• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.70-76
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• 2018

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of North Korean refugees' trust in South Korea health service. Methods: This study surveyed 168 North Korean refugees aged 19 and over living in Seoul, Gyeonggi, Incheon, and Gangwon. The collected data were analyzed by frequency analysis, t-test, analysis of variance, and hierarchical regression analysis to analyze the effect on the trust of refugees. Results: The difference analysis showed statistically significant difference according to duration of residence and employment status. The determinants of North Korean refugees' trust in South Korea health services were duration of residence, basic communication skills, health communication skills, and experience of health service. Conclusion: In order to increase the trust of North Korean defectors in South Korea medical services, it is necessary to resolve communication problems and improve the satisfaction of health services. For this, the interpreter service should be activated. And specific education should be given to the North Korean refugees about the health care system and the utilization methods of health service in Korea.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.31-42
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• 2020

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore how service quality in specialized hospitals influences customer loyalty under the mediating effects of customer trust and customer value. Methods: A statistical review was done based on the survey results of patients who had used a specialized hospital in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. A total of 209 questionnaires were collected. After data collection, an empirical analysis was performed using SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0 software. Results: Interaction quality (β = 0.254, p < 0.05) and result quality (β = 0.179, p < 0.05) significantly influenced customer trust, while physical environmental quality (β = 0.121, p > 0.05) did not. Customer trust (β = 0.571, p < 0.01) influenced customer value (β = 0.136, p < 0.05) and customer value influenced customer loyalty. In addition, customer confidence (β = 0.668, p < 0.05) was shown to have directly impacted customer loyalty without the mediating effect of customer value (0.078). Conclusions: The findings showed that interaction quality and resulting quality had important implications for customer loyalty. We therefore suggest compliance with appointment times, training to improve work-related skills for employees, improving customer satisfaction, and enhancing communication skills.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.105-119
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• 2018

The healthcare business is growing as a global core business because of the phenomenon of global aging, as well as in South Korea, skyrocketing health care costs accordingly, and changing the paradigm from treatment to the prevention-centered medical service. Especially, as the digital healthcare service stands out as a solution, major countries actively promote and support policies at the government level. Thus, this study will present attributes of a market-oriented service that would vitalize the digital healthcare service industry by investigating major attributes of the digital healthcare service. To analyze the relationships of the influences of attributes, this study used Interpretive Structural Modeling. As a result of literature research and ISM, this study can understand the eight basic attributes of the digital healthcare service (network scalability, context awareness, connection among information platforms, cost, trust, security, ease of use, usefulness) and analyze the relationships of the influences among the attributes. In addition, as this study finds some significant differences in Order Winner and Order Qualifier between the experts' group (security) and the users' group (trust, ease of use, usefulness), It provides meaningful implications for revitalization and promotion of digital healthcare service industry.

• Korea Science and Art Forum
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• v.19
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• pp.417-424
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• 2015

The healthcare service industry has become one of the business industries in South Korea where service design is most actively being researched on and applied. In accordance with the recent upsurge of the interest in health, healthcare service is expanding its area including disease prevention, patient management, and rehabilitation treatment as well as cure and nursing care. The health manpower is the supplier, and their professional knowledge and ability and the patients' trust in medical technology are the most important factors for their customers. In addition, service design has come into the spotlight given that the medical institute system, health manpower attitude, and information delivery system and touch point are considered important factors contributing to customer satisfaction. It is very hard to satisfy customers only through professionalism, the environment, and product improvement because healthcare service deals with much more sensitive and emotional customers compared to other service industries. This means that a change in the service mind-set and the attitude of the health manpower as emotional labourers have practical effects. Therefore, the fundamental solution is to establish a system that provides related education with manpower and that settles various problems by itself. This paper introduces several solutions, such as education for health manpower and a service design system applied to a national-university-affiliated hospital in South Korea, and takes a close look at its effects.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.124-136
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• 2010

Objective:: This study aimed to examine the customers' utilization of and satisfaction with oriental medical clinics in South Korea. Method: The data for this study were collected from 1,208 patients of 391 oriental medical clinics through a mail questionnaire survey from September to December 2008. The collected data were analyzed by the frequency analysis and $X^2$-test. Results: The results of the study were as follows. First, the most important reason that patients used oriental medical services was to get both oriental and western medical services simultaneously, because they thought such approach would be more effective for treating their diseases. Second, two important reasons that patients visited oriental medical clinics were "the reputation of and trust in the oriental medical clinics" and "the recommendation of their family and friends". Third, many patients of the oriental medical clinics have concerns about the "high prices and the outcome of oriental medical services". Fourth, the most preferred oriental medical service was "acupuncture". Fifth, it was found that 75% of the respondents were satisfied with the services they had received. They told that the outcome of the care and the kindness of the clinics' staff were very important factors that have an impact on their satisfaction. Conclusion: The study results imply that oriental medical clinics have to make an effort to strengthen their reputation and trust in the community through the scientific validation of oriental medicine, differentiated services mixed with traditional value, customer relationship management, reasonable and acceptable price of the services, staff education, and continuous quality improvement.

• Korean Journal of Medical Ethics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.316-329
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• 2018

Although the use of social media by doctors raises important issues concerning medical professionalism, the relevant professional bodies in South Korea have failed to issue clear guidelines on social media usage. The Korean Medical Association's newly revised ethics guidelines do require members to maintain dignity while using social media, but the idea of "maintaining dignity" is far from clear, and its premodern connotation prevents it from being reliably used in professional codes of conduct. The authors of this article examine the concept of maintaining dignity and conclude that once it is clarified and redefined it can and should be used as a viable ethical standard in a variety of contexts, including the use of social media. Social media's unpredictability and uncontrollability, and the blurred distinction between professional/public and personal/private can be a threat to medical professionalism. In order to deal with this threat, the concept of dignity is important. We present three examples in which the dignity of medical professionals is undermined and explain why these jeopardize public trust. We conclude that in order to maintain public trust the Korean Medical Association should provide more detailed guidelines on the use of social media by its members.