• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.295-301
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• 2023

Since its inception in 2009, medical tourism in South Korea has continued to progress. Reaching its peak in 2019, the industry experienced a sharp decline in inbound patients after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 due to international border closures and a surge in patient numbers. However, from 2021 onwards, there has been a gradual increase in inbound patients. The purpose of this study was to classify the top 12 countries based on the number of actual patients entering the country from 2014 to 2022, using statistics from the Korea Health Industry Development Institute. It also analyzed the changes in the number of foreign patients visiting Korea and the evolving proportion of actual patients compared to short-term visa arrivals on a yearly basis. Through this content, we aim to examine the trends on a country-by-country basis and identify the direction in which the future of South Korean medical tourism should progress. By focusing on healthcare, we intend to pinpoint areas that require attention and improvement, as well as highlight any existing issues. Through modifications and enhancements based on these considerations, we aspire to attract a significant number of foreign patients, thereby promoting South Korea's medical technology on a global scale.

• Journal of Wellbeing Management and Applied Psychology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.51-65
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• 2024

Purpose: This study is to propose the establishment and direction of a public health-medical cooperation system for rehabilitation medical services for people with physical and brain disabilities in Gangneung, Korea. Research design, data and methodology: The study focused on 30 individuals with these disabilities registered. Data was collected from December 20, 2021, to December 31, 2021, through structured surveys administered by researchers visiting disability-related facilities, utilizing convenience and random sampling methods. Descriptive statistics and cross-analysis were applied for analysis. Results: Specifically, among respondents with physical disabilities, a total of 20 needs were identified, with 'Visiting health services' (25.0%) and 'Oral health services' (20.0%) ranking highest. The survey results regarding visit-based rehabilitation services for disability support showed a high demand, emphasizing the necessity of service provision tailored to the needs of recipients, focusing on disability prevention, health management, and motor function recovery, rather than solely medical or therapeutic concepts. Conclusions: Gangwon National University Hospital, as the regional referral hospital in Gangwon, should collaborate with Gangwon Province Rehabilitation Hospital to provide prompt acute rehabilitation services. Moreover, cooperation and collaboration with Gangneung Asan Hospital, the tertiary hospital in the region, are essential to ensure continued acute and recovery phase rehabilitation therapy for a certain period in the Gangneung area.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.267-278
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• 2018

Purpose: This study is to investigate working conditions including job stress among visiting nurses in public health centers in Korea. Methods: An social network based mobile survey was conducted in May 2017 (N=936, response rate: 47.0%). Results: The visiting nurses in this study had their average total career as a nurse is 13.7 years. The 68.3% of them were employed in an indefinite term, 17.0% were hired in a fixed term, and 11.0% came from outsourcing. They responded as high job-stress level including inadequate compensation (71.22/100) and job demands (71.91/100). They experienced down-talk (63.4%), swearwords (32.9%), being made a dirty face (39.9%), sexual jokes (30.8%), or being likened or evaluated with their appearance sexually (14.3%). Among the causes of job related conflicts and discrimination, deprived salary level was the most frequent reason (83.4%). The conflicts and discrimination were incurred by government officers (52.4%). There were no significant differences in overall job stress, emotional labor, organizational commitment, violence, and discrimination experience based on their employment types. Conclusion: The differences in working conditions among the non-regular nurses were trivial, and their overall working conditions were poor. It is necessary to improve non-regular nurses' working conditions in order to make up the limitations of the Korean healthcare system which is centered on hospitals.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.189-198
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the preferences of hot spring users regarding the utilization of Asan's hot springs after the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A survey was conducted on 340 hot spring users visiting hot spring resorts in the Onyang, Dogo, and Asan hot spring districts. The survey was conducted twice from November 5th to November 7th, 2021, and from May 25th to 26th, 2022. The survey included general questions, such as the frequency of hot spring usage, the purpose of visits, and the intention for future visits. Specific questions were related to Asan hot springs, focusing on the reasons for choosing Asan, its perceived advantages, and improvement suggestions. Results: The survey revealed that the average number of visits to hot springs was less than five in the past five years, and the main reason for visiting was to recover from fatigue. A percentage of respondents said they would use hot springs more often when the COVID-19 pandemic ends. When asked about their reasons for visiting Asan hot springs, responses varied by age. However, across all groups, the majority considered "good water" as an advantage of Asan hot springs, while improvements to "hot spring facilities" was the highest response among all age groups. Thus, despite the decline in the number of customers due to COVID-19, the overall perception of hot springs remains positive. This suggests a promising future for the hot spring industry, with the potential for a return to pre-pandemic usage levels. Conclusion: These results provide valuable foundational data for informing policy development aimed at revitalizing the hot spring industry in the post-COVID-19 era.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.151-159
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• 2009

Objectives : This study was to determine how the perception and the satisfaction of outpatients who utilized clinics and hospitals are structurally related with their willingness to utilize the same institution in the future. Methods : Three hundred and ten responses (via convenient sampling) were collected from 5 hospitals and 20 clinics located in Seoul listed in the "Korea National Hospital Directory 2005". Service quality was utilized as the satisfaction measurement tool. For analysis, we used a structural equation modeling method. Results : The determining factors for general satisfaction with medical services are as follows: medical staff, reasonability of payment, comfort and accessibility. Such results may involve increased competition in the medical market and increased demands for quality medical services, which drive the patients to visit hospitals on their own on the basis of changed determining factors for satisfaction. Conclusions : The structural equation model showed that the satisfaction of outpatients with the quality of medical services is influenced by a few sub-dimensional satisfaction factors. Among these sub-dimensional satisfaction factors, the satisfaction with medical staff and payment were determined to exert a significant effect on overall satisfaction with the quality of medical services. The structural relationship in which overall satisfaction perceived by patients significantly influences their willingness to use the same institution in the future was also verified.

• Korean Journal of Family Medicine
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.370-374
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• 2018

Background: Iron is an essential element for women of reproductive age, especially in the period before and during the pregnancy. This study investigates the consumption of iron to prevent iron deficiency anemia among pregnant women visiting Neyshabur healthcare centers based on the theory of planned behavior. Methods: In this experimental study, data were collected through a questionnaire survey. It included 160 pregnant women who were receiving maternity services at twelve healthcare centers in the city of Neyshabur in Iran between 2015 and 2017. The participants' demographic and anthropometric characteristics, Using the theory of planned behavior, and blood lab examination results, including ferritin levels were measured and the data were analyzed using IBM SPSS ver. 22.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Results: The average scores of knowledge, attitude, perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and intention categories for the intervention group were meaningfully increased after the participants received education on iron supplementation (P<0.05). However, these changes were not found to be significant in the control group (P>0.05). No statistically significant difference was obtained in the subjective norms category between the two groups after the education intervention (P=0.92). Conclusion: Based on the experimental effects of education encouraging iron supplementation in pregnant women, it is suggested that workshops promoting iron supplementation should be conducted in health centers with the aim of preventing widespread iron deficiency anemia.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.121-128
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• 2021

In this work, a noble walkway approach suitable for Saudi Arabia (SA) towards its aim to develop a wide range of smart cities is considered scientifically. This work intends to minimize the errors at each level by testing the events that take place in the walkway environment. similarly, the minimum requirements to develop a walkway to the additional features to be considered while designing a walkway are discussed in this paper with sensitive areas such as environmental factors, healthcare issues, patients visiting the walkways, etc. The applications of different monitoring devices such as CCTV's, global positioning systems (GPS), etc. are carefully addressed to help the proposed method for improving the monitoring activities of a variety of events that possibly cause problems to a common man. The ultimate goal of this work to ensure a safe and satisfied journey of pedestrians while they come for a walk with all suitable safety measures. The safety measures included in this work are for pollution, noise, temperature, humidity and traffic jams on the roads. To improve the accuracy and to test the proposed approach some polices are defined and will be tested for the consistency of the proposed system. The obtained accuracy of the proposed system is proved to be far better with an accuracy of 93% improvement in the results.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.185-191
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• 2020

This study aims to understand the differences in cultural and emotional perceptions about the color image of public healthcare facilities in Romania, an Eastern European country that is relatively lacking in recognition but is gradually expanding trade. For this, color images were selected through a review of previous studies, and a questionnaire survey was constructed based on the colorimetric data by visiting 8 public healthcare facilities such as medical facilities, 4 social sports facilities, and 8 nursing facilities. An online survey was conducted on the color image of public facilities with 89 Koreans and 86 Romanians, and frequency and cross-analysis was conducted using the SPSS statistical analysis program to examine the color images of public healthcare facilities of Koreans and Romanians. The difference in perception was identified. As a result, it was found that there was a statistically significant difference in the perception of color images of public healthcare facilities between countries in vocabulary evaluation and image evaluation, and this was interpreted as different meanings for groups residing in different cultures. Therefore, it implies that cultural differences in perception should be considered when establishing an environment related to this in the future.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.37-45
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• 2013

Purpose: With the rapid development of technology and individual life styles, Korea faces ever-increasing mental diseases caused by divorce, suicide, alcohol, drug addiction, and internet addiction. To reflect this, the quantitative expansion of mental health centers that make up is time. The purpose of this study is to understand the current situation of standard mental health centers by analysing Seoul's cases of mental health. First, this study presents the direction of mental health policy through specific examples about the function of public and private sectors. Second, advantages and disadvantages of the facilities will be delineated through in-depth comparisons and analyses, ultimately providing architectural quidelines for establishing future standard mental health center. Methods: Data were collected through literature research, field surveys, and expert interviews to standard mental health centers in Seoul. In the field investigation, we collected various data(architectural plan, dimension, photos) by visiting standard mental health centers. Data were analysed by content analysis. Results: The result of this study can be summarized into three points. The first one is that Mental health environment changing role of the mental health center is derived the spatial variations. The second one is that Standard Mental Health Center is divided into four sectors. Implications: It is necessary to give and architectural suggestion of mental health center in response to the proposal of the system.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.16-25
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• 2019

Purpose:The healthcare system of South Korea is at the extreme of the dispersed system. Few regulations limit patients from directly visiting higher-level medical institutions for primary care sensitive conditions. As a result, similar to local clinics, general and tertiary teaching hospitals also provide diverse primary care services. Our study aimed to examine the general public's perceptions of their primary care performance. Methods: Face-to-face surveys were conducted with 1000 adults who were living in South Korea with the aid of a questionnaire that included the Korean Primary Care Assessment Tool (KPCAT). The KPCAT consists of five domains, which are the main indicators of primary care performance: first contact, comprehensiveness, coordination, personalized care, and family/community orientation. One-way analysis of variance and post hoc tests were used to compare the KPCAT scores across the three types of medical institutions. Results: Domain-wise analyses revealed two different patterns. With regard to first contact and its subdomains, the highest and lowest scores emerged for local clinics and tertiary teaching hospitals, respectively. However, the other four domain scores were significantly lower for local clinics than for the other two types of medical institutions. Conclusions: Local clinics were perceived to be medical institutions that are responsible for providing primary care. However, the general public perceived only one domain of their primary care to be superior to that of the other two types of medical institutions: first contact. National efforts should be taken to strengthen their other four domains of primary care by training their workforce and providing appropriate incentives.