• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.105-115
• /
• 2016

Purpose: This study is a case study of a small-mid sized hospital to promote a full-scale remodeling to ensure the quality and competitiveness of the medical services and trying to arrange the remodeling characteristics of small-mid sized hospital which is suffering from aging facilities as well as chronic congestion and lack of spaces. Methods: Research was conducted by consultation with hospital executives and each department operators, and on-site investigation, Results: The result of this study can be summarized into two points. The first one is that existing statistical value like area per bed, in the remodeling of the small-mid hospitals may not mean much. planners have to verify the necessary room space areas in close consultation with the department operators. And after confirming layout possibilities, they have to create the program. The second one is that remodeling planning can be a realistic plan with structural and installation diagnosis at the same time. If so, it is advisable to proceed architectural design from the beginning for cost and time savings. Implications: This results can be applied to small-mid hospitals to apply to the medical law revision and others.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.15-26
• /
• 2011

This study assessed and compared the expectation levels of in- and out-patients at hospitals of different size in relation to patients' view of their rights. A survey of out-patients visiting university hospitals (204 patients) and small to mid size community hospitals (215 patients) in Seoul and Kyeongki Province was conducted, where the respondents reported their perceptions of patient rights. Based on the survey, their respective expectation levels for the medical services that they would receive was assessed and analyzed for exploring possible factors for their selecting small to mid sized hospitals over larger hospitals. The results showed difference in perceptions between patients visiting or staying in lager and smaller hospitals. Namely, for out-patients, those at university hospitals had higher perceptions only about their rights to privacy while in hospital, whereas in the case of in-patients, those at small to mid size hospitals had higher perceptions only about their rights to access to inspection information. With respect to the results from analysis of difference in the expectation level for medical services between university and non-university hospital patients, it was found that in-patients at university hospitals had higher perceptions about their rights to choose to see hospital visitors while in hospital and rights to access to religious facilities.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
• /
• v.44 no.4
• /
• pp.326-337
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate dietary intake and to evaluate patient satisfaction toward the quality of hospital foodservice. Questionnaires were distributed to 203 hospitalized patients in 3 hospitals having 300 beds. The intake rates for served amounts of rice, side dishes, and soup were 72.5%, 68.2%, and 62.6%, respectively. The main reasons for left-overs were 'no appetite' (25.8%) and 'not salty enough' (19.9%). The rate of patients eating outside food was about 33.5%. The average score for quality satisfaction of meal characteristics was 3.34 ${\pm}$ 0.61, and the average score for quality satisfaction of sanitation and service characteristics was 3.58 ${\pm}$ 0.61. 'Seasoning' showed the lowest score and 'temperature' showed the highest score for quality satisfaction of meal characteristics. In the quality satisfaction of sanitation and services, 'explanation of meals' showed the lowest score and 'exactness of meal times' showed the highest score. The patients hospitalized for 10 days showed significantly lower average scores than those hospitalized over 60 days for quality satisfaction of meal characteristics. The patients with 'little appetite' and 'regular appetite' showed significantly lower average scores than those with 'much appetite' for the quality satisfaction of meal, sanitation, and service characteristics. The patients who 'rarely had leftovers' showed significantly higher average scores than those who 'always had leftovers' and 'often had leftovers' for quality satisfaction of meal characteristics. Meal characteristic scores were significantly correlated with age (r = 0.216), length of admission (r = 0.310), appetite (r = 0.251), leftovers (r = 0.233), and intake of soup (r = 0.205). Also, sanitation and service characteristics scores were significantly correlated with age (r = 0.327), education (r = -0.202), length of admission (r = 0.168), and appetite (r = 0.155). Thus, it would seem to be desirable that hospital foodservices improve the taste and seasoning of meals and provide appropriate nutrition education and counseling in mid-sized hospitals.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.29-43
• /
• 2009

The purpose of this study is to provide basic material about the improvement method of the hospital evaluation system by grasping recognition, corresponding behavior to evaluation, influence and problems about the hospital evaluation system with respect to the employee of mid sized hospitals having relatively poorer environment. In this study were used 518 questionnaires to hospital employee working at 20 general hospitals in Pusan, Kyungnam with less than 500 beds and having experience of the hospital evaluation during 2005~2007. As a result of the research, they felt the investigation tool used for the hospital evaluation has too many items and it could be difficult to reflect characteristics of each hospital. It appeared that utilization of the report result after the hospital evaluation was helpful for grasping a part necessary for hospital improvement and the present level of hospitals and increase of interest about medical service quality improvement of the a hospital director or hospital employee. They trusted the result of the hospital evaluation to some degree, and recognized it helps the patients to select a hospital and increase rights-to-know. Hospital employee recognized the necessity and showed high interest and participation, but they didn't sympathize in the propriety and the feasibility of the hospital evaluation items. High degree evaluated hospital employee receive hospital evaluation system positively and think hospital services to be improve after taking hospital evaluation. The hospital evaluation should make the hospital to effort to achieve medical quality improvement to its purpose. Also, systematic reformation will be necessary to reflect characteristics of the hospital that has relatively small scale or locates in poor environment.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.35-42
• /
• 2011

Efficient space plans are built upon relations of both human and physical compositions, and the standard of the interaction is basically the human scale. Especially in medical areas, the character of the users within human scale design environment is quite significant. Unlike large hospitals with great plans and scalability performed by experts, mid-sized clinics tend to have limited space, designed by non-specialists who highlight aesthetics over functionality in floor plans which leads to poor quality in medical service. For this reason, this study will include the application of human scale based therapy rooms within the clinic from a physical standpoint and will further analyze and pinpoint any room for improvement to further enable more efficient ergonomic space planning. In this study, theoretically will contemplate over human scale, mid-sized clinic, therapies, and therapists, while the case study will include status of the recent human scale based mid-sized clinic from a physical viewpoint, classification and analysis amongst human and physical compositions chosen by discretion from either a newly opened or a newly re-modeled clinic within the last 2 years, which has 15 beds or more, minimum 3 physical therapists, with more than 5 different therapy facilities in the metropolitan area in order to measure the human scale of therapy rooms in a mid-sized clinic. As a result, the area where improvement can practically be applied is the physical composition, which does not include human scale like human composition factors as therapists and patients, and hence, I suggest the human scale applied efficient medical space plan become the base of this study and look forward to subsequent improvement in the quality of medical services.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.47-56
• /
• 2016

Recently many small and mid-sized hospitals are closing down or experiencing financial difficulties. As a result, in order to provide exceptional service that would increase their competitiveness, they implemented telemedicine service for the prescription of medicine necessary before a colonoscopy. This study is an analysis of how telemedicine service affects patient satisfaction. Through the focus group interview (FGI) of medical service providers, regarding telemedicine service and face-to-face service, it was appraised that telemedicine service was more effective than face-to-face service. Afterward, a second survey aimed at endoscopy patients was conducted in order to find out the value of telemedicine service. First, through the analysis of the three main factors of telemedicine service, conclusions were drawn(safety/reliability, convenience/rapidity, and economics). A follow-up analysis showed that convenience/rapidity had the greatest effect on telemedicine service satisfaction. Next the factors of the quality of medical service were analyzed and 3 main factors were deduced (the superiority of the external and internal environments/appropriateness, superiority of the medical team, telemedicine service). A follow-up analysis found that telemedicine service had the greatest effect on patient satisfaction. This study found that providing exceptional medical service that utilizes telemedicine service would improve patient satisfaction. Therefore, we would be able to form a strategic plan that would strengthen the competitiveness of small and mid-sized hospitals.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.31 no.4 s.85
• /
• pp.266-279
• /
• 2005

The present study was conducted to analyze the causes of stress on the part of Korean radiological technologists depending on their working environments. For this purpose, 890 questionnaires were distributed to and collected from radiological technologists who were working at 44 general hospitals in 16 cities and provinces of Korea during the period from the mid July to the end of August 2003. The collected data were compared between regions, divided into the capital, metropolitan, medium and small cities, whose results are as follows: 1. As factors affecting working conditions, drinking was found to exert more influence on radiological technologists in small- and medium-sized cities, while loyalty to immediate seniors and organizations was the one producing greater influence on them in metropolitan cities than other cities. Overall, position, job satisfaction and physical condition seemed to have a great effect on them (p<0.001).2. In terms of factors related to their roles, job satisfaction and physical condition played in general a greater role for radiological technologists (p<0.001). Immediate seniors and behavioral conducts were also found to have a lot influence on them (p<0.01).3. As for job conflicts, the kind of medical institutions seemed to exercise a great deal of impact on radiological technologists (p<0.05), while colleagues, immediate seniors, job satisfaction and physical conditions also produced a lot of influence on them as a whole (p<0.001).4. Regarding job autonomy, radiological technologists were found to have been less influenced by position in metropolitan cities and by immediate seniors in the capital city (p<0.01). As a whole, however, age and job satisfaction acted as decisive factors of influence on them (p<0.001). 5. Among factors related to job burden, gender played a bigger role for radiological technologists in metropolitan cities as the kind of medical institutions did in small- and medium-sized cities. Centrally, job satisfaction and behavioral conducts exercised a great impact on them (p<0.001).6. Job stability seemed to be more immensely linked to gender and physical conditions in metropolitan cities whereas position did more in the capital city. In general, how ever, job satisfaction produced a far-reaching (p<0.001).

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
• /
• v.38C no.9
• /
• pp.822-829
• /
• 2013

Hypertension is one of the most common clinical diseases, with an increasing prevalence globally. Hypertension triggers various harmful consequences and affects multiple organs. Life-long care may be required in some cases. According to the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of hypertension is gradually increasing. A 2011 survey revealed that 28.9% of Korean adults had hypertension. The prevalence rates were slightly higher among men than women. Accurate measurement of blood pressure(BP) is crucial to classify patients, to identify BP-related risks, and to inform correct treatment. For accurate blood pressure measurement, the use of a cuff bladder size appropriate for the mid-upper arm circumference(MUAC) is essential. Incorrect sized cuff bladder is one of the main causes of equipment error affecting sphygmomanometer accuracy. When commercial sphygmomanometers were examined, the cuff bladders differed from the dimensions specified in the ISO 81060-1:2007 standards. Undercuffing is responsible for a spurious overestimation of BP in patients with large arms leading to overdiagnosis of hypertension, whereas overcuffing (that is, use of relatively large cuffs with small arms), may be responsible for an opposite problem, leading to erroneous underestimation of BP levels. The cuff bladder sizes recommended by the American Heart Association(AHA) are an arm circumference(AC) of 17-25 cm for small-sized adults, AC of 24-32 cm for adults, AC of 32-42 cm for normal-sized adults, and AC of 42-50 cm for obese adults. In contrast, the AC of Korean adults ranges from 23-31 cm, belonging to a single type of adult bladder. Three types of bladders are necessary for Korean adults with an AC of 23-31cm. Hospitals often use one or two differently-sized Western cuffs for adult patients, which can yield inaccurate BP determinations. Cuff bladders with dimensions based on anthropometric reference data obtained from Koreans will aid hospitals to measure BP more accurately.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
• /
• v.47 no.1
• /
• pp.149-173
• /
• 2016

As cloud computing becomes more and more popular and ubiquitous, many organizations are deciding to move their whole information infrastructure to the cloud. The healthcare industry is one of those that is beginning to utilize cloud-based solutions en masse. Cloud based computing and storage offers numerous benefits including scalability, cost efficiency, and accessibility, which in turn have the potential to streamline hospital operations. Despite the potential benefits of acquiring this system, considerations must still be given to the migration of the massive amounts of personal and highly protected data to a cloud-based solution. Health care organizations must consider all matters of security, reliability, and availability, to ensure that patients' data remains compliant to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant. This paper will examine the benefits and challenges of such operation to determine the best practices for the utilization of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) cloud based networking and storage for small to mid-sized hospitals.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.41 no.2
• /
• pp.92-99
• /
• 2008

Objectives : Effective cancer prevention and control measures can only be done when dependable data on the cancer incidence is available. The Seoul Cancer Registry (SCR) was founded to provide valid, comparable and representative cancer incidence data for Koreans. We aimed to compare the cancer incidence in the first (1993-1997) and second term (1998-2002) of the SCR, and we analyzed the annual incidence trend during that 10 years. Methods : The SCR detects potential cancer cases through the Korean Central Cancer Registry (KCCR) data, the health insurance claims, the individual hospital's discharge records and the death certificates. About 87% of the SCR data is registered through the KCCR. The rest of the data is registered by SCR registrars who visit about $70{\sim}80$ mid-sized hospitals in Seoul to review and abstract the medical records of the potential cancer patients. Results: The total number of new cancer cases was higher in $1998{\sim}2002$ than in $1993{\sim}1997$ by 20.6% for men and 18.4% for women, respectively. The age-standardized rate (ASR) of total cancer per 100,000 increased 1% (from 295.4 to 298.3) for men and 5.1% (from 181.5 to 190.7) for women, between the two periods. The commonest cancer sites during 1998-2002 for men were stomach, liver, bronchus/lung, colorectum, bladder and prostate, and the commonest cancer sites for women were breast, stomach, colorectum, cervix uteri, thyroid and bronchus/lung. Compared with the ASRs in 1993, the ASRs in 2002 increased for colorectum (58.4% for men, 27.1% for women), prostate (81.5%), breast (58.3% for women), thyroid (141% for women), and bronchus/lung (15.4% for women). The ASRs for stomach (-18.7% for men, -20.7% for women) and uterine cervix cancer (-39.7%) had decreased. Conclusions : The cancer incidence is increasing in Seoul, Korea, especially for the colorectum and prostate for men, and for the breast, colorectum, bronchus/lung and thyroid for women.