• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.233-240
• /
• 2012

This study aimed to clarify any factors that may have effect on the appropriateness of hospital admission and hospitalization with the intention of facilitating more efficient occupancy of hospital beds and better medical services in the aspect of their quality, minimizing unnecessary occupancy of beds, and ultimately helping patients requiring acute treatments to use immediately hospitals. This paper selected 154 Stroke patients who left neurology department of one general hospital from March, 1, 2006 to September, 31, 2010 as targets to meet the rate according to medical care security and to see the trend of recent 4 years. As study method, this paper analized medical treatment record with AEP to evaluate the appropriateness of hospital admission and stay and the collected data was computerized through SPSS 12.0. Based upon the results above, the conclusion was drawn that the higher appropriateness of hospital admission and the shorter length of hospital stay will lead to the higher appropriateness of hospitalization. In other words, it is required to provide hospitalized patients with all kinds of behaviors including medical treatments and nursing care service, management of pharmaceuticals, tests, rehabilitation and symptoms, as well as instructions and information for patients. Meanwhile, as it was found that the length of hospital stay may affect the appropriateness of hospitalization, the longer length of hospital stay may result in reduced bed turnover rate. In this light, it is necessary to organize a task force team responsible for evaluation and control of the appropriateness of hospitalization and hospital stay length to improve the quality of medical service in a medical center, so that patients can leave the center timely. Ultimately, governmental supports such as expansion of long-term care facilities will reduce the necessary length of hospital stay so that patients with stroke can receive rehabilitative treatments and long-term care service shortly after completion of acute treatments.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.768-781
• /
• 1996

The problem of care of patients and families with Alzheimer's disease has become a conscious raising social policy issue in Korea. The government of the Republic of Korea has become cognizant of the situation and has begun searching for ways to remedy it. Thus, there is a need for a comprehensive under-standing of the situation in which patients and their families are struggling and the enormous problems of care. With a realization of the urgent need, this study was done to investigate the situation and the care needs of families with patients with Alzheimer's Disease, and to compare the effectiveness of services utilized by the families in terms of cost and effects on patient's conditions and on family live. The Subjects for the study were 29 families with hospitalized patients, 25 families utilizing hospital outpatient clinics, 14 families utilizing day care facilities, and 16 families with homebound patients. A total of 84 families were interviewed by four trained interviewers using structured and semistructured questionnaires. The data produced from these interviews included : the patient's stage of Alzheimer's disease, patient's bizarre behavior, hours spent on patient care per day, family burden and quality of life, direct and indirect costs encountered in the care of patients, and the families' evaluation of the effectiveness of the services received. The data were analyzed to determine the relationships between family charactersistics, patient's conditions and services utilization. The effectiveness of each of the service entities was assessed through families evaluation and hoped for service and comparisons were made between services in terms of the cost-effectiveness ratios. After initial comparison of cost-effectiveness ratios, further analysis was done to compare between groups for incremental effectiveness for each incremental unit of cost to determine the most cost-effective service entities. The findings of the study are as fellows : 1. The choice of living arrangement and the types of services are a function of the stage of Alzheimer's condition and the economic status of the family. 2. Comparision of the cost of care showed that most expenses were encountered in by families with hospitalization, families using outpatient services, and families using day care services in that order. The least expense was involved in the care of homebound patients. The economic burden felt by families was in the same order as expenses. 3. The average number of hours spent on daily patient care was 9.9 hours for the outpatient clinic users, 9.7 hours for homebound patients, and 5.4 hours for day care users. 4. There were significant differences in the patient's conditions (CDRL), bizarre behaviors and the families's burden by living arrangement and /or types of service. However, no significant difference was found between groups in the family's quality of life. 5. The families rated the services of day care center as most effective for the care of the patients and families, except for a few families who had experienced some improvement in the patient's conditions. The outpatient clinic users expressed psychological comforts mainly in that the patient was being taken care of. For those hospitalized patients, families expressed the comfort of being relieved of the burden of care and that the patient is being professionally cared for. Form the analysis of the costs, hours of patient care, patient's bizarre behaviors, family's quality of life and burdens, and family's evaluation of services, it is concluded that up to the mid stage of Alzheimer's condition, the utilization of day care center services is found to be the most cost-effective, and toward the end stage of the Alzheimer's disease, it is hoped that there will be a establishment of long term or short term in-patient facilities for the protection of patients and preservation of the integrity of families for less cost. Thus. it was concluded that the family centered system of care is the most effective for Korea with systematic support systems developed for the care of patients and their families according to the needs of families as the patient's condition deteriorates.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.400-415
• /
• 2013

The purpose of the study was to examine the current status of nutritional management at elderly nursing homes. A survey was performed of 83 nursing homes from January 5, 2011 to January 21, 2011 via mail. A total of 34 nursing homes responded to the survey and 149 elderly subjects were analyzed according to the presence of a dietitian. Among the 34 nursing homes, 70.6% had a dietitian on duty. All of the facilities with a dietitian had the dietitian making the meal plan, whereas 70% of the facilities without dietitian served meals planned by a non-professional person. Overall, however, a low proportion of nursing homes implemented dietetic treatments for residents with diseases. For the nutritional assessment of these residents, a mini nutritional assessment (MNA) was performed. MNA scores were significantly associated with body mass index (BMI), mid-arm circumference (MAC), calf circumference (CC), ingestion problems, and weight loss during the last 3 months (P<0.001). Among the elderly studied, 5.4% were malnourished, and 36.9% were at risk for malnutrition by MNA score. The results of this survey show that the current management of nutrition at nursing homes is insufficient because the elderly who needed dietetic treatment did not receive proper care. Dietetic management is the most important service in all nursing homes. Therefore, to improve the nutritional status of elderly residents in nursing homes, systematic nutrition management by nutrition experts should be implemented.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.49-68
• /
• 2001

The purpose of this study was 1) to review communal housing in the UK, 2) to consider the policy implications for elderly communal housing in Korea. The research methods used were 1) literature review about communal housing and related policy in the UK 2) field survey in the UK 3) interpretative suggestion for the proper policy implication to develope communal housing for the elderly in Korea. Sheltered housing in the UK had been developed as communal housing for the elderly with special needs since the 1970s. The type of sheltered housing were category 1 and category 2. Very sheltered housing with more facilities and meal services was added in 1980s. Sheltered housing was evaluated as the most humanistic solution for older people in the UK in 1980s. Because of the policy of moving institutional care to community care, sheltered housing became less in demand because of more options for older people including being able to stay in their own home. So new completion of sheltered housing by registered social landlords reduced saliently. Sheltered housing already totalled over half million units in which 5% of all elderly over 65 still lived and a small quantity of private sector for sale schemes emerged in the 1990s. The reason why the residents moved to sheltered housing was for sociable, secure, and manageable living arrangements. In general the residents were satisfied with these characteristics but dissatisfied with the service charge and quality of meals, especially in category 2.5 schemes. The degree of utilisation of communal spaces and facilities depended on the wardens ability and enthusiasm. Evaluation of sheltered housing indicated several problems such as wardens duty as a \"good neighbour\" ; difficult-to-let problems with poor location or individual units of bedsittiing type with shared bathroom ; and the under use of communal spaces and facilities. Some ideas to solve these problems were suggested by researchers through expanding wardens duty as a professional, opening the scheme to the public, improving interior standards, and accepting non-elderly applicants who need support. Some researchers insisted continuing development of sheltered housing, but higher standards must be considered for the minority who want to live in communal living arrangement. Recently, enhanced sheltered housing with greater involvement of relatives and with tied up policy in registration and funding suggested as an alternative for residential care. In conclusion, the rights of choice for older people should be policy support for special needs housing. Elderly communal housing, especially a model similar to sheltered housing category 2 with at least 1 meal a day might be recommended for a Korean Model. For special needs housing development either for rent or for sale, participation of the public sector and long term and low interest financial support for the private sector must be developed in Korea. Providing a system for scheme managers to train and retrain must be encouraged. The professional ability of the scheme manager to plan and to deliver services might be the most important factor for the success of elderly communal housing projects in Korea. In addition the expansion of a public health care service, the development of leisure programs in Senior Citizens Centre, home helper both for the elderly in communal housing and the elderly in mainstream housing of the community as well. Providing of elderly communal housing through the modified general Construction Act rather than the present Elderly Welfare Act might be more helpful to encourage the access of general people in Korea. in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.205-221
• /
• 2001

It will become more and more popular to use the long-term care facilities and home health care services with the chronic disease increasing. It depends on how much the consumers would pay and purchase the services. They might get more benefits from that kind of services than from ordinary hospitalization. So far, the study of determining the medical service price has focused most often on the efforts from the providers' view. But it must be reasonable to include the consumers' value for the service. This study was performed to assess WTP(Willingness to Pay) for home health care service in order to apply to the determination of nursing price in a reasonable manner. In this study, respondents were asked if they would pay for the service's intangible benefits under the four different types(open-ended minimum WTP, open-ended maximum WTP, bidding WTP, referendum WTP). The contingent valuation method is a potentially useful tool in understanding how people value the benefits of the service. As a result, average open-ended minimum WTP was W16,015 per day among 65 respondents. Average open-ended maximum WTP was W29,154 per day among 65 respondents. Average bidding WTP was W26,300 per day among 65 respondents. Average referendum WTP was W22,200 per day among 70 respondents. The results of regression analyses were also consistent with theoretical prediction, e.g., increasing WTP with consumers' value for the service, state of patients, and household income. This study demonstrated that it was more reasonable to consider the consumers' value in determining the services' price. In addition, a further study is needed to test the validity of this CV method and to determine a proper nursing price based on the consumers' view.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.255-264
• /
• 2014

Objective: The aims of this study are to investigate the total volume of prescribed medicines against Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the trends of usage by analyzing the claims-data from the Korea National Health Insurance Service. Method: The demographic and claims-data were included the major AD treating medicines such as donepezil, galantamine, rivastigmine and memantine, and analyzed during the period of 2010~2012. The assessing criteria were gender, age, habitation, types of medical institution, code of ingredients, outcomes of treatment, volume and amount of claims, and the numbers of patients with dementias. After trimming the data, it were analyzed by the market size, demographic traits, characteristics of medical service, characteristics of each anti-AD medicine, etc. Results: Among the chosen 4 medicines, donepezil had the top prescription volumes. Most prevalent prescribing preparations of donepezil were conventional types. However, among the non-conventional types, oro-dispersible formulation is the fast increasing one in both volume and growth rate. This specialized preparations to improve both toleration and adherence, tend to being prescribed generally at the tertiary medical institutions. While the younger patients with mild-to-moderate AD mostly treated by expensive medicines in resident at the tertiary hospitals, the rest older patients with severe AD have been treated non-expensive one at long-term care facilities. Conclusion: AD is a chronic illness therefore, long-term use of therapeutic medications are highly important. If an anti-AD treatment was applied steadily in the earlier stages, it would be achieved not only improving the quality of life of patient but also reducing the expenses in the medical and nursing cares. As the socioeconomical impacts of AD is expanding, healthcare professionals need to aware the importance of pharmacotherapy and to improve sociopolitical fundamentals.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.191-202
• /
• 1985

As the result of a significant improvement in the economic situation and development of scientific techniques in Korea during the last 20 years, the life expectancy of the Korean people has lengthened considerably and as a result the number of old aged people has markedly increased. Such an increase of the number of aged people brought about many problems. Authors would like to take a medical look at the "Problem of old aged people" presently facing us in Korea. Currently the number of people over 65 has increased rapidly and is 1,620,000, 4% of total population. But it is still much lower than 8.9% in Japan, 10.7% in U.S.A., and 14.9% in the United Kingdom. Over 25% of these aged people were found to have at least more than one disease which requires medical care. Diseases occur in the circulatory system, 30.9%, respiratory system, 17.1%, digestive system 8.6%, mental disorders, 8.4%, malignant neoplasms, 7.0%. About 51% of the aged over 65 are under medical security benefit, mostly with partial coverage plan. Their clinic visit rate was very low (2.0% in 1981), which might be due to financial reasons. Since diseases affecting the aged progress chronically, early detection and long term care are utter most important. However there is almost no special facility, long term care center or geriatric specialist. For proper management of medical problems in the growing population of the Korean eldery expansion of medical security coverage, greater number of specialized facilities, education of geriatric special manpower and efficient operating system should be established.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.50-62
• /
• 2005

The elderly people was over 8.3% in 2003. This seament is projected to grow to 14.4% by 2019(Aged society) and over 20% by 2026(Super aged society). As the elderly population is increasing and young population is declined social issues around elderly care are emerged in Korea. As a result of that, they are in the condition of poor system of the welfare of the old and it is the worst one in Korea. And because of the worst financial independence and difficulty in Korea, welfare facilities and medical instruments are so insufficient and deteriorated, so the quality of service is getting low. Furthermore the mortality of cancer is rapidely increased in recent years. So it is expected that the number of families who are caring for terminal cancer patient will be increased. We can not solve those problems only with government's policy such as to secure ample budget and to enlarge the aged welfare institutions. Definitely, to acheve the suggetions persistence concern about old people is most important, and family, community and national government should be linked to accomplish to goal. Accordingly, for this study attempts to provide conceptual framework of the respite care, spiritual care and home hospice, nursing home for the elderly. And this study is to discuss the necessity and effect about the construction of housing welfare infrastructure and to make a cooperation and linkage system among the aged welfare institutions, government and the aged welfare programs. As is well known, the issue of the increasing aged people is neither a matter of individuals nor of the family, but rather a complex matter of whol society. Therefore it can be resolved by the active participation of government. Conclusively this study tries to provide an direction of the improvement with regard to the welfare policy for the elderly. The study is as follwos: Chapters 1: The theological base, conception, essentiality, respite care, spiritual care and home hospice, nursing home for the elderly. Chapters 2: Definitions of respite care, spiritual care, hospice, patient of termina cancer and quality of life. And relations between respite care and nursing home. Chapters 3: The necessity of long-term care insurance and the perspectives of spiritual care. Chapters 4: Conclusions and summarizing(The directions of improvement of welfare policy for the elderly). To sum up, the problems of the aged people has not effects only to the aged people. This means that the problems of aged is the problems of the young generation today. Because young generation will be the old generation in the near future.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.156-164
• /
• 2015

Nursing Homes do not have a defined standard in the space area nor does it have a detailed standard facility requirement by law. This can possibly lead to the deterioration of the facility and the system. This directly affects the medical treatment space area within the nursing home. The medical treatment area provides medical treatment to seniors and this is where the seniors get most of their daily services. Therefore, this is research is about the study of the space area of the medical center and the ratio trend of the space area for the medical treatment facility located in senior nursing homes. Ten facilities have been selected in this study to analyze the correlation factors between space area and its trends. The analysis performed includes the conditions relating to the area and what affects the center. We have followed up with a proposal for improvement of the facility and area configuration for the medical treatment facility. Based on the analysis, the following conclusion can be made: First, the senior welfare centers are mostly used as a residence purpose followed a temporary stay of residence facility for the seniors. Second, research indicates that the bigger the facility, nursing and public functions took a larger portion of the space area compared to other services within the senior welfare centers. Third, the study shows the management space area took up about 1%~6% of the entire medical center within the nursing home which is a narrow space area because of the integrated management. Fourth, analysis based on the trend in the time-series indicate after the adoption of the system, there is a continued decline in the space area of nursing, management and public areas. Lastly, since before and after 2008, the space area composition of the nursing facility shows a continuous decline in our study. We can safely conclude that the revised senior welfare act's construction plan has an effect in the facility and is effectively working to meet its requirement. Therefore, the revision of the law is required to reflect the social needs of the residents.

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
• /
• 2010.05a
• /
• pp.594-600
• /
• 2010

As senile diseases increase with the aged increasing rapidly in an aging society, implementation of the aged long-term care insurance have an effect on the aged care and treatment. Though a decrease in prevalence rate can reduce social costs, the significance of that is overlooked. Especially, a program for a slight Alzheimer's disease and senile demetia in the spot of care facilities and welfare organs is nothing or a few programs which use only fragmentary techniques. So, In this paper, we propose a five-senses stimulation program for preventing senile dementia disease. It includes twenty processes stimulating five senses through proper harmony of senile dementia disease prevention techniques - hand exercises(sense of touch), remembrance therapy(sense of sight), cure recreation(sense of taste), music therapy(sense of hearing), gardening remedy(sense of smell).