritonities of 96 cases(0.6%), ovarian & tubal bleeding of 31 cases(0.2%), intestinal perforation of 16 cases (0.1%), uterine bleeding of 14 cases(0.1%), uterine cervix laceration of 1 case (0.1%), and other of 271 cases(1.7%), while 161 pregnancies(0.1%) were terminated and 43 cases(0.3%) with normal delivery. 4. The occurrence rate of the complication for each period showed that most of the complication cases by vasectomy occurred in a year after the operation -the cases were 1,256 (66.7%). 254 cases(13.5%) occurred between the next year and the 2nd year, 138 cases (7.3%) between the 2nd year and the 3rd year, 73 cases(3.9%) between the 3rd year and the 4th year, 52 cases(2.8%) between the 4th year and the 5th year, 31 cases(1.6%) between the 5th year and the 6th year, 79 cases(4.2%) over the 6th year. Tubal sterilization indicated that the occurred complication cases in a year were 2,175 cases(13.7%), 2,113 cases(13.3%) occurred between the next year and the 2nd year, 2,082 cases(13.1%) between the 2nd year and the 3rd year, 2,049 cases (12. 9%) between the 3rd year and the 4th year, 1,819 cases(11.5%) between the 4th year and the 5th year, 621 cases(10.2%) between the 5th year and the 6th year, 4,007 cases(25.3%) over the 6th year. 5. For the cost of complication treatment, total \7,928,229,000 were paid as medical expenditure in which \609,438,000 for vasectomy and \7,318,791,000 for tubal sterilization. Accordingly per capita expenses were \345,000 for vasectomy and \467,000 for tubal sterilization. As the proportion of government sterilization program was decreased after 1988, that of private sterilization program would be increased. So it is recommended to set a guideline for the private sterilization program and to continue government sterilization program for the lower class.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.92-108
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• 2009

This study suggests a model for continuing and comprehensive management of hypertension or Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Korea. Moreover, this paper computed the contribution cost of hypertension or T2DM management using the healthcare medical cost, which could have occurred from stroke, myocardial infarction (MI), and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) that were successfully prevented from the effective hypertension or T2DM management. Additionally, these costs were compared with the cost of implementing the hypertension or T2DM management model suggested in this study. This study used the medical fee summary of the health insurance claims submitted to National Health Insurance Corporation by medical facilities for services provided during the period from January 1st 1999 to December 31st 2006. The prevalence rate with treatment referred to cases in which patients submitted their medical claims at least once during the period, along with an accordant diagnosis. The incidence rate with treatment referred to cases in which patients who never submitted claims for the accordant disease during the five years from 1999 to 2003 submitted claims for the accordant disease in 2004 and 2005. The relative risk of the occurrence of stroke, MI and ESRD was 11.0, 13.6, and 30.3, respectively. The attributable risk of hypertension or T2DM for stroke was 0.730, and that for MI and ESRD were 0.773 and 0.888, respectively. Based on these, the contribution cost of hypertension or T2DM is estimated to be 986.3 billion Korean Won(KRW) for stroke patients, 330.5 billion KRW for MI patients, and 561.7 billion KRW for ESRD patients as in 2005. Hence, the total contribution cost of hypertension or T2DM to stroke, MI, and ESRD is 1.878 trillion KRW. The estimate for operational costs included an annual expenditure of 50,000 KRW per each recipient and an annual subsidy of 0.22 million KRW per person for the 1.6 million low.income individuals with hypertension or T2DM to cover their out.of.pocket medical expenses. Under this assumption, it took approximately 0.6 trillion KRW to manage 5 million high.risk patients in the low. and mid.income range, coverings up to 50% of costs. In conclusion, considering the potential benefits of preventing stroke, MI, and ESRD, the costs seems to be reasonable.