• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.61-69
• /
• 2008

Background: This article reviewed the current status of home-based physical therapy infrastructure in long term care insurance and then solved the problem. Method: We used two forms of data that were acquired from ⅰ) the Ministry of Health & Welfare and the Family and National Health Insurance Corporation, ⅱ) a home-visiting health care program, and ⅲ) evaluation data from the Korea Health Industry Development Institute. The home-based physical therapy program was then analyzed. Results: The role and concept of home-based physical therapy was not clearly established. There were few home-based physical therapy programs in the community. The manpower of home-based physical therapists in the home-visiting health care program was very low. The role between home-visiting nurses (caregivers) and home-based physical therapists was mixed. Research and promotion regarding home-based physical therapy was poor. Conclusion: To establish a system of legal, long-term care insurance, we must increase the manpower of home-based physical therapists and the amount of research pertaining to the demand for home-based physical therapy.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.195-205
• /
• 2019

Background: The food and food service influence the quality of life and the general health condition of older persons living in long-term care (LTC) facilities. Purchasing good food materials is a ground of good food service. In Korea, the residents in LTC facilities should pay for the cost of food materials and ingredients out of their pocket because it is not covered by LTC insurance. This study explored what factors affect the cost of food materials paid by LTC facility residents and which factor affects most. Methods: We used data from the study on out-of-pocket payment on national LTC insurance, which surveyed 1,552 family caregivers of older residents in LTC facilities. We applied conditional multi-level model, of which the first level represents the characteristics of care receivers and caregivers and its second level reflects those of LTC facilities. Results: We found that the facility residents with college-graduated family caregivers paid 11,545 Korean won more than those with less than elementary-graduated ones. However, the income level of family caregivers did not significantly affect the amount of the food material cost of the residents. The residents in privately owned, large, metropolitan-located facilities were likely to pay more than those in other types of facilities. The amount of the food material cost of the residents was mainly decided by the facility level factors rather than the characteristics of care recipients and their family caregivers (intra-class correlation=82%). Conclusion: These findings suggest that it might be effective to design a policy targeting facilities rather than residents in order to manage the cost of food materials of residents in LTC facilities. Setting a standard price for food materials in LTC facilities, like Japan, could be suggested as a feasible policy option. It needs to inform the choice of LTC users by providing comparable food material cost information. The staffing requirement of nutritionist also needs to be reviewed.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.69 no.1
• /
• pp.33-57
• /
• 2017

This study examines the effect of working conditions for care workers on the care quality in long-term care facilities, particularly the coexisting perspective on publicness and the marketization of Long-term care services in South Korea brings about. Prior studies have not identified a causal relationship between working conditions and the care quality, only explained cause of a low-wage labor market and low productivity of social services. Theoretical relevance of working conditions and service quality on Long-term care in Korea is to view from a integrated care model by Daly and Lewis(2002). A nonproportional stratified sampling procedure was used to consider Long-term care facility's ownership. A merged dataset combining surveys from 248 Long-Term Care facilities and online resources from NHIC administrative was used and analyzed by multiple regression. The analysis results is showed as follows. Overall, organizations with better working conditions, having higher wage, having greater a fringe benefit, being skills development and training are likely to have good care quality in each area. This research shows that the working conditions, rewards and support to care workers of organizational culture in the normative dimension beyond the minimum standard on labor market policy and evaluation system by government regulations have a positive impact on Long-term care quality.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.30-71
• /
• 1999

There has been a dramatic increase in public awareness regarding dementia during recent years. However, dementia remains a family affair and patients do not receive adequate care in Korea. This study aims to assist patients and their caregivers by establishing Home and Community based Long-Term Care in a city. The data collected for analysis include five main categories: dementia prevalence, limitations of daily activities of patients, burden of caregivers, the services that patient's family want to utilize, the resources that handle dementia in the community. Major findings can be summarized as follows: 1)The prevalence rate of dementia for elderly people is 13.1 per 100 persons. Alzheimer's disease amount to 38.9% of dementia patients and vascular dementia account for 36.7% of them 2)Eight out of ten patients have mild dementia. Almost all patients have normal ADL. IADL, however, shows different picture. In every items of IADL, about 60% of patients reveals some limitations. 3)The proportion of patients who had medical diagnosis is as low as 20%. Families of patients think dementia as normal aging process and medical doctors in the community do not give special concern to dementia patients. 4)Caregivers does not have proper social support. They suffer from long care time, experience large obstacles in respect of health, daily living, and social activity. 5)Health center and Community welfare center have launched some programs-consultation, home-visiting nursing, day care center, voluntary force mobilization and so on-for dementia patients. But they do not perform expected roles and functions because of lack of skilled personnels and inadequate coordination of relevant organizations for dementia care. 6)Families of dementia patients prefer home helper and home-visiting nurse to hospitalization. For the future, however, demand for institution-based long-term services will increase. We develope community dementia care model based on above findings as follows: 1)Health center execute community cardiovascular control program for the prevention of vascular dementia. 2)Refer to epidemiologic characteristics of patients and preference of family, the most urgent task for dementia care in this city is to expand and organize Home and Community based Long-Term Care. 3)For the continuous and comprehensive care, care plan for a patient must be prepared. Case management team should be builded to prepare this plan and coordinate relevant resources. 4)Special long-term care unit for dementia will be needed in a near future. This unit should have multiple functions, such as day-care center, short stay facility, training center for relevant personnels, besides long-term nursing home considering effective care of dementia and efficient operation of the facility. 5)Voluntary workers deserve their due efforts. Incentive mechanisms must be developed to activate voluntary activities.

• 한국노년학
• /
• v.39 no.4
• /
• pp.903-920
• /
• 2019

This study was aimed to prepare the evidences for establishing policies on nursing manpower by identifying the relationship among delegation level of nursing activities, nursing professionalism and turnover intention in long-term care hospital nurses. The study was a descriptive survey research that used a structured questionnaire. 146 nurses agreed to take part in the research. They worked in six long-term care hospitals located in A and B province. Data were collected from July to August 2016 and analyzed through SPSS 20.0 program, using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA and pearson's correlation coefficients. As a results, first, as for the delegation of nursing activities by long-term care hospital nurses, the levels of delegation of direct nursing activities were 34.63±14.12, and the level of delegation of indirect nursing activities were 1.71±1.75. Second, the mean score of nursing professionalism and the turnover intention of long-term care hospital nurses were 3.62±0.77 and 2.71±0.97, respectively. Third, the delegation of direct nursing activities by long-term care hospital nurses significantly differed depending on the number of nurses in the ward and the number of caregivers in the ward. The delegation of indirect nursing activities significantly differed depending on the number of nurses in the ward, the presence of conflicts and stress related to delegation. Forth, there was no significant correlation of the delegation of nursing activities by long-term care hospital nurses with nursing professionalism and with turnover intention. Most of nursing activities, were delegated to nurse aids, since there were no clear guidelines or legal procedures on nursing activities in long-term care hospital nurses. Therefore it is required to find how to clearly establish positive nursing professionalism and to develop a proper nursing manpower arrangement and the guidelines for the delegation of nursing activities in a long-term care hospital in terms of policy.

• 한국노년학
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.177-194
• /
• 2009

Korea government has launched long-term care insurance from 2008. However, one of the most important issues, whether or not providing cash benefit, is still unresolved. In this paper, in order to provide policy guidelines for the long-term care insurance, I attempt to estimate the Willingness-To-Accept (WTA) of the cash subsidy for informal care by using Double Bounded Dichotomous Choice method, a branch of Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). In doing so, I also estimated the determinants of the preference for cash benefit. Data were obtained from face-to-face survey interviews with 300 informal care-givers at three major general hospitals in Seoul, Korea. The questionnaire was constructed with two scenarios (mild/severe symptom). The results from logistic regression analyses and the estimation of WTA indicate that informal care-givers are willing to accept the cash benefit as low as 628 thousands won for mild fragile elderly and 1,072 thousands won for severe fragile elderly. The strength of this paper is that I estimated the WTA of the cash benefit by reflecting the changes in preferences of informal care-givers. The analytic results from the this paper suggest that the cash benefit in long-term care insurance is indispensible in achieving the goal of the long-term care system.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.173-179
• /
• 2021

Background: In Korea, the length of stay and medical expenses incurred by medical aid patients are increasing at a rate faster than the national health insurance. Therefore, there is a need to create a management strategy for each type of hospitalization to manage the length of stay of medical aid patients. Methods: The study used data from the 2019 National Health Insurance Claims. We analyzed the factors that affect the length of stay for 186,576 medical aid patients who were hospitalized for more than 31 days, with a focus on the type of hospitalization in long-term care hospitals. Results: The study found a significant correlation between gender, age, medical aid type, chronic disease ratio, long-term care hospital patient classification, and hospitalization type variables as factors that affect the length of hospital stay. The analysis of the differences in the length of stay for each type of hospitalization showed that the average length of stay is 291.4 days for type 1, 192.9 days for type 2, and 157.0 days for type 3, and that the difference is significant (p<0.0001). When type 3 was 0, type 1 significantly increased by 99.4 days, and type 2 by 36.6 days (p<0.0001). Conclusion: A model that can comprehensively view factors, such as provider factors and institutional factors, needs to be designed. In addition, to reduce long stays for medical aid patients, a mechanism to establish an early discharge plan should be prepared and concerns about underutilization should be simultaneously addressed.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
• /
• v.41 no.6
• /
• pp.143-156
• /
• 2003

The present study was initially designed to figure out the general condition of care giving system for the elderly women who need long term care and the level of their depression according to the conditions of care. And This research is intented to present appropriate policy that could help the establishment of supporting system for the fragile elderly women.1 used the data from <2001 National Study on the Needs for the Long-Term Care Elderly> by Korea Health and Population Institute. The results are as follows: First, Two third of all the respondents had serious problems (2-9 activities limits) in Instrumental Daily Living Ability(DAL). Most respondents reported “low” in satisfaction level related to receiving care, meaning the elderly had negative perception for the care from the family. The elderly expected their children to be as the primary care giver and mostly wanted to live with them in the future. Second, The majority of the long term care elderly women haven't used community service facilities very often and said they are not likely going to use the facilities in the future. Third, The respondents reported high in depression level as to lower satisfaction with their children's support, poorer health condition, more reluctant to use service facilities due to the cost, and fewer friends and neighbors resources around them. Therefore I could say that negative factors for the elderly women's psychological health were having unsatisfactory relationship with intimate people, developing physical illness, being in economic difficulties. That is, receiving less help from close family members, shrinking social network, and experiencing economic hardship would have negative effects on elderly women's psychological health. In the basis of these results, I suggest that in the mean time we shouldn't overlook the importance of the private support when we develop the public elderly support system.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.81-96
• /
• 2009

The expansion of long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) is expected to contribute to meeting the long-term care needs of the elderly with chronic diseases in a rapidly aging society. It is also expected to increase efficiency of health resource use and decrease elderly health expenditures by transferring patients from acute care hospitals (ACHs) to LTCHs. This study aimed to empirically examine how the expansion of LTCHs had influences on the length of hospitalization of the elderly in ACHs. Panel regression analysis was employed as an analytic tool using data of the National Health Insurance and the National Statistical Office from 2002 to 2006. The expansion of LTCHs was measured as location quotient (LQ) of LTCHs, denoting the share of LTCHs in a large city or province relative to the share of LTCHs at the national level. In addition, per capita GRDP (gross regional domestic product) and the proportion of population over 65 were included as control variables. The main findings are as follows. First, it was observed that LQ of LTCHs showed a statistically significant negative association with the length of hospitalization of the elderly in ACHs. Second, the negative correlation was evident among general hospitals with over 100 beds while it was not among hospitals with less than 100 beds. Third, LQ of LTCHs had more influences among the elderly over 85. In conclusion, the expansion of LTCHs seems to contribute to decrease in the inpatient cost of the elderly in ACHs and to increase efficiency in the utilization of health resources.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.20 no.10
• /
• pp.308-325
• /
• 2020

This study examines factual facilites safety of long-term care facilities for eldery, for improvement of Korean policy. So, This study reviewed policies of facilites safety of long-term care facilities on main OECD countries. We analyzed factual survey of facilites safety of long-term care facilities in Seoul metropolitan area. The results of the study were as follows: First, There were differences of law and rule of facilites safety of long-term care facilities in comparison with those of social welfare facilities, child day-care center, hospital. Second, it was the result of location condition analysis. Long-term care facilities in the Seoul metropolitan area were located on more than six floors of buildings. The location conditions of private facilities are weak compared to those of corporations and local governments. Third, there were the result of internal structure of facilities. Overall, the placement status was insufficient. For instance, there are smokeproof masks/fireproof blankets, smoke windows(fire safety windows), smoke smothering. In addition, there were places where legal essential installation structures were insufficient. Private facilities were generally insufficient in facility structures compared to those of local governments and welfare corporations. Fourth, there were the result of safety management. It was confirmed that private facilities were insufficient compared to local government facilities. For instance, there are safety management analysis, response manuals, fire preparedness training, etc. Finally, implications and future directions policies of facilites safety of long-term care facilities were discussed based on the finding of the study.