• 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.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.1-16
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• 2021

This study aims to examine the effect of integrated health and welfare(IHW) services on medical use and medical expenses in Korean Veteran Hospitals. Data on the volume of medical use and medical expenses were collected from two patient groups of 5 Veterans' Hospitals: the beneficiary group who has received IHW services and the non-beneficiary group who has not. Each group was composed of 265 patients respectively. The results of the study revealed that the volume of home nursing services, home rehabilitation services, ambulatory services have increased significantly, whereas the average length of stay, number of using emergency services, and average medical expenses have decreased after receiving integrated health services in the beneficiary group. In contrast, the non-beneficiary group showed much more increase both in the volume of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as the average medical expenses, compared to those of the beneficiary group. This results imply that the provision of IHW services have positive impacts on the enhancing the effectiveness of the medical resources utilization for the veteran patients.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.330-341
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• 2015

Objectives: Emergency medical personnel (EMPs) are pre-hospital emergency responders who are at risk of exposure to infections and may also serve as a source for the transmission of infections. However, few studies of infection control have specifically addressed EMPs in the Republic of Korea (hereafter Korea). The goal of this study was to assess the current status of infection prevention and control programs (IPCPs) for EMPs in Korea. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted to quantitatively assess the resources and activities of IPCPs. A total of 907 EMPs in five metropolitan cities completed a structured questionnaire from September 2014 to January 2015. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, multi-response analysis, and the chi-square test. Results: The mean age of the participants was $34.8{\pm}15.1years$. IPCPs were found to have weaknesses with regard to the following resources: the assignment of infection control personnel (ICP) (79.5%), hand hygiene resources such as waterless antiseptics (79.3%), the use of paper towels (38.9%), personal protective equipment such as face shields (46.9%), and safety containers for sharps and a separated space for the disposal of infectious waste (10.1%). Likewise, the following activities were found to be inadequately incorporated into the workflow of EMPs: education about infection control (77.5%), post-exposure management (35.9%), and the decontamination of items and spaces after use (88.4%). ICP were found to have a significant effect on the resources and activities of IPCPs (p<0.001). The resources and activities of IPCPs were found to be significantly different among the five cities (p<0.001). Conclusions: IPCPs for EMPs showed some limitations in their resources and activities. IPCPs should be actively supported, and specific IPCP activities for EMPs should be developed.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.132-139
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• 2010

The river technology of Japan was highly developed and achieved much result in flood protection, water use and the environment. Nowadays, the function which is requested to the river is changes because the society changes from growth to maturity. In this study, we suggest the functions of the river in the maturity society about future welfare, medical care and education based on field research of case study. In this research, we pay attention to the functions related with culture, one) function of healing, mental stress improvement and life, two) function of landscape, education and recreation. And this paper proposed the usage of the river where adopt to the times, a function and the value of "the river as the space". We made a questionnaire to 187 river managers, and 90% of answers wear positive for use the river as the medical aspect, health and the welfare. Furthermore, based on research result of hospitals and welfare facilities which used a river for their activities, we suggest to develop and use the river walk, to design a city and rivers as one, and to use many facilities which are located on river front more active, those are improve the new river functions.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.57-70
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• 2010

Nowadays, medical services can be performed through online. This entails a lot of human resources and different healthcare information. The rapid changes in the healthcare environment through web should be accounted so that the information would be maximally useful. However, medical information acquired online is not regulated; it is not favorable to users because it creates doubts to its reliability and benefits. This study focuses on the online medical information. It gives help to the users through its accessibility" comprehensiveness, continuity and efficiency. An empirical analysis of research model using PLS(partial least squares) shows that the quality of medical information influences the reliability and benefit of the related medical information. If users recognize medical information to be reliable and beneficial, their intention to use the medical information becomes strong.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.16.1-16.4
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• 2019

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), a medical thesaurus created by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), is a useful resource for natural language processing (NLP). In this article, the current status of the Japanese version of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is reviewed. Online investigation found that Japanese-English dictionaries, which assign MeSH information to applicable terms, but use them for NLP, were found to be difficult to access, due to license restrictions. Here, we investigate an open-source Japanese-English glossary as an alternative method for assigning MeSH IDs to Japanese terms, to obtain preliminary data for NLP proof-of-concept.

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.691-705
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• 1995

Most of the Medical Junior Colleges faced new environmental changes: School years of some Health-related departments were extended from two-year program to three-year ones; The total high school graduates willing to apply to the colleges will fall short of the legal number limits of this country; Govorment's educational opening policies enables competitive foreign schools to land in our country more easily. In order to survive under these turbulant circumstances, any junior college has to cultivate it's own competitiveness establishing strategies and utilizing resources very efficiently. Some of the major points extracted from three-year junior college professors' opinions against the environmental changes are as follows, 1. Environmental changes should be fully appreciated. And junior colleges have to make haste to establish strategies placing priorities on specific fields which are their own strengths compared to others. 2. The crieria of provisions of miminstry of Education on the facilities and equipments should be enhanced. 3. The practical way to use available resources effectively is to make the best of human resources. 4. It is time to consider consolidating akin departments to one. 5. The school year of the health-related departments should be extended to four years to meet the contemporary needs in the medical fields.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.29 no.2 s.53
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• pp.311-329
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• 1996

This study was designed to compare the level of medical utilization between the urban and rural areas of Korea and to explain the differences between the two regions. Data from the National Health Interview Survey performed by the Korean Institute of Health & Social Affairs in 1992 were used for this study utilizing a sample size of 21,841 people. The level of medical utilization such as the number of physician visits and the number of hospital admissions was compared between the regions with ANOVA. Various determinants for medical use were also compared by univariate analysis. Statistical models which included enabling factors, predisposing factors, need factors and region were constructed for bivariate analysis in order to further elucidate the level of medical utilization. The results were as follows: 1. There was greater medical use, both in terms of physician visits and inpatient care in the rural areas in spite of insufficient health resources. The particular reasons for higher medical utilization in rural areas were attributed to a higher number of initial physician visits as well as a longer the length of stay per hospital admission. Therefore, indicators representing the degree of met need (utilization/need) showed no significant difference between rural and urban areas in spite of the fact that the medical need is larger in rural areas. 2. Use of public health facilities received a significant portion of physician visits in the rural area. The government's effort to enhance primary health care through health centers, health subcenters and the nurse practitioner's post in rural areas has contributed to the increase of access to medical care in the rural areas. 3. There were some differences in the socio-demographic characteristics between two regions ; There were more elderly people over the age of 65: unstable marital status, less education and lower incomes also characterized the rural areas. Therefore, among rural people, there were more predisposing factors for medical use. Additionaly, need factors such as poor self-reported health status and high morbidity level were also high in the rural area. 4. In contrast it was learned that, the supply of health resources was mostly concentrated in the urban areas except for public health facilities. Therefore, geographical access to medical care was lower in the rural area both in terms travel time and travel cost. 5. The coefficient of the region variable was insignificant in the regression model which controlled the supply factor only. However, utilization was significantly higher in urban areas if the model included predisposing factors and need factors in addition to the supply factor. The results were interpreted as rural people have greater medical needs.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.185-191
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• 2020

Background: From January 2018, a policy was applied to differentially apply the co-payment for medical expenses of 15,000 won or more from 30% to 10%-30% for each medical fee. This policy lowers the burden on the medical use of the elderly, and it is necessary to analyze the effect of the policy by confirming changes in medical use and supply behavior after 2 years. Methods: The National Health Insurance Service's national medical use database was used. As for the analysis method, first, the medical use and medical supply behavior change over the age of 65 years were confirmed, and second, in order to check the net effect of the policy, the 66-year-old as the experimental group and the 63-year-old as the control group were selected as the control group. The propensity score matching was performed using the variables of age, living alone, income quartile, residence, disability, chronic disease, and co-morbid disease scores, and then it was analyzed using the difference in difference analysis method. Results: The share of the number of treatments under 15,000 won decreased from 37.0% in 2017 to 20.2% in 2018, while the share of the number of treatments under 15,001-20,000 won increased from 8.0% to 22.7%. It was confirmed that the reason for the increase in the cost of treatment per treatment was the result of the increase in the amount of physical therapy and examination. As a result of the policy effect, the burden of co-payment per person was reduced, and as a result, the number of hospital visits per person and the total medical cost per person increased. Conclusion: The self-pay rate differential policy reduced the burden of medical expenses for the elderly and confirmed the increase in medical use. However, the interpretation of the increase in medical use was not able to distinguish whether the unsatisfactory medical care was satisfied or the inducement demand. Efficient allocation of resources is a more important point in the future when the super-aged society is in front. It is necessary to prepare a plan to induce rational medical use within a range that does not impair the medical accessibility of the elderly.

• 한국방재학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.02a
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• pp.143-146
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• 2008

This study aimed to suggest the way to support flood disaster older survivors with analysing how relief services and their human resources are used. For this study, the data was collected from 184 elderly aged over 65 years from Inje and Pyungchang in Gangwon province where lots of flood damages were done. The results of the study was elderly used human resources of public servant/military soldiers, volunteers as public or official services than as private resources. These results provide the evidence that public or official human resources are very helpful to control their emergency situations because there is hardly any use of their private human resources except for assistance from their family. And it shows that older people are willing to use services of life rescue and information services of their family members safety rather than basic supplies, medical care or medicine providing. With this findings we suggest informing the news of family safety including basic necessaries are highly signigicant. Thus, it is useful for disaster planners to understand building immediate life rescue and accurate information delivery systems. These are relevant to older adults' psychological well-being, thus, providing news of family safety including offering material resources are highly needed for older disaster survivors.