• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.511-524
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to provide policy recommendations for manpower planning by forecasting the supply and demand of Medical Technologists. Supply was estimated using an in-and-out movement method with a demographic method based on a baseline projection model. Demand was projected according to a demand-based method using the number of clinico-pathologic examinations taken for Medical Technologists. Over- or undersupply of Medical Technologists will depend on the productivity scenario and assumptions and ultimately on governmental policy direction. In other words, whether the production of Medical Technologists is higher or lower than the current level depends on the government policy to consider insurance finances. In this study, we assessed 'productivity scenario 3' based on the productivity as of 2012, when the government's policy direction was not considered. Based on the demand scenario using the ARIMA model, the supply of Medical Technologists is expected to be excessive. This oversupply accounts for less than 10% of the total and therefore should not be a big problem. However, given that the employment rate of Medical Technologists is 60%, it is necessary to consider policies to utilize the unemployed. These measures should expand the employment opportunities for the unemployed. To this end, it is necessary to strengthen the functions of laboratories in the public health center, to increase the quota of Medical Technologists, to assure their status, to establish a permanent inspection system for outpatient patients, and to expand the export of Medical Technologists overseas.

• Journal of Legislation Research
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• no.44
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• pp.387-433
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• 2013

Understanding the concepts of health and medical practice are significant because they are the basis of health and medical policy and law. How legislators, policy makers, and the public perceive those concepts defines the direction of legislation and policy making. This study aims to show the changes of the concepts by reviewing the history of major Statutes relating to health and medicine. Alongside medicalization of human conditions and daily activities, the concepts of health and medical practice also expanded. On the other hand, as technologies of health and medicine have specialized and segmented, the large portion of public services of the past is now provided by the private sector. We argue that the actual laws and decisions by the judiciary should be responsive to social and scientific changes, which may cause the changes of the perceptions of health and medical practice. By doing so, they not only can have actual legal force but also even initiate a movement for establishing new medical policy or law.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.263-271
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• 2018

Health technology assessment (HTA) is defined as multidisciplinary policy analysis to look into the medical, economic, social, and ethical implications of the development, distribution, and use of health technology. Following the recent changes in the social environment, there are increasing needs to improve Korea's healthcare environment by, inter alia, assessing health technologies in an organized, timely manner in accordance with the government's strategies to ensure that citizens' medical expenses are kept at a stable level. Dedicated to HTA and research, the National Evidence-based Healthcare Collaborating Agency (NECA) analyzes and provides grounds on the clinical safety, efficacy, and economic feasibility of health technologies. HTA offers the most suitable grounds for decision making not only by healthcare professionals but also by policy makers and citizens as seen in a case in 2009 where research revealed that glucosamine lacked preventive and treatment effects for osteoarthritis and glucosamine was subsequently excluded from the National Health Insurance's benefit list to stop the insurance scheme from suffering financial losses and citizens from paying unnecessary medical expenses. For the development of HTA in Korea, the NECA will continue exerting itself to accomplish its mission of providing policy support by health technology reassessment, promoting the establishment and use of big data and HTA platforms for public interest, and developing a new value-based HTA system.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.1-3
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• 2024

Currently, the issue of poor accessibility to essential medical services has been brought to light as a social discontent. In order to strengthen the essential medical service system, the government has announced the "the policy package related to essential medical service" as a comprehensive solution and has vowed to invest more than 10 trillion won by 2028. As it contains crucial elements for changing the framework of the healthcare system, I would like to present several points to consider in policy implementation. Given that this package contains important elements for changing the framework of the healthcare system, there are a few issues to consider in policy implementation. First, a mechanism to prevent politicization should be established when designing the physician training system. Second, changing from a hospital centered on residents to one centered on specialists means that the society bears the cost of training residents, while paying a high price for specialist services. The willingness of society to pay for the costs incurred by such a change should be carefully considered, and an appropriate budget must be prepared. Third, as the operation of shared human resources and inter-organizational networking, among other detailed policy measures, are still at a level of conceptual discussion, various issues should be solidly reviewed and considered for in the mid to long term to suit the conditions of the domestic healthcare system.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.26 no.4 s.44
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• pp.650-660
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• 1993

This study aims to describe the causes of medically unnecessary hospital stay at a teaching tertiary hospital, using modified version of Delay Tool in which the causes of delay are divided into slx major categories : delay related to test scheduling, test results, surgery, medical staff, patient/family, and administration. For the analysis of hospital stay, 6,479 inpatient-days were reviewed in two medical and four surgical departments for one month. Initially inappropriate hospital stays were identified using Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol (AEP), and causes of delay listed in Delay Tool were assigned to each of them. In both medical and surgical services, the most important cause of delay was related to medical staffs, ranging from 3.6% to 51.6% of total inpatient days. Next important category was delay related to test scheduling in medical services ($4.7{\sim}9.2%$), and delay related to surgery in surgical services ($7.3{\sim}15.0%$). Among subcategories of delay related to medical staffs, delay due to conservative care was the most important cause of inappropriate hospital stay ($2.9{\sim}6.4%$). Each clinical departments had different distribution among delay categories, which could not be fully justified by their clinical charateristics. The Delay Tool would be helpful in exploring factors related to the inefficient use of hospital beds. As a measurement tool of inappropriate hospital stay, however, the Delay Tool should be refined in the definitions of categories and its contents.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.72-94
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• 1991

The number of disputes between physicians and patients caused by medical malpractice are showing a sharp increasing over the past several years. The disputes on medical malpractice may be resolved either in court or by direct negotiation between both sides concerned. There are no special acts relating to the civil or penal liability of the physicians in Korea. The medical disputes are decided merely through legal technicalities and without reference to actual medical practice. The current system which does not compensate injured patients adequately or equitably leads to taking a long time consuming for dispute resolution processes. The things make worsed, the problem is due to not being of insurance system or a proper funds for compensation. This research proposes a outline of new and comprehensive alternative for these problems and failure of conventional resolution of medical disputes. So far, we have learned lessons from the excperiencies of resolving medical malpractice disputes of Japan and the United States. The proposal first calls for an administrative arbitration and pretrial screening panels as a condition precedent to trial. The proposal also includes to facilitate with the funds for compensating the injured.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.27-80
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• 1993

It is widely known that patients' utilization pattern for medical care facilities and the patientflow are influenced by multi-factors, such as demographic characteristics, structural characteristics of society, socio-psychological characteristics(value, attitude, norms, culture, health behavior, etc.), economic characteristics(income, medical price, relative price, physician induced demand, etc.), geographical accessibility, systematic characteristics(health care delivery system, payment methods for physician fees, form of health care security, etc.), and characteristics of medical facilities(reliability, quality of medical care, convenience, kindness, tec.). This study was conducted to research the mechanism of patient-flow according to changes of health care system(implementation of national health insurance, health care referral system and regionalization of health care utilization, etc.) and characteristics of medical facilities(ownership of hospital, characteristics of medical services, non-medical characteristics, etc.). In this study, the fact could be ascertained that the patient-flow had been influenced by changes of health care system and characteristics of medical facilities.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-29
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• 1999

The Government has recently planned to improve the medical insurance drug price systems by removing the drug margin occurring from the difference between the official and purchasing prices, and instead by setting prices through adding drug administration casts calculated to the purchasing costs. In the circumstances, the major policy and implementing issues are how to define the drug administrance cost and how to calculate them. This study attempts to provide for the conceptional and operational definitions and thereby develop a costing model for the cost. The relationship between the current systems of medical services costs and prices were reviewed to define the concept of the costs. The study defined the costs from the narrow and wide prospective of meaning, and three operational definitions were provided. The costing model was developed applying the departmental costing principles. Finally, several prerequisites that have to be considered for the implementation of the definition and the model from the practical viewpoint.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.1511-1519
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to analyze regional medical utilization variation of hospital inpatients and to suggest policy for the allocation of medical service in Korea. We analyzed the relationship among medical service, city size, income level and regional medical utilization variation of hospital inpatients. The patient survey report of 2005 year in Ministry of Health and Welfare was used for this study. To adjust on the factor age and sex, we used direct standardization method. Findings of the research were summarized as follows ; First, standardization discharge rate on patient was different in the district. city type, and number of beds. Second, standardization length of stay of patient was different in region, city type, and number of beds.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.65-84
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• 2012

Because of the rising healthcare costs, there is a growing need for developing efficiency indicators for medical resources use and measuring efficiency of healthcare providers and healthcare systems using them. In this study, we aimed to develop efficiency indicators for medical resources use by means of Delphi technique. We systematically reviewed the existing measures of medical resource use. Thirty nine indicators were selected as a candidates across the six domains: medical personnel, medical equipment, medical facilities, ethical management, resource efficiency, and drug use. To develop efficiency indicators with professional consensus, a 2-round Delphi survey was conducted among 29 professional experts. The following indicators were selected based on the Delphi survey results: adjusted number of the patient per day and level of the nurse number medical personnel in medical personnel domain; the number of the scan a professional physician and the quality of the scan in medical equipment domain; bed utilization rate in medical facility domain; drug price reported pharmaceutical price by medical institutions, medical fee billing transparency, and medical care appropriateness in ethical management domain; costliness index in resource efficiency domain; and utilization of high cost drug and items per prescription in drug use domain. The efficiency indicators could provide valid information about efficiency of healthcare providers and healthcare systems with respect to their resources use and facilitate policies to improve their efficiency.