• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.531-550
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• 2023

Purpose: The unique nature of life-and-death healthcare services sets them apart from other service industries. While many studies exist on the relationship between healthcare services and customer satisfaction, most of them focus on mildly ill patients, ignoring the differences between critically ill and non-seriously ill patients. This study discusses the actual quality of healthcare services for patients who are facing life-threatening illnesses and are on life support, as well as their right to protection and dignity. Methods: The survey conducted to 149 patients with the four major illnesses: cancer, heart disease, brain disease and rare and incurable disease, those who have experiences with senior general hospitals. Results: The basic statistics of this study are adequate to represent the four major critical illnesses, and the reliability and validity of this study's hypotheses, which were measured by multiple items, were analyzed, and the internal consistency was judged to be high. In addition, it was found that the convergent validity was good and the discriminant validity was also secured. When examining the goodness of fit of the hypotheses, the SRMR, which is the standardized root mean square of residuals that measures the difference between the covariance matrix of the data variables and the theoretical covariance matrix structure of the model, met the optimal criteria. Conclusion: The academic implications of this study are differentiated from other studies by moving away from evaluating the quality of healthcare services for mildly ill patients and focusing on the rights and dignity of patients with life-threatening illnesses in four senior general hospitals. In terms of academic implications, this study enriches the depth of related studies by demonstrating the right to protection and dignity as a factor of patient-centeredness based on physical environment quality, interaction quality, and outcome quality, which are presented as sub-factors of healthcare quality. We found that the three quality factors classified by Brady and Cronin (2001) are optimized for healthcare quality assessment and management, and that the results of patients' interaction quality assessment can be used to provide a comprehensive quality rating for hospitals. Health and human rights are inextricably linked, so assessing the degree to which rights and dignity are protected can be a superior and more comprehensive measurement tool than traditional health level measures for healthcare organizations. Practical implications: Improving the quality of the physical environment and the quality of outcomes is an important challenge for hospital managers who attract patients with life and death conditions, but given the scale and economics of time, money, and human inputs, improving the quality of interactions and defining them as performance indicators in hospital quality management is an efficient way to create maximum value in the short term.

• Korean Circulation Journal
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.304-319
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• 2022

Background and Objectives: De-escalation of dual-antiplatelet therapy through dose reduction of prasugrel improved net adverse clinical events (NACEs) after acute coronary syndrome (ACS), mainly through the reduction of bleeding without an increase in ischemic outcomes. Whether the benefits of de-escalation are sustained in highly thrombotic conditions such as ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is unknown. We aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of de-escalation therapy in patients with STEMI or non-ST-segment elevation ACS (NSTE-ACS). Methods: This is a pre-specified subgroup analysis of the HOST-REDUCE-POLYTECH-ACS trial. ACS patients were randomized to prasugrel de-escalation (5 mg daily) or conventional dose (10 mg daily) at 1-month post-percutaneous coronary intervention. The primary endpoint was a NACE, defined as a composite of all-cause death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, stent thrombosis, clinically driven revascularization, stroke, and bleeding events of grade ≥2 Bleeding Academic Research Consortium (BARC) criteria at 1 year. Results: Among 2,338 patients included in the randomization, 326 patients were diagnosed with STEMI. In patients with NSTE-ACS, the risk of the primary endpoint was significantly reduced with de-escalation (hazard ratio [HR], 0.65; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.48-0.89; p=0.006 for de-escalation vs. conventional), mainly driven by a reduced bleeding. However, in those with STEMI, there was no difference in the occurrence of the primary outcome (HR, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.48-2.26; p=0.915; p for interaction=0.271). Conclusions: Prasugrel dose de-escalation reduced the rate of NACE and bleeding, without increasing the rate of ischemic events in NSTE-ACS patients but not in STEMI patients.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.354-359
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• 2008

Background: Warfarin is used as an anticoagulant and it is mainly excreted by the liver metabolism (the R-form is mainly metabolized by cytochrome p450 3A4, and the S form by cytochrome p450 2C9). Rifampin is usually used for tuberculosis or endocarditis, and it is a representative drug that induces the CYP families, including 3A4 and 2C9. The anticoagulation effect of warfarin decreases through the increased metabolism that's due to the induction of enzymes, and this iscaused by rifampin when patients take these two medicines together. No one has suggested appropriate guidelines regarding this drug interaction even though an appropriate adjustment of warfarin's dosage is needed. We examined the drug interaction in patients who received warfarin-rifampin combination therapy according to the time interval, and the factors affecting drug interaction were analyzed. Based on the data, we tried to determine the clinically available warfarin dosage guidelines before and after taking this drug combination. Material and Method: We reviewed the OO University Hospital anticoagulation service team's follow up sheets that were filled out from Jan '1998 to Sep 2006 for the patient who took warfarin - rifampin combination therapy (n=15). Result: The average INR of all the patient before rifampin administration was $2.25{\pm}0.52$ $(mean{\pm}SD)$, and that value for the first 100 days after rifampin administration was $1.98{\pm}0.28$. The p value for these two sets of data showed no correlation (paired t-test, p>0.05). The average INR of all the patient before rifampin cessation was $2.19{\pm}0.34$, and the value after rifampin cessation was $2.49{\pm}0.43$. The p value of these two showed correlation (paired t-test, p<0.05) but the average INR falls between the therapeutic INR range. Conclusion: The warfarin dose adjustment equation of before and after warfarin-rifampin combination therapy was derived based on this study's results because the warfarin dosage adjustment of the anticoagulation service team was considered appropriate.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.247-275
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• 1998

The purpose of this study was to offer the results of content analysis and qualitative study that explored the perceptions about quality nursing care of patients and families as consumers and to identify the implications of this study for quality nursing care management and research. The data was collected from 12 adult patients and 9 families who were admmitted at medical and surgical nursing unit of one university hospital in Seoul from October, 1996 to January, 1997. Research participants were asked to response "what do you think quality nursing care?" and similar questions during the interviews was performed. Data were analyzed using open coding and content analysis with frequencies and percents of attributes of quality nursing care. Attributes of quality nursing care and meaning of quality nursing care that patients and families perceived were explored. 1. The attributes of quality nursing care that patient and families perceived were categorized into 56 attributes. The highest response rate among the attributes was 'one's heart at ease' (76.2%), and the next high response rates were ranked in order 'consideration' , 'care about' (each 61.9% 'expert skill' (57.1%), 'deal with problem promptly' , 'information offer' (42.9%), 'intimate feeling' (38.1%), 'smile' 'service spirit' , 'do one's best' (each 33.3%), 'frequent visit' (23.8%), 'observe the time' (23.8%), 'direct nursing care' , 'speaking warmly' , give a hope' , 'address kindly' , 'a sense of duty' , 'good facilities' (each 19.0%), 'inquire after a patient health' , 'patient-centered nursing care' , 'showing an example' , 'professional knowledge' , 'careless moraly patient' , 'give encourage to patients' , 'good answer a question' (each 14.3%), 'do not imprudently' , 'do not disregard' , 'broad knowledge' , 'emergency treatment skill' , 'dependability' ,'consolation' giving a sense of security' , 'a self sacrificing spirit' , 'a sense of responsibility' 'hard - working', 'enough disposition of nursing staff (each 9.5%), 'improve patient's pride' and the rest attributes exhibited 4.7%, respectively. 2. The attributes that were identified in patients' data only were 8 categories, 'service sprit' (58.3 %) 'expert knowledge' , 'good answer a question' (each 25.0%), 'hard working' (16.7%), 'a warm character', 'professional attainments', 'do without reserve', 'satisfaction' (each 8.3%), 3. The attributes were identified to families' data only were 31 categories, 'speaking warmly' , 'direct nursing care', 'adress kindly', 'patientcentered nursing care', 'showing an example' (each 33.3%). 'do not imprudently' , 'do not disregard' , 'consolation', 'giving a sense of security', 'broad knowledge' , 'emergency treatment skill', 'dependability' ,'a self - sacrificing spirit', 'a sense of responsibility' (each 22.2%), 'improve patient's pride' , 'without discrimination' , 'show kindness' , 'individual nursing care', 'being with patient' , 'helping' , 'accuracy' , 'without any mistake' , 'love' , 'self - confidence', 'self possession', 'a self - denying spirit' , 'a sense of duty' , 'tighten discipline' , 'disposed room with similar patient to diagnosis', 'compensatory relationship between me dical team' , 'role of connection' (each 11.1 %). 4. The attributes of quality nursing care were integrated into 11 categories that they were 'patientcentered nursing care' (25.1%), 'expertise' (22.1%), 'caring'(18.1%), 'kindness'(11.1%L 'nurse attainments(10.1%), 'sincerity' (7.5%), 'good environment' (2.0%), 'effective organizational management', 'coordination', 'enough nursing staff' ( each 1.0%), 'satisfaction' (0.5%) were showed in the order of the highest rate. 5. The concept of quality nursing care were defined as 'give a satisfaction to patients by patientcentered care based on professional skill and caring with kindness and sincerity'. The description of the meaning of quality nursing care provided by this research participants, patients and families can provide important information for quality nursing care management, medical marketing, education and researches of this field. On the basis of the above findings the following recommendations are made: to suggest to utilize this results for patient care in practice setting, development of quality assessment tool in nursing care, repeat study by the same subjects and method, and to a comparative study by the same method to nurse.

• The Korean Nurse
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.49-65
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• 1991

This study was carried out to assess the problems with the pregnant women, and check out the risk-factors in the high-risk pregnancies, using a simplified antepartum risk-scoring system, which was revised from Edwards' scoring system to be suitable for Korean situaition. This instrument was included 4 categories, demographic, obstetric, medical and miscellaneous factors. This survey was based on the 1300 pregnant women who were admitted, $x^2$-test, F-test, Pearsons correation, using statistical package SAS in NAS computer system, KIST. The results of the study were as follows; 1. 1313 infants were deliveried of these 560 infants(42.7%) were born to mothers with risk-scores > 7, and 753 infants(57.3%) were born to mothers risk-scores <7. 2. Maternal age" parity, education level, of the demographic factors were significant relation statistically to identify the high risk pregnancies($X^2$=20.88, 42.87, 15.60 P < 0.01). 3. C-section, post term, incompetent cervix, uterine anomaly, polyhydramnios, congenital anomaly, sensitized RH negative, abortion, preeclampsia, excessive size infant, premature, low birth weight infanl, abnormal presentation, perinatal loss, multiple pregnancy, of the obstetric factors were significant relation statistically to identify the high risk-pregnancies. ($X^2$ = 175.96, 87.5, 16.28, 21.78, 9.46, 8. 10, 6.75, 22.9, 64.84, 6.93, 361.43, 185.55, 78.65, 45.52, P < 0.01). 4. Abnormal nutrition, anemia, UTI, other medicalcondition(pulmonary disease, severe influenza), heart disease, V.D., of the miscellaneous and medical factors, were significant relation statistically to identify the high risk-pregnancies. 5. Premature, low birth weight infant, contracted pelvis, abnormal presentation, of the risk factors were significantly related with Apgar score at 1 '||'&'||' 5 minute after birth and neonatal body weight. 6. Apgar score at 1 '||'&'||' 5 minute after, birth and neonatal body weight were significantly negative correlated with risk-score. 7. There were statistically significant difference between risk-score and Apgar score at 1 '||'&'||' 5 minute after birth, 3 group(0-3, 4-6, above 7), and neonatal body weight, 2 group(below 2.5kg, the other group) (F=104.65, 96.61, 284.92, P<0.01). 8. Apgar score at 1 '||'&'||' 5 minute after birth(below 7), and neonatal body weight(below 2.5kg), were significant relation statistically with risk score.($x^2$=65.99, 60.88, 177.07, P<0.01) were 60.8 %, 60% . 9. Correct classifications of morbid infants(l '||'&'||' 5 minute Apgar score < 7) were 77.8%, 83.8% and that of nonmorbid infants(l '||'&'||' 5 minute Apgar score > 7) were 60.8%, 60%. 10. There were statistically significant difference between dislribution of maternal risk-score among the morbid infants(l '||'&'||' 5 minute Apgar score < 7) and non morbid infants(l '||'&'||' 5 minute Apgar score> 7) ($x^2$=64.8, 58.8, P < 0.001). 11. There were statistically significant difference between distribution of morbid infants(l '||'&'||' 5 minute Apgar score < 7) and fetal death. 12. The predictivity for classifying high.risk cases was 12 % and for classifying low-risk cases was 98.3 % in 5 minute Apgar score. Suggestions for further studies are as follows; 1. Contineous prospective studies, using this newly revised scoring system are strongly recommended in the stetric service. 2. Besides risk facto~s used in this study, assessmenl of risks by factors in another scoring system and paralled studies related to perinatal outcome are strongly recommended.