• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.105-111
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• 2019

On December 31, 2018, an incident occurred where a doctor was attacked and killed by a patient carrying a lethal weapon in the outpatients' clinic of the psychiatric department of a tertiary general hospital. The suspect was diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder (manic depressive disorder) and has been hospitalized and cared for in the psychiatric ward of this hospital. This incident illustrates the necessity of more active cures and therapeutic intervention for mental patients with intellectual developmental disorders who require treatment considering the fact that a radical outcome has been caused by such a patient. However, on the other hand, there is also a need for an approach and analysis from the perspective of crime prevention for all medical departments. The reason for this is that even a tertiary general hospital equipped with the largest human resources, medical devices, facilities, and so forth, is susceptible to violence. As for illegal actions perpetrated against health and medical service personnel in medical institutions, such as verbal abuse, assault, injury, etc. there have neither been understanding shown for the current extent of damage in detail, nor discussions of active institutional improvement related to the seriousness of the act. It can be said that violence in the field of medical treatment is a realm requiring serious discussion and appropriate remedial actions. This is because when such incidents take place, if a patient who is supposed to get treatment from the damaged health care provider is in an urgent situation or on the waiting list of serious cases, he or she could suffer serious damage caused by deprivation of treatment opportunity, or secondary damage might be caused to the patient and/or a guardian who can hardly have an opportunity to take action. Accordingly, in this review, we would like to help create the necessary conditions for both health and medical service personnel and patients/guardians, respectively, to provide and receive medical treatment in a more secure environment. Therefore, objective assessment of the institution and issues relating to this aforementioned incident and general cases of violence occurring in medical institutions, and by suggesting legal and institutional improvements and solutions.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.31-47
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• 2019

This study analyzes the emotional labor experiences of 8 social workers in social welfare facilities and public institutions by thematic analysis method with interveiws with them. Six categories and Twenty two themes concerning the emotional labor experience were derived from the analysis. Six categories are as follows: 'work life as a target for anger', 'unsafe workplace', 'emotional labor that ruins life', 'overcoming hurt emotion', and 'living with emotional labor'. Social workers are constantly required to perform emotional labor providing services to clients in the field of practice, and they also suffer verbal abuse from clients. Social workers feel the pressure of work in the environment that does not tolerate mistakes and they must keep their safety on their own. In these cases, emotional labor has effects on the physical and mental health of workers. The problem of emotional labor is difficult to solve and there might not be no choice but to endure. This study suggests practical and policy measures for social workers based on the results of the analysis. Policy suggestions are as follows: safety assurance for social workers, establishment of base facilities for employee support, human rights education for employees, preparation of super vision system, and the provision of a mental health care system.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.29-43
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• 2021

Coinciding with the advent of COVID-19, online education is on the rise both domestically and globally, and has become an absolutely necessary and irreplaceable form of education. It is a very curious question what the perception of people about the suddenly growing form of education is, and how it has changed. This study investigated changes in consumers' perception of online education using big data. To this end, we divided the time into four stages: before COVID-19 (November to December 2019), after the triggering of COVID-19 (January to February 2020), right after the online classes started (March to April 2020), after experiencing some online education (May to June 2020). Then we conducted text mining, namely, keyword frequency analysis, network analysis, word cloud analysis, and sentiment analysis were performed. The implications derived as a result of the analysis can help education policy makers and educators working in the field to improve online education quality and establish its future directions.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.94-106
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• 2022

Background: The efforts to build more "people centered," "patient centered" health system has been emerging all over the world. Aligning with it, the Korean government is conducing the survey called "Medical Service Experience Survey (MSES)." There are critics, however, that MSES is not scrutinizing the medical experiences of patients in various healthcare settings. For this reason, this study aims to perform an empirical analysis of the differences in answers of patients responding to various healthcare settings. Methods: There are two steps in this study. First, explanatory analysis is conducted to compare the tendency of statistical concentration on questionnaires by divided healthcare settings. Second, confirmative analysis is carried out to evaluate the construct validity, reliability, and discriminant validity of the questionnaire in each healthcare setting. The raw data of MSES, which was conducted in 2020 by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in Korea and the Korean Institute for Health and Social Affairs is used. Results: As a result of exploratory factor analysis for all outpatients, the items were classified into four factors statistically: "doctor experience," "nurse experience," "outpatient service experience," and "patient satisfaction." It was confirmed that the reliability of all factors extracted was secured. However, for patients who visited hospitals, questionnaires related to personal privacy, such as "experiences on medical staffs considering physical exposure" or "experiences related to personal information exposure," were answered in conjunction with items of "nurse experience." Besides, patients responded that administrative elements of medical services, such as "experiences of comfort in medical institutions" and "experiences of satisfactory administrative services," were related to the items of "nurse experience." The answers of patients who visited traditional medical hospitals and clinics about "doctor experience" and "nurse experience" were not discerned statistically, and the answers to "doctor experience," "nurse experience," and "medical institution experience" were entangled with the responses of patients who visited dental hospitals and clinics. On the other hand, as a result of the confirmatory factor analysis, it was found that the inquiries of MSES generally had intensive validity. Conclusion: The collection of objective and scientific data is the prominent component to enlighten the patient-centered healthcare system alongside with change of the worldwide paradigm of measuring the healthcare system performance as follows the transition of perspective of health care from provider-centered to patient-centered. This study empirically shows that the patient experience can vary as the healthcare settings. Furthermore, to make an advance in measuring the experience of patients with medical services, this article proposes the deliberate consideration of the different kinds of healthcare settings and articulate design of the survey.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.49-64
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• 2022

This study aims to investigate unmet healthcare needs due to economic or non-economic difficulties among the elderly aged 65 or older. Using Korea Health Panel Survey (KHPS) data from 2018, the elderly are classified into one of four groups (health insurance subscribers, non-take-up, lower income relief, and medical aid recipients) based on their level of medical vulnerability. For hospital or dental care, the prevalence rates of unmet healthcare needs due to economic and non-economic difficulties are 12.6% and 10.6%, respectively. The prevalence rate of unmet healthcare needs due to economic difficulty in the medically vulnerable group was much higher than that of the non-vulnerable group-that is, health insurance subscribers. After controlling for other influential factors, medical vulnerability has a great impact on the prevalence rates of unmet healthcare needs due to economic difficulties. Compared to health insurance subscribers, the non-take-up, the lower relief, and the medical aid recipients are 1.4 times, 3.3 times, and 2.4 times more likely to experience unmet healthcare needs due to economic difficulty, respectively. The results of this study can provide important policy implications for securing essential healthcare resources for the elderly.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.37-51
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• 2022

This study examines the relationship between flexible work and workers' work-life balance using data from the 23rd Korean Labor and Income Panel Study, with a focus on the impact of working from home (WFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the analysis, WFH was found to have a positive effect on the happiness of workers, satisfaction with family relationships, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction related to job security for women. In addition, we looked at the changes in time use of WFH workers and non-WFH workers before and after COVID-19, with a particular focus on aspects such as time spent sleeping and on self-development, childcare, housework, exercise, and social gatherings. Compared to non-WFH workers, WFH workers increased the time spent on housework and childcare after COVID-19, with this trend more pronounced among women. The results of this study suggest that the effect of utilizing WFH may be halved for workers who have to take care of children and work at the same time, and that this effect may be greater for women. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen social support measures so that WFH workers who face a work-life conflict due to childcare can maintain work productivity and realize a work-life balance, and to ensure that the flexible work arrangement should not be a medium that reinforces traditional gender roles. Active policy efforts will be required to make sure this happens.

• Journal of Digital Policy
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.27-37
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• 2022

The purpose of this study attempted to provide basic data for the safety awareness intervention program by identifying smoking, drinking and safety awareness survey using raw data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES VIII-1, 2019). The self-reported questionnaire was used to assess the gender, age, smoking, drinking, and safety awareness. Descriptive statistics and chi-square test were used for the general characteristics according to gender and the difference between smoking and drinking. positive thinking, emotional expressivity, public speaking anxiety. The SPSS WIN 23.0 version program was used for data analysis. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were used for the general characteristics according to gender and the difference between smoking and drinking. There were significant difference between wearing a seat belt while driving and smoking for life (𝑥²=6581.46, p<.001). Among safety awareness, there was a statistically significant difference between wearing a seat belt while driving and lifelong drinking experience (𝑥²=6421.29, p<.001). It is considered that this can be used to prepare a customized smoking prevention education and alcohol prevention education intervention program to improve safety awareness.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.49-76
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• 1994

Small area variations in health care utilization have long been studied as an important issue related to boto cost containment and quality assurance. This study was conducted to investigate if variations in hospital services across small geographic areas in Korea existed. The claims data of the fiscal year 1992 obtained from the regional health insurance societies were used for the study. Main findings of the research can be summarized as follows : 1. Extremal Quotients(EQ) of hospital expenditure per capita and hospital days per capita varied among diagnosis types. The EQ ranged from 2.05(cataract) to 41.67(pneumonia) in hospital expenditure per capita and from 1.86(cataract) to 45.89(pneumonia) in hospital days per capita. The diagnosis groups which showed high variation were pneumonia, cephalo-pelvic disproportion, gastritis and duodenitis, fracture of rib, and acute bronchitis. Those which showed low variation were acute appendicitis and cataract. 2. The EQ level of admission rate was different in terms of diagnosis types, ranging from 2.57(catarct) to 44.45(pneumonia). The variations were high in medical disorders such as pneumonia, oephalo-pelvic disproportion, gastritis and duodenitis and acute bronchitis, while relatively low in surgical conditions such as acute appendicitis and cataract. 3. As an indicator of service intensity, the EQ of expenditure per admission ranged from 1.67(acute appendicitis) to 31.27(essential hypertension). The diagnoses which had high variation were essential hypertension, gastric ulcer, whereas those which had low variation were cephalopelvic disproportion and acute appendicitis. With regard to hospital days per admission, the EQ ranged from 1.55(acute appendicitis) to 28.13(gastric ulcer) by diagnosis types. The diagnosis groups with showed high variation were gastric ulcer, essential hypertension, and acute bronchitis, whereas those with low variation were cephalo-pelvic disproportion, intervertebral disc disorders, and acute appendicitis. Both the expenditure and hospital days per admission showed lewwer variations than the expenditure per capita, hospital days per capita and admission rate. 4. Comparing patterns of variation in utilization indices, diagnoses such as essential hypertension, gastric ulcer, fracture of rib showed higher variations in expenditure per admission than in admission rates, whereas diagnoses such as pneumonia, cephalo-pelvic disproportion and gastric ulcer showed higher variations in admission rate than expenditure per admission. These findings suggest that wide variations existed in several diagnoses groups across small areas in Korea. Further research should be performed to investigate factors related to small area variations including provider behavior.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.173-184
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• 2023

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has been challenging the healthcare service, i.e., the vitalization of the point of care accompanying self-testing in vitro diagnostic medical devices (IVDs). This study aims to suggest priority criteria to classify self-testing IVDs using the analytic hierarchy process technique. Methods: Two dimensions of the characteristics embedded in the IVDs and the diseases to be diagnosed with self-testing IVDs were parallelly considered and independently investigated. In addition, three expert panels consisting of laboratory medical doctors (n=11), clinicians (n=10), and citizens (n=11) who have an interest in the selection of self-testing IVDs were asked to answer to questionnaires. Priorities were derived and compared among each expert panel. Results: First of all, ease of specimen collection (0.241), urgency of the situation (0.224), and simplicity of device operation (0.214) were found to be the most important criteria in light of the functional characteristics of self-testing IVDs. Medical doctors valued the ease of specimen collection, but the citizen's panel valued self-management of the disease more. Second, considering the characteristics of the diseases, the priority criteria were shown in the order of prevalence of diseases (0.421), fatality of disease (0.378), and disease with stigma (0.201). Third, medical doctors responded that self-testing IVDs were more than twice as suitable for non-communicable diseases as compared to communicable diseases (0.688 vs. 0.312), but the citizen's group responded that self-testing IVDs were slightly more suitable for infectious diseases (0.511 vs. 0.489). Conclusion: Our findings suggested that self-testing IVDs could be primarily classified as the items for diagnosis of non-communicable diseases for the purpose of self-management with easy specimen collection and simple operation of devices, taking into account the urgency of the situation as well as prevalence and fatality of the disease.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.233-265
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• 2011

Material hardship measures have been used to supplement the traditional income-based poverty measures. Recently poverty researchers have increasingly used measure of material hardship to examine the well-being of low income families. Measuring the material hardship might be useful to a better understanding of the multi-dimensions of the poverty in Korea. Using the data of the Korea Welfare Panel Study(the fourth wave), I examine incidences of material hardship across quintiles of the income distributions and the factors that might affect the experience of material hardship among the poor families. Major findings are as follows. Descriptive results show that nearly one-fifth of all families had experienced at least one of the five material hardships in the year. Those in the bottom quintiles and the poor families are more likely to experience material hardship than the other quintiles and non-poor families. But, incidences of the material hardship in the middle income quintiles and low income families are not a few(18 percent and 37 percent). Logistic regression results show that family-consumption related variables, income other economic resources(asset and public assistance), and household's employment status affect the experience of material hardship among the poor families. But, material hardship among the poor families is not significantly related with family income. These results indicate that material hardship measures are the useful indicators to understanding the multi-dimensions of the poverty in Korea. And they suggest that an extensive reform of the public assistance policy is necessary to relieve the material hardships of the poor in Korea.