• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.13-20
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• 2020

Purposes: This study has the purpose to the improvement of health promotion for local residents through delivery of high-quality medical service by improving imbalance of medical use and seeking an improvement plan for accessibility of effective medical service by understanding the pattern of medical use by region. Methodology: As for the method, this study derived results at the significance level of p<0.05 through chi square test(χ² test) and Generalized Estimating Equation(GEE) SAS 9.4 version by using the data of the 7th Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing 2018. Findings: Study results show that local residents use medical service such as hospitalization care and outpatient visit more as compared to the residents in Gyeonggi-do/large or medium-sized cities. The more the number of chronic disease, the more they select hospitalization care rather than outpatient visit. Results also show that patients engaged in labour tend to select outpatient treatment rather than hospitalization treatment. Meanwhile, severity of disease turned out to be higher amongst medical care beneficiaries than that of national health insurance patients when comparing the types of medical security. Practical Implications: In stead of solving the problem of the difference in medical use by region from the aspect of income and economic level, an integrative solution shall be provided putting viewpoint on the social phenomenon suited to the changes of the times. This study suggests a plan for using a health and medical community care center that acts as a gate keeper of regional medical service.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.585-595
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to analyze the difference of medical care between medical assistance and health insurance patients to evaluate the increase of medical care costs due to the moral hazard of medical care patients and to provide a basis for rational medical care policy decision. For this purpose, we compared health insurance benefit data for Seoul citizens by gender, age, and type of medical institutions. The results of the analysis are as follows. First, all of the hospitalized and outpatient use of the advanced general Hospitals, medical assistance patients were less than those of the health insurance patients, so that the medical assistance patients could not use the high cost medical services. Second, in general hospitals, patients with health insurance are often hospitalized. On the other hand, medical assistance patients use a lot of outpatient services because they are less burdened. Third, in hospitals and clinics, medical benefits patients often use inpatient and outpatient services. Therefore, medical assistance patients are likely to use unnecessary medical care of outpatient and hospitalization clinics and hospitals, outpatient of general hospitals. But, in hospitalization and outpatient use in advanced general hospitals and medical assistance patients can not use due to excessive medical burden. Therefore, the policy to reduce the burden of medical expenses for patients with severe illness will continue, and the medical care patients using clinics and hospitals should be careful not to use unnecessary medical services.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.597-611
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• 2019

Objective: The goals of this study were to analyze each of the reasons adopted by the Constitutional Court or the Courts for Decisions determined to permit the use of medical devices by Korean medicine doctors and to look at the medical devices from a Korean medical perspective. Materials and Methods: For this study, several judicial precedent databases were used for searching judicial precedents that handle the usage of medical devices by Korean medicine doctors. Prior studies on similar issues were considered. The Korean medicine textbooks and related research studies were also used in this study. Results: From 2000 to 2018, a large number of lawsuits were filed regarding the legality of Korean medicine doctors using medical devices; approximately 20 final judgments or decisions were made. Among them, only two cases determined that Korean medicine doctors could legally use medical devices. Conclusion: The decisions in both cases could be interpreted as the judgments that Korean medicine doctors were allowed to use a medical device whose use or operating principles were commonly incorporated with Korean medical principles. That was provided that training was sufficient in the use of the medical device, to the extent that it could be used and that such use of the medical device was not feared to pose a health hazard.

• Journal of the Korean Medical Association
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• v.61 no.11
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• pp.687-698
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• 2018

Inappropriate antibiotic use significantly contributes to antibiotic resistance, resulting in reduced antibiotic efficacy and an increased burden of disease. The objective of this study was to investigate the characteristics of prescribers whose antibiotics use was high and to explore factors affecting the use of antibiotics by medical institutions. This study analyzed the National Health Insurance claims data from 2015. Antibiotic prescription data were analyzed in terms of the number of defined daily doses per 1,000 patients per day, according to the World Health Organization anatomical-therapeutic-chemical classification and methodologies for measuring the defined daily dose. We investigated the characteristics of prescribers and medical institutions with high antibiotic use. Multivariate regression analyses were performed on the basis of characteristics of the medical institution (number of patients, type of medical institution [hospital or clinic], age of the physician, etc.). The number of patients and number of beds were found to be significant factors affecting antibiotic use in hospitals, and the number of patients, region, and medical department were significant factors affecting antibiotic use at the level of medical institutions. These findings are expected to help policy-makers to better target future interventions to promote prudent antibiotic prescription.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.61-77
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to explain intention to use untact medical diagnosis and consultation services. We carried out the analysis of the survey data using Smart PLS 3.0 to test the hypotheses how the expected benefit variables and perceived risk variables of untact medical diagnosis and consultation services affect intention to use. According to the empirical analysis results, this study confirmed that quality of telemedicine service had a significant effects on perceived usefulness, Perceived Easy of Use. And accessibility had a significant effects on perceived easy of use, cost saving and expected benefits had a significant effects on use Intention of untact medical diagnosis and consultation services. Performance risk and service risk had a significant effect on medical risk. And medical risk had a significant negative(-) effects on use Intention of untact medical diagnosis and consultation services. This study has its meaning because it found out that it deals structurally and expansively with use intention of untact medical diagnosis and consultation services through positive and negative factors.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.19-44
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• 2010

This study was conducted to investigate the changes in patterns of Daegu- and Gyeongbuk-based patients' use of medical care facilities located in Seoul. The 'Patient Survey' data issued by the Ministry of Health and Welfare for 2002, 2005, and 2008 were used. Among all discharged patients residing in Daegu and Gyeongbuk, 133,456 who used medical facilities in Daegu, Gyeongbuk, and Seoul were selected. Among patients residing in Daegu, 2.2% used medical facilities in Seoul in 2002, 3.7% in 2005, and 3.5% in 2008. The corresponding rates among patients living in Gyeongbuk were 5.6%(2002), 7.1%(2005), and 7.3%(2008). Regarding the ICD-10 disease groups, the use of medical facilities in Seoul by patients residing in either Daegu or Gyeongbuk increased in 2005 right after the introduction of the KTX high-speed train service, covering various disease groups, but decreased again in 2008. 'Neoplasm' cases, however, showed a progressive rising trend during the years studied. Multivariate data analysis for the three years showed that sex, age, payment type, hospital type, residence, year, and disease groups were all significantly associated with the utilization of medical facilities in Seoul. The major results are : First, use of medical facilities in Seoul by Gyeongbuk patients was 2.4-fold higher than that by Daegu patients, but with respect to 2005 and 2008 vs. 2002, use of medical facilities in Seoul by Daegu resident patients' showed a larger increase than that by Gyeongbuk's patients. Second, for patients residing in the two regions, use of medical facilities in Seoul was highest for 'congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities', followed by 'neoplasms'. Third, for patients residing in the two regions, general hospitals comprise the primary factor in the use of medical facilities in Seoul. The study shows that local medical facilities should individually exert more efforts to improve the quality of their medical services. Relevant authorities should likewise help these facilities develop their own unique services and respective specialization.

• 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.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 2002

Objectives : To identify the relationship between the use of medical services by workers with three types of respiratory diseases(total respiratory diseases, acute upper respiratory infections and chronic lower respiratory diseases) and exposure to hazardous agents after controlling for other factors affecting medical services use, such as characteristics of the enterprises(scale, industry type) and employee demographics (sex, age). Methods : The study population comprised 28,882 workers who had undergone general or special medical examinations at the industrial health center at least once between Jan 1995 and Dec 1997 and had possessed medical insurance during the period. We combined medical examination data with medical insurance data in order to analyze the relationship between exposure to hazardous agents and respiratory diseases, Results : Among the 28,882 study subjects, 17,454 employees(60.4%) used medical services more than once during 3-year study period, owing to more than one kind of respiratory diseases. In logistic regression analysis, sex, age and the size of the enterprises proved to be significant variables on the use of medical services for all three types of respiratory disease; The use of medical services increased with employee age. Women used more medical services than men and the employees in the large-scale enterprises used more services than employees in small-scale enterprises. However, exposure to dust or organic solvents did not affect medical service use due to total respiratory diseases or acute upper respiratory infections. Only in the case of chronic lower respiratory diseases did workers exposed to dusts(OR=1.12, 95% CI=1.01-1.24) or organic solvents(OR=1.19, 95% CI=1.05-1.35) use more medical services than those not exposed. Conclusions : Workers exposed to dusts or organic solvents are particularly apt to suffer from chronic lower respiratory diseases and use medical services more often than those not exposed. That is, chronic exposure to hazardous agents such as dusts and organic solvents is believed to be harmful and to cause respiratory symptoms and diseases.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.14-20
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of obesity with medical care use and costs according to overall diseases, cerebrovascular diseases (CVD), ischemic heart disease (IHD), hypertension (HTN) and diabetes mellitus (DM). The final sample was a group of persons who were free of diseases mentioned above and were not underweight. Their baseline screening program data and health insurance contribution data were connected with a 7-year medical claim database. The participants were classified according to their baseline BMI into normal, overweight, obese, and severely obese groups. Given the disease type, the total costs of DM showed the largest difference in each obesity group in both males and females. Also, the pharmacy costs for DM were more relevant than any other type of service to the obesity level. Considering the high prevalence of obesity and the relevantly increased medical care use and costs, there is a need for reduction in medical costs through obesity prevention efforts.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.257-264
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• 2003

The perception of the importance of statistical methods for processing medical data in Korea's medical research and the practical use of the analysis method are insufficient. From this standpoint, in order to examine the features of the data analysis method used in the medical journals of Korea and America, we have examined the research papers which has been published in the exemplary medical journals of both countries. It showed that there was a large difference in the quantity and quality between Korea and America. Especially in the medical research of Korea, we could notice that the use of statistical methods were comparatively low. Hence the researchers in the medical area are encouraged to use more statistical methods in processing medical data.