• Dementia and Neurocognitive Disorders
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.49-60
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• 2023

Background and Purpose: The National Responsibility Policy for Dementia Care was implemented in September 2017 in Korea. This study aimed to compare dementia incidence in Seoul and Gangwon-do before and after the implementation of this policy. Methods: We extracted insurance claim data from the Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service for people diagnosed with diabetes, hypertension, or dyslipidemia for the first time in Seoul and Gangwon-do, Korea. We defined two enrollment groups based on the policy implementation date: 1) January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2016 (Index 1, pre-implementation), and 2) January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2018 (Index 2, post-implementation). Each group was followed up for 1 year from the time of enrollment. Then, we calculated hazard ratios to compare the incidence of dementia between the two groups, and between Seoul and Gangwon-do. Results: In Seoul, the incidence of dementia was significantly lower in Index 2 than in Index 1 (hazard ratio [HR], 0.926; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.875-0.979). However, the incidence rate did not differ between the 2 groups (HR, 1.113; 95% CI, 0.966-1.281) in Gangwon-do. In Index 1, the incidence of dementia did not differ between Seoul and Gangwon-do (HR, 1.043; 95% CI, 0.941-1.156), but in Index 2, was significantly higher in Gangwon-do than in Seoul (HR, 1.240; 95% CI, 1.109-1.386). Conclusions: After implementing the National Responsibility Policy for Dementia Care, the dementia incidence rate decreased significantly in Seoul, consistent with other studies, but not in Gangwon-do.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.242-252
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• 2022

Objectives: Firefighters and police officers are exposed to various occupational hazards. No studies in Korea have investigated the occurrence of cancer by type of cancer for the two occupations. This study aims to investigate the risk of occurrences associated with types of cancers in firefighters and police officers. Methods: Utilizing National Health Insurance(NHI) Claims data from 2006-2015, the study included 8,871,468 general workers, 25,001 firefighters, and 102,274 police officers. Using general workers as a control group, we calculated the standardized incidence ratios(SIR) by types of cancer for firefighters and police officers. After calculating the SIR for all subjects, the SIR was calculated by stratifying according to gender. Results: SIR of colon cancer 1.38(95% CI, 1.11-1.69), cancer of the liver and intrahepatic bile ducts 1.27(95% CI, 1.04-1.54), and 1.88(95% CI, 1.28-2.65) bladder cancer were higher firefighters than general workers. SIR of Lip, oral cavity, and pharynx 1.26(95% CI, 1.07-1.47), Stomach 1.14(95% CI, 1.06-1.23), colon 1.33(95% CI, 1.21-1.46), liver and intrahepatic bile ducts 1.21(95% CI, 1.10-1.32), pancreas 1.24(95% CI, 1.02-1.49), other skin 1.60(95% CI, 1.26-2.00), bladder 1.27(95% CI, 1.04-1.54), other urinary tract 1.46(95% CI, 1.27-1.68), other parts of central nervous system 1.68(95% CI, 1.10-2.46) were higher police officers than general workers. Conclusions: Both firefighters and police officers are exposed to various cancer occurrence risks, necessitating the development of occupational medical protection measures to reduce risk exposure factors.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.149-181
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• 2003

It has been asserted that per diem payment system should be introduced, in place of the current fee-for-service system, for payment of the inpatient services of the geriatric hospitals, Based on the assentation, this study aims at calculating costs and profits per inpatient-day of the geriatric hospitals, and thereby at contributing to the managerial improvement from the both sides of the Government and the hospitals. Relevant data of the three months, May to August, 2002 were collected from the five geriatric hospitals, and per inpatient-day costs and profits were calculated for the three disease groups. Major results and conclusions are as follow : Firstly, total costs per insured inpatient-day of the geriatric hospitals are 65, 389 won for dementia (including optimal profit of 3,858 won), 69,730 won for stroke (including optimal profit of 4,117 won), and 70,085 won for other diseases (including optimal profit of 4,134 won). Secondly, the amount of the non-insured costs per inpatient-day occupies 34.5% of the total costs for dementia, 30.3% for stroke, and 30.1% for other diseases. Thirdly, the total amount of the per inpatient-day costs calculated including the optimal profits is, on the average, higher by 12% than the present price level calculated for the current fee-far-service system. This implies that the present price level should rise by 12% when the current fee-far-service payment system be maintained, and Finally, introduction of a sliding-scale payment system should be considered for the inpatient medical management fees for the length of stay over six months or more that are being cut in the claim examination process by the insurance corporation.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.46-64
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• 2005

This study was conducted to verify the current criteria and classification system used to determine specialized general hospitals status. In this study, we proposed a new classification system which Is simpler and more convenient than the current one. In the new classification system clinical procedure was chosen as the unit of analysis in order to reflect all the resource consumption and the complexities and degree of medical technologies in determining specialized general hospitals. We developed a statistical model and applied this model to 117 general hospitals which claim their national insurance through electronic data interchange(EDI). Analysis based on 984 clinical procedures and medical facilities' characteristic variable discriminated specialized general hospital in present without misclassification. It means that we can determine specialized general hospital's permission In new way without using the current complicated criteria. This study discriminated specialized general hospital by the new proposed model based on clinical procedures provided by each hospital. For clustering the same types of medical facilities using 984 clinical procedures, we executed multidimensional scale analysis and divided 117 hospitals into 4 groups by two axises : a variety of procedure and the Proportion of high technology Procedure. Therefore, we divided 117 hospitals into 4 groups and one of them was considered as specialized general hospital. In discriminating analysis, we abstracted proportion of 16 clinical procedures which effect on discriminating the specialized general hospital in statistical system also we identify discriminating function which include these variables. As a result, we identify 2 discriminating functions, one is for current discriminating system and the other two is for new discriminating system of specialized general hospital.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.24 no.4 s.36
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• pp.531-548
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• 1991

To assess the adequacy of medical manpower and medical fee for the newborn nursery care, the author visited 20 out of 24 hospitals with the pediatric training program in Youngnam area between July 29 and August 14, 1991. Total number of newborn, both normal and sick, admission and discharge in 1-30 June 1991 was obtained from the logbook of nursery. Head nurse and staff pediatrician of the nursery were interviewed to get the current staffing for the nursery and their subjective opinion on the adequacy of nursery manpower and the difficulties in recruiting manpower. Average medical fee charged for the maternity and normal newborn nursery care was obtained from the division of self-audit of medical insurance claim of each hospital. Average minimum requirement of nursing care time for one normal newborn per day was 179.5 (${\pm}58.6$) minutes; 202.3(${\pm}50.7$) minutes for the university hospitals and 164.2(${\pm}60.5$) minutes for the general hospitals. The ratio of minimum requirement of nursing care time and available nursing time was 1.42 on the average. Taking the additional requirement of nursing care for the sick newborns into consideration, the ratio was 2.06. The numbers of R. N. and A. N. in the nurserys of study hospitals were 31%, and 17%, respectively, of the nursing manpower for the nursery recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. These findings indicate that the nursing manpower in newborn nursery is in severe shortage. Ninety percent of the head nurses and 85% of the staff pediatrician stated that the newborn nursery is short of R.N. and 75% of them said that the nurse's aide is also short. Major reason for not recruiting R.N. was the financial constraint of hospital. For the recruitment of nurse's aide, short supply was the second most important reason next to the financial constraint. However, limit of quarter in T.O. was the mar reason for the national university hospitals. Average total medical fee for the maternity and newborn nursery cares of a normal vaginal delivery who stayed two nights and three days at hospital was 219,430won. Out of the total medical fee, 20,323won(9.3%) was for the newborn nursery care. In case of C-section delivery who stayed six nights and seven days, total medical fee was 732,578won and out of the total fee 76,937won (12.0%) was for the newborn care. Cost for a newborn care per day by cost accounting was 16,141won for the tertiary care hospitals and 14,576won for the all other hopitals. The ratio of cost and the fee schedule of the medical insurance for a newborn care per day was 5.0 for the tertiary care hospitals and 4.9 for the all other hospitals. Considering the current wage level of the medical personnel, capital investment for the hospital facilities and equipments, and the cost for hospital maintenance, it is hard to expect adequate quality care in the newborn nursery under the current medical insurance fee schedule.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.525-534
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• 2018

This study evaluated the various qualifications that can be linked to employment similar to the medical laboratory technology major. The qualifications for employment outside the medical laboratory technology major are industrial health instructor, doping control officer, audiologist, sign language interpreter, health education specialist, claim adjuster, Korea life underwriter, administrative manager, hospital administrator, insurance review manager, and hospital coordinator. The qualifications for employment similar to the medical laboratory technology major include the clinical research coordinator, clinical research associate, anatomist, analytical chemistry analysts, hazardous materials industry engineers, biotechnologist, biosafety managers, biotechnology technicians, medical device quality officers, animal care nurse, industrial engineer hazardous material, bioprocess engineer, biosafety officer, certified technology consultant, director of medical device quality control, laboratory animal technician, animal nursing technician, and cruise medical manager. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a social analysis survey of the various qualifications currently held by medical technologists. In addition, it will be necessary to investigate the current status of medical technologists working in other fields. In the future, medical technologists should expand the scope of their work through efforts to strengthen their individual work capacity, share cases, and strengthen their expertise.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.317-325
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• 2005

The recent medical treatment guidelines and the development of information technology make hospitals reduce the expense in surrounding environment and it requires improving the quality of medical treatment of the hospital. That is, with the new guidelines and technology, hospital business escapes simple fee calculation and insurance claim center. Moreover, MIS(Medical Information System), PACS(Picture Archiving and Communications System), OCS(Order Communicating System), EMR(Electronic Medical Record), DSS(Decision Support System) are also developing. Medical Information System is evolved toward integration of medical IT and situation si changing with increasing high speed in the ICT convergence. These changes and development of ubiquitous environment require fundamental change of medical information system. Mobile medical information system refers to construct wireless system of hospital which has constructed in existing environment. Through RFID development in existing system, anyone can log on easily to Internet whenever and wherever. RFID is one of the technologies for Automatic Identification and Data Capture(AIDC). It is the core technology to implement Automatic processing system. This paper provides a comprehensive basic review of RFID model in Korea and suggests the evolution direction for further advanced RFID application services. In addition, designed and implemented DB server's agent program and Client program of Mobile application that recognized RFID tag and patient data in the ubiquitous environments. This system implemented medical information system that performed patient data based EMR, HIS, PACS DB environments, and so reduced delay time of requisition, medical treatment, lab.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.181-208
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• 2010

Maternity services is often perceived as a troublesome business and obstetric litigation is on the increase in Western countries. Overall, the number of claim and cost of litigation to the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) from maternity services in the UK is increasing every year. Maternity services account for 60-70% of the total sum paid. This has widespread implications for both the individual practitioners and the institutions where they work, due to increasing malpractice insurance premiums. Fear of litigation is also attracting fewer medical graduates into the specialty, leading to a recruitment crisis in obstetrics and gynaecology. The litigation process can cause pain, suffering and distress to clinicians as well as to the patients and their families. Litigation in maternity services is the result of a complex of events when malpractice (presumed or real) impacts on the attitude of pregnant women and their environment. In such complexity, information is mandatory but may often be misinterpreted. If messages are not tailored to the receiver's capacity, communicating well with the pregnant patient becomes crucial. Therefore, to reduce medicallegal issues in obstetrics, increasing attention and an applicable standard of obstetric care to avoid negligence and medical errors should go along with other measures. Considering UK's experiences, NHS redress scheme make it easier to pursue small claims and birth related claims, without necessarily reducing the number of claims processed through the conventional legal system and perhaps encouraging even more of them. The task of dealing with the greater number of inquiries into their practice would inevitably create an added burden for clinicians and hospital managers. Thus further proposals are required to limit the cost of processing inflated claims and to consider whether clinicians should be given some protection from litigation alleging a failure to prevent birth related impairment.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.118-138
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• 1999

This study presents the variations on drug utilization for outpatients' URI, gastritis. and hypertension by the type of hospital- tertiary hospital. general hospital. hospital. clinic. It investigated drug expenses. daily drug expenses. days of medication. the highest price of the drugs used. and the number of the different drugs used for each disease and type of hospital. This study also performed analysis to see how much the variations of variables related to drug use affect the variations of drug expenses. The dependent variable was drug expenses and the independent variables were days of medication. the average price of the drugs used. and the number of the different drugs used. Analysis of the drug utilization was performed on NFMI(National Federation of Medical Insurance) 1994 medical expense claim data. Patients with secondary diseases were excluded. In this study. 379 patients with URI, 386 patients with gastritis. 1.257 patients with hypertension were included. It was founded that there were large variation on drug utilization between the types of hospital for same diseases. Days of medication were longest in tertiary hospitals and shortest in hospitals or clinics. Clinics showed the lowest daily drug expenses in all of the diseases investigated. Daily drug expenses were highest in general hospitals or hospitals. which also tended to use drugs of higher price than other types of hospital. General hospitals and hospitals had larger variations in daily drug expenses and the highest price of drugs. It suggested that drug might be utilized overly in general hospitals and hospitals and some other factors might influence on drug utilization in these hospitals. It was found that the variations of drug expenses were affected by the variations of drug price and days of medication rather than the number of the different drugs. Then the strategy to reduce the variations of drug utilization and to improve the quality of drug utilization should focus on the drug price and days of medication. Further study is needed to assess the quality as well as the variation of drug utilization and to show the factors which affect them.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.166-190
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• 1998

This study presents the status on drug prescription for clinic outpatients' bronchitis, gastritis, and gastric ulcer, and also the physician factors that affects their prescriptions. In this research project the physician factors are as follows: their demographic features, their work related features, education related features, drug information related features and drug promotion related features. The variables in drug prescriptions are drug expenses, daily drug expenses, days of medication, the highest price of the drugs used and the number of the different drugs used. Analysis of the use of prescription drugs was performed on NFMI(National Federation of Medical Insurance) 1994 medical expense claim data. Data on physicians' characteristics were collected by mailing surveys. Patients with secondary diseases were excluded. In this study, 388 adults with bronchitis, 1,038 children with bronchitis, 1,158 patients with gastritis, 369 patients with gastric ulcer were included. The older physicians tend to allow the lower drug costs: this explains that the older doctors who are more experienced less depend on the medicines. It can be also explained that doctors are likely to use the medicines that had been used for their intern and resident practice/training period. General practitioners give more intensive prescription compared to specialists. And specialists prescribed medicines to patients for longer period. The doctors' prescriptions for patients are largely affected by commercial sources. So objective and reliable sources for drug information is needed for patients' benefits. Physician factors explain better at the daily drug expenses, the drug price and the number of different drugs than days of medication. Gastric ulcer are better explained by the prescription model adopted in this study than other diseases.