• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.140-150
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• 1998

A mailed survey with structured questionnaire was conducted to study the demand of private physicians who were operating their own clinics in the community to be a attending physician at the general hospital. The responding proportion was 21.6 percent of the 960 private physicians. A total of 207 responders; 65.2 percent wanted to be a attending physician. In particular, the physicians who were male, young, surgeon and teaching hospital careered after specialist were more highly motivated. The major activities what they wanted as a attending physician were medical care for the admission patients. They responded that the hospital charges for the medical services and the responsibility of malpractice issues should be fairly shared by attending physician and hospital according to their contributions. There is growing consensus that the need of attending physician at the general hospital will become wide spread, but little organizational preparation to assure the quality of medical care of attending physicians including training of resident physicians and students. In addition, the effective reimbursement system should be develop to compensate appropriately according to the medical achievement of the attending physicians.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.16-26
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• 1998

Background : As many previous studies proved, the quality of medical record is thought to reflect the quality of care. In this study, we analyzed the relationship between the quality of record and some factors influencing the quality of record, especially the commitment of the attending physician. Method : We developed checklist for evaluation of medical record with 36 criteria. 300 inpatient records of 10 attending physicians' patients were evaluated and the quality' of records were scored. The attending physician's commitment to medical records were scored by 34 residents. The relationship of the quality of records with physician's commitment to records, and some other factors were analyzed. Results : More than 75% of the immediate postoperative notes on the progress note were missed. More than 69% of the contents of explanation about the procedures on the consent form or on the other forms were also missed. The physician whose quality score of records was the highest(78.9) got the highest commitment score. The score of attending physician's commitment to the record, and his seniority were positively related with the quality score of his medical records when number of patients and department were adjusted. Conclusion : The quality of the 5 forms of the record reviewed were evaluated as moderate or excellent except 2 or 3 items. The quality of record was positively related with the attending physician's commitment to the record, and the seniority of the physician.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.67-84
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• 2011

The open Hospital Attending Physician System has been discussed and operated for developing the efficiency and the substitutes for an increase in medical expenses, for overlapping investment in medical resources, and for normalization of medical delivery system. This study assessed the related factors to the acceptance and introduction of Attending Physicians on ophthalmologist. Data was collected mail response to 179 ophthalmologists in 2005. Applying multilevel logistic regression, we examined the relationship between their acknowledgment, attitude and acceptance of the open Hospital Attending Physicians System. The percentage of participation in Hospital Attending was indicated to be 3.9%. The 44.7% of all participants agreed to adopting the Hospital Attending, 33.5% of doctors are willing to participate in the future. The positive and normal attitude of physician toward the Hospital Attending is 6.6 times (95%CI 1.315, 33.138) and 55.2 times(95%CI 11.352, 268.347) more than that of negative after adjustment for other variables. Attitude was found to be the important factor influencing physicians' participation in the Attending Hospital. Thus, it is need to development and implication for the strategies that lead the practical necessity and positive attitude toward the Attending Hospital.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.116-133
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• 2002

Background : It is very common in Korea to take care of non-acute patients in an acute setting, due to the lack of long-term facilities. Long term hospitalization increase medical expenses and decreases the bed utilization, which can affect the urgent and emergent admissions, and eventually jeopardize the hospital financially. In this study, strategies for effective transfers to the lower levels of care, and to decrease the length of stay were presented by surveying and analyzing the patient's knowledge of the transfer needs, and the willingness to transfer those whose hospital length of stay was more than 30days. Method : The survey is subject to a group of 251 patients who have been hospitalized over 30 days in a general hospital in Seoul. Excluding those that were in the Intensive Care Unit and psychiatric ward, 214 in-patients were used as participants. They were surveyed from April 9, 2002 to April 17, 2002. One hundred and thirty seven out of 214 were responded which made the response rate 64%. Data were analyzed by SAS and SPSS. Result : Multi-variable Logistic Regression Analysis showed a significant effect in medical expenses, knowledge of referral system and the information of the receiving hospital. The financial burden in medical expenses made the patient 10.7 times more willing to be transferred, knowledge of the referral system made them 5 times more willing to be transferred, and the information of receiving hospital makes 6.5 times more willing to be transferred. Reasons for willing to be transferred to a lower level of care were the phase of physical therapy, the distance from home, the attending physician's advice and being unable to be treated as an out patient. Reasons for refusing to be transferred were the following. The attending physician's competency, not being ready to be discharged, not trusting the receiving hospital's competency due to the lack of information, or never hearing about the referring system by the attending physician. Conclusion : Based on this, strategies for the effective transfer to the lower levels of care were suggested. It is desirable for the attending physician to be actively involved by making an effort to explain the transfer need, and referring to the Healthcare Coordinating Center, which can help the patient make the right decision. Nationwide networking for the referral system is the another key factor that may need to be suggested as an alternative to decrease the medical expenses. Collaborating with the Home Health Agency for the early discharge planning and the Social Service Department for financial aid are also needed. It is recommended that the hospital should expedite the transfer process by prioritizing the cost and the information as medical expenses, knowledge of referring system and the information of the receiving hospital, are the most important factors to the willingness to transfer to a lower level of care.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.20-35
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• 2008

Though the attending system was first implemented in 2003 to facilitate the efficient utilization of medical resources and specialties, only a few hospitals and physicians are participated in that system. The purpose of this study was to investigate the actual facts which related to operation of attending system and propose a basic information to revitalized of the attending system in Korea. The data were collected between August 1 and October 30, 2005 from 25 hospitals and 42 attending physicians who were in part of the attending system. Medical institutions were unwilling to participate despite the advantages of the attending system with respect to the utilization of medical resources and improvement in the quality of medical services. The primary reason for this was the lack of understanding among physicians about the attending system and the difficulty(lack of time) encountered by the attending physicians in administering care to patients hospitalized in the attending hospitals. Moreover insufficient reimbursement for rendered medical services constituted another important reason. In conclusion, we can state that the establishment of a committee is required to discuss the issues surrounding the attending system and to control the growing disparity between the viewpoints of hospitals and physicians. Regardless, there is a need to develop economical incentives for medical institutes. The attending system served as a useful policy in promoting the medical service system and bringing about an improvement in the management of medical institutes.

• The Journal of the Korean life insurance medical association
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.29-33
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• 2012

Nowadays, obstructive sleep apnea is being important to life insurance industry. Many life applicants submit their attending physician's statement, diagnostic certificate, and results of polysomnography to underwriters. So It's necessary to perform evidence-based medical approach. I hope this article is helpful to insurance doctors and underwriters.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.230-240
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• 2012

Purpose: We aimed to compare the transport time, the proportion of direct hospital visit and the emergency procedures between the current mountain rescue helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) and physician-staffed mountain-rescue HEMS. Methods: During weekends from October 2, to November 21, 2010, 9 emergency physicians participated as HEMS staff in the mountain-rescue HEMS program of the Seoul fire department. Patient demographic data, transport time, proportion of direct hospital visits, and emergency procedures were recorded. We also collected data on HEMS mountain-rescued patients from June 1, to September 1, 2010, and we compared them to those for the study patients. After an eight-week trial of the HEMS, we performed a delphi survey to determine the attitude of the physician staff, as well as the feasibility of using a physician staff. Results: Twenty-four(24) patients were rescued from mountains by physician-staffed HEMS during the study period, and 35 patients were rescued during the pre-study period. Patient demographic findings were not statistically different between the two groups, but the transport time and the emergency procedures were. During the study period, the time from call to take-off was $6.1{\pm}4.1min$ (vs. $12.1{\pm}8.9min$ during the pre-study period, p-value=0.001), and the time from call to arrival at the scene was $15.0{\pm}4.8min$ (vs. $22.3{\pm}8.1min$ during the pre-study period, p-value=0.0001). The proportions of direct hospital visit were not different between the two groups, but more aggressive emergency procedures were implemented in the study group. The delphi survey showed positive agreement on indications for HEMS, rapidity of transport and overall satisfaction. Conclusion: A pilot trial of physician-staffed HEMS for mountain rescue showed rapid response and more aggressive performance of emergency procedures with high satisfaction among the attending physicians.

• The Journal of Korean Medical History
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.23-31
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• 2009

Jecheon is a place of Korean Medicine with many historical characters, medical tales and cultures. One of the most renowned characters is Lee Gong Gi(李公沂), a 扈聖功臣 (title given to the 86 people that escorted king Seonjo during the Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592) at the level of Huh Jun(許浚) and famous royal physician of Joseon who served King Seonjo and reached the highest position of chief physician. He was recognized for his talent as a royal physician and was conferred with the title of 扈聖功臣 Rank 3 after attending on King Seonjo during the Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592. Despite the fact that he was a renowned man of medicine, he didn't get as much attention as 許浚 or Yang Ye Soo(楊禮壽) because documents on his work had not been studied. In this study, the author was able to study Lee Gong Gi(李公沂) based on documents such as "朝鮮王朝實錄(True Record of the Joseon Dynasty)", "內醫院先生案(Naeeuiwonseonsengan)", "醫科先生案(Euigwaseonsengan)" and on "避難行錄(Pinanhengrok)" by Yakpo Jeongtak (1526~1605) who was a govemmental pharmacist at the time of Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592. According to "內醫院先生案" and "醫科先生案", Lee Gong Gi's son Lee Young Nam followed his father's footsteps and became the chief royal pharmacist and 崇政大夫(one of the governmental titles of Joseon Dynasty). As for Jecheon's Korean medical traditions, many forms of medical tales and cultures are preserved such as the tales of Neokgogae, Mountain Ami's medical water cave, Otmaru and Seonsimgol. These tales are divided into various types of great doctors, medical herbs and devoted sons and have been passed down With the origin of traditional medicine still intact. Moreover, ancient documents and artifacts on Traditional Korean Medicine that reflect the area's medical culture have been discovered. Not only is Jecheon a place of medical culture but along with Jecheon Drug Market it also carries on the tradition of medical herbs production and possesses the largest new medical herbs market in Korea. In conclusion, Jecheon is a traditional place of Korean Medicine with many medical cultures and characters from a unique history.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.152-161
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• 2014

Background: According to the reports of the World Health Organization 20% of world population suffer from pain and 33% of them suffer to some extent that they cannot live independently. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study which was conducted in the emergency department (ED) of Valiasr Hospital of Arak, Iran, in order to determine the causes of delay in prescription of analgesics and to construct a model for prediction of circumstances that aggravate oligoanalgesia. Data were collected during a period of 7 days. Results: Totally, 952 patients participated in this study. In order to reduce their pain intensity, 392 patients (42%) were treated. Physicians and nurses recorded the intensity of pain for 66.3% and 41.37% of patients, respectively. The mean (SD) of pain intensity according to visual analogue scale (VAS) was 8.7 (1.5) which reached to 4.4 (2.3) thirty minutes after analgesics prescription. Median and mean (SD) of delay time in injection of analgesics after the physician's order were 60.0 and 45.6 (63.35) minutes, respectively. The linear regression model suggested that when the attending physician was male or intern and patient was from rural areas the delay was longer. Conclusions: We propose further studies about analgesics administration based on medical guidelines in the shortest possible time and also to train physicians and nurses about pain assessment methods and analgesic prescription.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.3489-3494
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• 2016

Background: A major problem with cervical cancer screening in countries which have no organized national screening program for cervical cancer is sub-optimal participation. Implementation of self-sampling method may increase the coverage. Objective: We determined the agreement of cytological diagnoses made on samples collected by women themselves (self-sampling) versus samples collected by physicians (Physician sampling). Materials and Methods: We invited women volunteers to undergo two procedures; cervical self-sampling using the Evalyn brush and physician sampling using a Cervex brush. The women were shown a video presentation on how to take their own cervical samples before the procedure. The samples taken by physicians were taken as per routine testing (Gold Standard). All samples were subjected to Thin Prep monolayer smears. The diagnoses made were according to the Bethesda classification. The results from these two sampling methods were analysed and compared. Results: A total of 367 women were recruited into the study, ranging from 22 to 65 years age. There was a significant good agreement of the cytological diagnoses made on the samples from the two sampling methods with the Kappa value of 0.568 (p=0.040). Using the cytological smears taken by physicians as the gold standard, the sensitivity of self-sampling was 71.9% (95% CI:70.9-72.8), the specificity was 86.6% (95% CI:85.7-87.5), the positive predictive value was 74.2% (95% CI:73.3-75.1) and the negative predictive value was 85.1% (95% CI: 84.2-86.0). Self-sampling smears (22.9%) allowed detection of micro-organisms better than physicians samples (18.5%). Conclusions: This study shows that samples taken by women themselves (self-sampling) and physicians have good diagnostic agreement. Self-sampling could be the method of choice in countries in which the coverage of women attending clinics for screening for cervical cancer is poor.