• Health Policy and Management
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.21-42
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• 2008

This study investigates economies of scale, cost complementarity and economies of scope for healthcare organizations using econometric approaches. The economies of scale appear to exist in each service provided by a hospital such as inpatient treatment services, outpatient treatment services, and other patient treatment services, respectively. When we test all services in aggregate level, it also indicates that the healthcare industry on average exhibits the economies of scale of 6 percent, which implies that scaling up hospital sizes will bring substantial cost savings to them Evidence shows that cost complementarity exists between outpatient services and other services for patients and, i.e., these other services for patients experience the reduction in marginal costs as the outputs of the outpatient services increase. For the economies of scope, they are present in most service areas; aggregate level services, outpatient services, and other services for patients, respectively. Inpatient treatment services, however, do not show any evidence of the economies of scope. Results show that the economies of scope are achieved by the general hospital type that provides all service areas such as inpatient treatments, outpatient treatments, and other services for patients. The existence of the economies of scope provides the rationale for extending the existing line of business in a hospital into more diverse areas of services where its benefit comes in the form of cost savings. In sum, it overall provides evidence that the M&As in this industry are encouraged to achieve cost reductions from the economies of scale and scope by changing the size and the output mix.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.81-86
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• 2011

This study was designed to evaluate the beekeeper's consciousness for diagnosis and treatment on a disease of honey-bee in Daejeon and Jeollanamdo in Korea. The questionnaire consisted of 14 questions. Of 231 randomly selected respondents between February and May 2010, 47.6% was consult a 'club (colleague)', 89.2% treated a 'doctoring oneself', 84.4% was recognize a bee as 'domestic animal', 77.5% was not recognize a veterinarian as field of treatment, 38.5% was acquire know-how by a beekeeper. Therefore these results suggest that the beekeepers are relying a lot on individuals experience for the diagnosis and treatment on the disease of honey-bee, the apiculture techniques was gained much by oneself. Korean beekeeping association was played a role as well, but related-university, agriculture research & extension services and veterinary service laboratory was not played a role in the country.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.589-599
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to analyze the relation amongst health status, health care costs. health service utilization among the low income elderly who were 60 years of age or older, earning a half of the average Korean family income. The cross-sectional descriptive survey research we conducted used families randomly sampled nationwide. The data were collected from July 12 to August 7, 1999 and the total sample was 1.259 household members (421 households). These were the major findings. 1. As for the health status. 72.4% of respondents fell ill in the last 1 month; 54% of respondents had chronic disease. 2. As for the health care cost. the cost of hospitalization and the medical treatment were 1.069,000 won and 226.000won. respectively. 59.3% of respondents experienced a burden from the monthly health care expenses. 3. As for the health service utilization for the last 3months. 28.5% of respondents didn't utilize the health service. In addition, 22.2% of respondents gave up a medical treatment because of economic situation (88.8%). 4. The statistically significant determinants of health service utilization are old age, female, living with a spouse, unemployed state, medicare, and more days sick. 5. It is shown conclusively that equity and efficacy of the health care policy are to be considered for lower income older adult.

• Kosin Medical Journal
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.438-445
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• 2018

Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is a rare chronic B cell leukemia morphologically characterized by cells with an abundant cytoplasm and hair-like projections that can be found in the peripheral blood and bone marrow. The treatment for HCL is splenectomy or chemotherapy with the purine analogs pentostatin and cladribine. However, patients continue to relapse. Retreatment with the same or alternate purine analogs produces lower response rates and a shorter duration of response. Fludarabine is another purine analog widely used in treating indolent lymphoid cancers, often in combination with rituximab. Here, we report a case of HCL variant in a 60-year-old man who experienced multiple relapses after splenectomy and retreatment with cladribine. The patient was then treated with fludarabine and rituximab combination chemotherapy. After the treatment, he achieved complete remission that continued for 35 months.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.29-39
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• 2013

Purpose: As emergency medical service fund is further expanded due to amendment of the law on emergency medical services in 2008, Korean government has prepared to intervene in a comprehensive manner to strengthen a trauma treatment system. As a result, it announced a master plan to establish a serious trauma treatment center in 16 areas across the nation. Therefore, this study has attempted to investigate the current status of the serious trauma treatment centers and suggest the goal and improvement plan of future serious trauma treatment centers. Methods: As of 2011, Korea operates 23 emergency cerebrovascular service centers, 23 emergency heart disease centers and 35 severe trauma treatment centers across the country. 12 emergency medical service centers have been chosen among the serious trauma treatment centers. Then, top six (6) centers chosen at Emergency Medical Institute Assessment 2011 by Ministry of Health and Welfare have been selected, and floor layout and spatial allocation by usage have been reviewed and analyzed. Results: Consequently, this study has investigated the spatial components, circulation layout and spatial allocation of a serious trauma treatment. For construction planning in consideration of the fundamental objectives and goal of emergency medical services, it is essential to allot spaces and select exact spatial components. It appears that it is necessary to design spaces for emergency medical services and come up with construction planning through appropriate spatial allocation.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.811-821
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• 2018

This study focused on the improvement of blueberry delivery service using pre-cooled ice and $SO_2$ pads to prevent an increase in the fruit temperature as well as decay. To maintain the fruit quality during low temperature storage, the effect of a $SO_2$ pad and modified atmosphere packaging was also examined. Harvested blueberries were precooled at $15^{\circ}C$, sorted, and packaged. And the fruits were placed in a similar environment as that for the parcel service. Part of the fruits were stored at $0^{\circ}C$ for long term storage. The air temperature in the delivery box increased along with an increase in the simulated delivery time regardless of the treatment. However, the rate of temperature increase was lower in the ice pad treatment. No significant difference was not found after 48 h. The oxygen concentration in the box ranged between 10.5 - 14.5% in the ice pad treatment, which was higher than that of the untreated control (7.5 - 11.9%) whereas the $CO_2$ concentration was lower in the ice pad treatment. No differences were found in the occurrence of off-flavor, decay, and sensory quality loss during the 48 hours of the parcel service simulation. The combined treatment of the $SO_2$ pad and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) using a perforated film increased the shelf-life of the blueberry fruits, the overall quality such as firmness, and the soluble solid content was not different between the treatments except for the decay incidence. No decayed fruit was found in the combined treatment. However, the percentage of decayed fruit in the control was 25% on day 15 of storage and 75% on day 33 of storage, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.627-628
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• 2006

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.191-203
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• 2024

Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of an integrated medical service model for a fibromyalgia patient and their caregiver, focusing on reducing pain and improving quality of life. Methods: A single-case study design was employed, involving a fibromyalgia patient and their primary caregiver treated at W University Hospital. The integrated medical service program, based on the Ministry of Health and Welfare's model, included medical consultations and complementary therapies such as psychological counseling, art therapy, music therapy, horticultural therapy, yoga, and meditation. The program was conducted weekly for 8 weeks, with each session lasting up to 100 minutes. Data collection involved both quantitative and qualitative assessments. Quantitative data included demographic surveys, psychological tests, health-related quality of life measures, pain indices, and sleep quality indices. Qualitative data were gathered through feedback evaluations and emotional assessments. Results: The patient showed improvements in mobility, self-care, daily activities, and anxiety/depression, with EQ-VAS scores increasing from 20 to 40 and pain perception decreasing from 67.41 to 42.58. The caregiver reported reduced anxiety/depression and an increase in EQ-VAS scores from 95 to 98. Both patient and caregiver exhibited emotional changes, with decreased depression and increased happiness. However, the patient showed an increase in fear and anger. Conclusions: The integrated medical service model positively impacted the emotional and psychological well-being of the fibromyalgia patient and their caregiver. Despite the limitations of a small sample size and a single-case study design, the findings suggest that an integrated approach can be beneficial. Larger-scale studies are needed to confirm and generalize these results.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.59-71
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the patient perception of clinical nutrition service. The research was performed by using questionnaires and conducted from February 14 to March 15 at 42 hospitals (over 400 beds). 41.7% of patients experienced nutritional education and counseling. The mean score of the patients' perception on clinical nutritional service was 4.62/5.00 for "nutrition care is important for treatment of the disease", 4.49/5.00 for "diet therapy is necessary for treatment of the disease", 4.16/5.00 for "nutritional counseling call-centers are necessary", 4.13/5.00 for "nutritional consultation fee is required to apply insurance benefits", 4.12/5.00 for "one-to-one nutrition system is necessary", and 3.56/5.00 for "nutrition services I am willing to pay". The patients who had no past experience in nutritional education and counseling showed significantly higher scores for "nutrition care is important for treatment of the disease", "one-to-one nutritional care system is necessary", and "nutritional counseling call-centers are necessary" (P<0.05). The mean scores for the importance (4.26/5.00) and performance (3.88/5.00) of nutrition counseling service were significantly different (P<0.01). "Nutritional counseling is available whenever I want" had the highest gap score between performance and importance among nutrition counseling service items. The importance and performance grid showed that highly important items had high performance (doing great area) and less important items have low performance (low priority).

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.54 no.8
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• pp.604-612
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• 2016

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of national health insurance coverage of periodontal scaling using the National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort for 2009-2013. After the enforcement of periodontal scaling covered by national health insurance, the number of patients diagnosed with periodontal disease and received treatment, has increased from 35,234 to 99,576 people in the last 4 years. Further, the number of patients who received the treatment of periodontal disease more than once, have also increased to around 69% in 2013 when compared to 2012. Moreover, the number of patients receiving periodontal scaling has been steadily increasing every year. Among the patients who visited hospital for periodontal disease, there has been an increase of 280%. As a result, continuous public relations and long-term research on the effect of periodontal scaling as a prophylactic treatment is necessary.