• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.99-128
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• 2008

Nearly all Koreans are insured through National Health Insurance(NHI). While NHI coverage is nearly universal, it is not complete. Coverage is largely limited to minimal level of hospital and physician expenses, and copayments are required in each case. As a result, Korea's public insurance system covers roughly 50% of overall individual health expenditures, and the remaining 50% consists of copayments for basic services, spending on services that are either not covered or poorly covered by the public system. In response to these gaps in the public system, 64% of the Korean population has supplemental private health insurance. Expansion of private health insurance raises negative externality issue. Like public financing schemes in other countries, the Korean system imposes cost-sharing on patients as a strategy for controlling utilization. Because most insurance policies reimburse patients for their out-of-pocket payments, supplemental insurance is likely to negate the impact of the policy, raising both total and public sector health spending. So far, most empirical analysis of supplemental health insurance to date has focused on the US Medigap programme. It is found that those with supplements apparently consume more health care. Two reasons for higher health care consumption by those with supplements suggest themselves. One is the moral hazard effect: by eliminating copayments and deductibles, supplements reduce the marginal price of care and induce additional consumption. The other explanation is that supplements are purchased by those who anticipate high health expenditures - adverse effect. The main issue addressed has been the separation of the moral hazard effect from the adverse selection one. The general conclusion is that the evidence on adverse selection based on observable variables is mixed. This article investigates the extent to which private supplementary insurance affect use of health care services by public health insurance enrollees, using Korean administrative data and private supplements related data collected through all relevant private insurance companies. I applied a multivariate two-part model to analyze the effects of various types of supplements on the likelihood and level of public health insurance spending and estimated marginal effects of supplements. Separate models were estimated for inpatients and outpatients in public insurance spending. The first part of the model estimated the likelihood of positive spending using probit regression, and the second part estimated the log of spending for those with positive spending. Use of a detailed information of individuals' public health insurance from administration data and of private insurance status from insurance companies made it possible to control for health status, the types of supplemental insurance owned by theses individuals, and other factors that explain spending variations across supplemental insurance categories in isolating the effects of supplemental insurance. Data from 2004 to 2006 were used, and this study found that private insurance increased the probability of a physician visit by less than 1 percent and a hospital admission by about 1 percent. However, supplemental insurance was not found to be associated with a bigger health care service utilization. Two-part models of health care utilization and expenditures showed that those without supplemental insurance had higher inpatient and outpatient expenditures than those with supplements, even after controlling for observable differences.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.37-52
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• 2014

The aim of this study was to understand home hospice care status and problem in Korea, and ultimately to develop the home hospice standard. This study was conducted as a part of a study on the institutionalization of the home hospice in Korea. A focus group interview with representatives of seven home hospice agency where have provided home hospice service for years was conducted. All of the participants agreed to the essential components for home hospice service including 24 hour on call service, multidisciplinary team visiting, and periodical team meeting. Visiting frequency was 1-3 times per week mostly by nurses. And they agreed requisitely to fulfill an office for home visiting nurses, storage space, and home visiting bags. The obstacles of providing home hospice were 1) no reimbursement system, 2) difficulties to change medication at home, 3) lack of inpatient beds for symptom control. Standardization of home hospice is critical to improve service quality and to develop reimbursement system. The findings of this study could be used as a basic data to develop home hospice standards and guidelines.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.435-445
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• 2017

This study was conducted to overcome the limitations of prior research on the equity of medical care performed by identifying simple differences in the use of medical care or using limited medical needs and medical utilization indicators. Specifically, we used activity limits, chronic diseases, and subjective health status as medical needs, and used outpatient, inpatient, and emergency services as medical uses. In addition, we used concentration index, concentration curve, and Le Grand factor to analyze the equity of medical use considering medical needs. The main results are as follows. First, the amount of medical care for the low-income class is higher than that of the high-income class when considering the concentration of medical use. In particular, the number of hospitalization days for low-income households and hospitalization fees were higher than the fees of outpatient medical consultation and emergency room usage. Second, medical needs were concentrated in the low income class. In other words, low-income group is not as healthy as the high-income group. Third, the Le Grand factor was calculated in order to confirm the fairness of the medical uses considering the medical needs. Even if medical needs are taken into consideration, the high-income earners will have a large amount of medical care. In addition, when considering the limitation of activity and the number of chronic diseases, the medical use of the high income class was more frequent. However, when the subjective health condition and the chronic illness were considered, medical use of the low income class was more frequent. This may be due to the underestimation of the medical needs of the low-income earners by neglecting their own health status and perception of chronic diseases.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.109-129
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was the acquisition of the optimum scale of the apportionment of standard & high-class bed for the maximum profit representative of the desire of customers in a General Hospital with 1,100 beds located in Seoul. This investigation was proceeded by the analysis of the result of the simulation with the survey of both the patients' needs for bed and the degree of the medical service by the grade of the ward. And finally the consequence was obtained as follows: 1. The result of the investigation of the inpatients' preference for the grade of ward classes shows that a private ward reflected 4.3 percent, a semi-private ward 1.7 percent, a three-bed ward 0.1 percent, and a ward with six beds 93.9 percent each other. 2. A questionnaire poll was paralleled of service terms of a medical doctor and a nurse by ward class, the data were used for the standard of the allotment of labor cost by the ward class. The poll shows that the service tenn of a medical doctor and a nurse based on a ward with six beds by ward class showed 1.7 times in internal medicine and 1.9 times in surgery at a private ward; 1.4 times in internal medicine and 1.7 times in surgery at a semi-private room; and 1.2 times both in internal medicine and in surgery at a three-bed ward 3. The resultant findings revealed the most profit per bed and per patient in a private ward. However, an analysis of profit with a standard of unit area by ward class represented a higher profit in both the internal medicine and the surgery semi-private ward than other ward classes. 4. The result of the analysis through simulation based on the data of the prime cost per the ward class proved the optimum scale of the distribution of beds by class as follows: sixteen beds of the internal medicine and twenty three beds of the surgery in the private ward; two hundreds and two of the internal medicine and one hundred and ninety eight of the surgery in the semi-private room; three of both the internal medicine and the surgery each other in the three-bed ward; one hundred and ninety eight of the internal medicine and two hundred and fifty two of the surgery in the ward with six beds. The result of this research exhibits that the income and expenditure of the hospital could be improved by changing parts of wards into private ones(containing the maximum profit per a unit of width) in case the scale of the number of beds is reset with the consideration of the profit per the unit width. In the near future it's strongly expected that the research for the more scientific standard of the allotment of labour cost by ward class and for definition of the optimum scale of the number of beds that actualize the maximum profit with the change of the three elements of the prime cost: cost of materials; labor costs; management expenses.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.66-80
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• 1998

With the opening of healthcare market, the health care environment in Korea is anticipating a drastic change. In this Internationally open market environment, it is necessary to introduce a systematic health care plan and DRG system which offer qualitative medical services as well as reduced cost. Purpose of this study is to develop and test the critical pathway for Cesarean section patient in the way to be possible the integrated inpatient management. It was adopted the process of six phases to develop the critical pathway as the theoretical framework implemented by Johns Hopkins Hospital, Maryland, U.S.A. In the first phase, make a selection of diagnosis/procedures to develop. In the second phase, organize a development team consisted of eight expertises working in maternity nursing area. In the third phase, analyze the overall medical service offered to patient through review medical records and decided the service content and the implementation period for the Cesarean section patient. In the forth phase, make out a preliminary critical pathway after verification of expert group on content validity. In the fifth phase, validity operate to ten Cesarean section patients to test implementation in practice by using the preliminary critical pathway, In the sixth phase, defined the final critical pathway. The result of this study was as follows. 1. There were classified 8 categories as monitoring/assesment, treatment, medication, activity, diet, test, consult, education/discharge plan for vertical axis and showed hospital stayed from admission to discharge for horizontal axis of critical pathway through analysis 68 Cesarean section patients medical records. 2. After critical review 68 medical records to make out a preliminary critical pathway, hospital stays for horizontal axis were showed 6 days, mean hospital stays were 7.5 days, 2.1 days were to be taken operation after admission and 4.2 days were stayed until discharge after operation. 3. After making out a questionare in 90 items of a medical service content of eight categories and verifying the content validity of expertises, the 85 items of the preliminary critical pathway were selected by expertises agreement over 88% and modified or deleted 5 items showing agreement below 75%. 4. After verifying a validity to 10 patients for 4 weeks, hospital stays were 5.9 days. There were deleted 1 item and modified or supplemented the 9 items of the 10 items.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.1-8
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• 2021

Objectives: A critical pathway defines the optimal care process, sequencing and timing of intervention by multi-disciplinary health care teams for a particular diagnosis and procedure. It plays an important role as a cost-effective health care delivery system and a tool for quality control of medical and dental services by means of standardizing medical practices. The aim of this study is to investigate the satisfaction of patients and medical staff after implementation of a critical pathway for Korean medical treatment of lumbar disc herniation in integrative medical. Methods and Results: The pre-critical pathway group included 3 patients who underwent the implementation procedure from October 2020. All three patients have successfully been applied critical pathways during inpatient and outpatient treatment. Additionally, medical staff members were satisfied with the usefulness of the critical pathway. Conclusions: The implementation of critical pathway for the Korean medical treatment with lumbar disc herniation in integrative medical hospital can appraise possible applicability in actual clinical field.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.30-35
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• 2013

Purpose: One of the current services, providing information to the patients and their guardians by using promotion materials induces positive responses and contributes to the improvement of the hospital reliability. Therefore, the objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of audio visual materials, one of the means of promotion, as a way to give accurate medical information to resolve patient's curiosity about purpose and procedure of their examination and deplete complains about waiting which attributes negative effect to service quality assessment. Materials and Methods: 60 patients(mean age $53.97{\pm}12.24$, male : female = 26 : 34) who had $^{18}F-FDG PET/CT$ scan from July 2012 to August 2012 in Seoul Asan Medical Center were referred to the study. All of the patients having PET/CT scan were asked to watch an informative video material before the injection of radiopharmaceutical ($^{18}F-FDG$) and to fill in a questionnaire. Results: As a result of analyzing the contents of questionnaire, 52% of 60 patients had PET/CT scan for the first time and 72.4% of the patients read the PET/CT guidebook offered from their outpatient department or inpatient wards before their scan. After we searched the level of previous knowledge of the purpose and method of PET/CT scan, the patients answered 25.1% "know well", 34% "not sure", 40.9% "don't know" respectively. And 84.7% of the patients answered that watching the PET/CT guide video before the injection helps understanding what exam they were having and 15.3% of the patients did not. For the question asking ever the patients have experienced using our homepage or smart phone QR code to see the guide video before they visit out PET center, only 3.3% of them answered "yes". Lastly, the patients answered 60.1% "yes", 31.4% "so so" and 8.5% "no" respectively for the question asking whether watching the video makes the patients to fill the waiting time short. Conclusion: It is found that understanding of objective and method of the PET/CT scan and level of satisfaction was improved after the patients watched the guide video whether they had PET/CT scan before and read the PET/CT guidebook or not. Also, watching the video was effective for the reduction of perceptible waiting time. But while displaying the PET/CT guide video is useful for providing information about the scan and shortening the waiting time as one of the medical service, utilization of service was actually very poor because of the passive promotion and indifference of the patients about their examination. Therefore, from now on, it is necessary to construct the healthcare system which can be offered to more patients through the active promotion.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.132-146
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• 1995

Even though Korean medical law stipulates that number of patients attended by a nurse is 2.5 for hospitalization and 30 for ambulatory care, the number of patients cared by a nurse per day is much greater than the standard prescribed by the medical law. Current productivity of nurses is not desirable unless the quality of care is considered. And nursing manpower staffing based on neither current nurses' productivity nor standard of medical law cannot respond properly to dynamic situation of the medical services. Under this background, the necessity of more efficient management of nursing manpower occupying 1/3 of total hospital workers has been recognized by many nursing administrators. Many nursing researchers have studied to foretell the nursing manpower objectively on the basis of measured nursing workload according to patient classification as well. Most of These researches, however, have been conducted in the tertiary hospitals, so it is imperative to conduct other researches to predict necessary nursing manpower in the secondary and the primary hospitals. The study was performed to measure nursing workload and predict pertinent nursing manpower to a secondary hospital with 400beds. Nursing workload was surveyed using measuring tool for direct and indirect care hours in a surgical unit and a medical unit. Survey was conducted from Sep.10 to Sep.16 and from Oct.5 to Oct.11, 1994 respectively by two skilled nurses, Subjects were patients, patients' family members and nursing personnels. Results are follows : 1. Patient classification distributed as 22% of class I (mildly ill patient), 57% of class II (moderately ill patient), and 21% of class III (acutely ill patient) in the medical nursing unit, while 23% of class I, 29% of class II, 12% of class III, and 36% of classIV (critically ill patient) in the surgical nursing unit. There was no difference of inpatient number between weekday and weekend. Bed circulation rate was 89% in both units and average patients number per day was 37.4 (total 42beds) in the medical nursing unit, 32.9 (total 37beds) in the medical nursing unit. 2. Direct care hours per day measured as 2.8hrs for class I, 3.3hrs for class II, and 3.5hrs for class III in the medical nursing unit, while 3.1hrs for class I, 3hrs for class II, 2.7hrs for class III, and 2.2hrs for classIV in the surgical nursing unit. Meanwhile, hours for nursing assistant activities per patient by patients' family members were 11mins and 200mins respectively. Direct care hour rate by shift was day 36%, evening 25%, and night 39% in the medical nursing unit, while 40%, 29%, and and 31% respectively in the surgical nursing unit. 3. Measurement and observation activity held 44.2% of direct care activities of nurses and medication 36.7%, communication 11.7%, exercise 1.8%, treatment 1.3%, hygiene 1.3%, elimination and irrigation 1.1%, suction 1%, nutrition 0.5%, thermotherapy 0.3%, oxygen therapy 0.1% in order. 4. Indirect care hours per day were 294.2mins in the medical nursing unit, and 273.9mins in the surgical nursing unit. By shift, evening was the highest in both units. Indirect care hours for each patient were 44.5mins in the medical nursing unit and 46mins in the surgical nursing unit. 5. checking activities including doctor's order, medication, and delivering patients to the next shift occupied 39.7% of indirect care activities, and preparation 26%, recording 23.8%, communication and conference 6.7%, managing equipments 2.1%, messenger activity 1.7% in order. 6. On the ground of these results, nursing manpower needed in a secondary hospital was estimated ; 27 nursing personnels for the medical nursing unit of 37beds, and 20 nursing personnels for the surgical nursing unit of 33beds.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.181-189
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• 2010

Purpose: Recently, health policy making is increasingly based on evidence. Therefore, Korean Terminal Cancer Patient Information System (KTCPIS) was developed to meet such need. We aimed to report its developmental process and statistics from 6 months data. Methods: Items for KTCPIS were developed through the consultation with practitioners. E-Velos web-based clinical trial management system was used as a technical platform. Data were collected for patients who were registered to 34 inpatient palliative care services, designated by Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Family Affairs, from $1^{st}$ of January to $30^{th}$ of June in 2009. Descriptive statistics were used for the analysis. Results: From the nationally representative set of 2,940 patients, we obtained the following results. Mean age was $64.8{\pm}12.9$ years, and 56.6% were male. Lung cancer (18.0%) was most common diagnosis. Only 50.3% of patients received the confirmation of terminal diagnosis by two or more physicians, and 69.7% had an insight of terminal diagnosis at the time of admission. About half of patients were admitted to the units on their own without any formal referral. Average and worst pain scores were significantly reduced after 1 week when compared to those at the time of admission. 73.4% faced death in the units, and home-discharge comprised only 13.3%. Mean length of stay per admission was $20.2{\pm}21.2$ days, with median value of 13. Conclusion: Nationally representative data on the characteristics of patients and their caregiver, and current practice of service delivery in palliative care units were obtained through the operation of KTCPIS.