• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.295-326
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• 2015

Under the revision of medical law on February 1, 2012, health care providers are banned from opening 2 or more medical institutions and being involved in managing the institutions. However, purpose of the legislation of the revised law is unclear and even confirmation of such purpose of the legislation based on the calculation of multiple legislative backgrounds cannot be appropriate means of achieving such purposes. This article confirms and reviews the development of revision of medical law and history of the principle of 'one person-one medical institution', and legislative purpose of the revised medical law as well as examines unconstitutionality of such revision based on limited fundamental rights by the revision, principle of clarity, and principle of the prohibition of excessive restriction.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.281-313
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• 2016

Our Constitution obliges the state to protect the health of the people, and the Medical Law, which embodied Constitution, sets out in detail the matters related to open the medical institution and one of them is to prohibit the operation of multiple medical institutions In the past, there was a provision stipulating the same purpose. But because the Supreme Court interpreted that several medical institutions could be opened if the medical treatment was not made at the additional medical instition which was opened in the another doctor,s license, multiple medical institutions could be opened and operated. However, some health care providers opened the several medical institutions to another doctor's license just by the excuse of the business management and then did illegal medical cares like the unfair luring of patients, overtreatment, and commition treatment for more profits. So, the health rights of the people came to be infringed on. Accordingly, lawmakers amended the Medical Law for medical personnel not to open and to operate more than one medical institution. As the amended medical law prohibited a medical personnel to open multiple medical institution, some medical personnels insisted that the amended medical law is unconstitutional under which they could not be able to open and operate medical institutions on based on free investment and bring out the benefits of network hospitals. But the regulation to prohibit multiple institutions does not apply only to a medical personnel. Many other experts like lawyer and pharmacist can open only one office under such a restriction. If the regulation goes out of force, the procedure that multiple medical institutions should be opened and operated in the capacity as a medical corporation or a non-profit corporation does not have to be followed. And we should keep in mind that the permission for medical personels to open multiple medical institutions could lead virtually to commercial hospital. If in the nation with a very low rate of public medical service, If only a few medical personnels with capital own many medical institutions and operate commercially them, this could cause a falling-off in quality of medical service, ultimately infringe on the health rights and the life right of the people.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.114-122
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• 2008

Objectives: To determine the factors affecting the assessment of Oriental medical institutions under the Oriental Medical Institution Assessment System and thereupon, provide for some basic data and alternative measures for assessment of Oriental medical institutions. Methods: The researcher sampled 320 people employed by 26 Oriental medical institutions designated as model Oriental medical institutions subject to assessment in 2008 and 2009 and thereupon, used a structured and open-ended survey table for them to collect the data. The size of the final sample was n=302. Results: The Oriental medical institution staff were highly aware of the Oriental medical institution assessment (OMIA), After adjusting the other factors by multiple regression, the factors affecting such recognition were different significantly depending on age (those in their 30's), types of job (nurses and treatment assistants) and locations of hospital (GyeongSang-do). The staff expected the OMIA could helpful for improving facilities and system of hospitals, thus promoting satisfaction of patients. To do so, they felt it necessary to develop an assessment scale reflecting the special conditions besetting the Oriental medical institutions as well as the indices for improvement of Oriental medical service quality. Conclusion: It is hoped that this study will be followed up by future studies which will comparatively analyze Oriental medical institution staff's perception of the assessment system before and after its operation and thereby, suggest some ideal policy alternatives for assessment of the Oriental medical institutions. Furthermore, future studies are requested to research into Oriental medical institution staff's needs and consumers' needs as well in consideration of the characteristics of the Oriental medical institutions and thereupon, suggest some alternatives for continued education, development of the assessment tools, methods and policies.

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.57 no.9
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• pp.514-522
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• 2019

In accordance with Article 33(8) of the Korean Medical Law, it is stated that a medical person cannot open or operate a medical institution by borrowing the name of another medical person. However, the publicity of medical care is threatened by the recent illegal network dental clinics. The purpose of this study is to investigate the actual condition of illegal network dentistry and to analyze the cases and to find out the reason why the prohibition of double opening & operating of medical institution. As a result, the illegal network dental clinics treated less health care insurance treatment such as dental caries and periodontal treatment than general dental hospitals. In contrast, the rate of implementation of illegal network dentistry was high in endodontics treatment and extraction, which could lead to uninsured treatments such as crowns and implants. As a result of Supreme Court precedent analysis, it is concluded that illegal act is not only the opening of a medical institution by borrowing the name of other medical personnel, but also the duplicated operation which has the authority to make decision about management matters of medical institutions. The results of the patient's case survey also showed that excessive dental treatment due to such as dental staff incentive system. In conclusion, the illegal network dental clinics not only threatens the oral health of the public, but also causes leakage of health insurance premiums. In other words, the ban on opening and operating the multiple medical institution should be strictly applied as a strong protection device for protecting the patient in dental case.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.231-260
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• 2019

Following the last issue, we summarized the major medical judgments in 2018. Especially, efforts have been made to introduce as many judgments as they relate to the obligation to explain. This is because the limits of the court's judgments were so diverse that it was unknown. Regarding the extent of damages, attention should also be paid to cases where the cost of care is recognized as a large amount, and cases where the memorandum is effective for the increased cost of treatment. The rulings related to the payment and deduction of medical expenses were the most discussed, although the description was small. The case of multi-institutional operation of medical institutions is an interim decision, but it is a case of interest in the medical community, and regarding uninsured medical expenses, cases of discretionary abuse have been reduced compared to the past, but are still significant.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.143-174
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• 2019

Our Constitution obliges the state to protect the health of the people, and the Medical Law, which embodied Constitution, sets out in detail the matters related to open the medical institution, and one of them is to prohibit the operation of multiple medical institutions. By the way, virtually multiple medical institutions could be opened and operated because the Supreme Court had interpreted that several medical institutions could be opened if medical activities were not performed directly at the additional medical institution which was opened under the another doctor's license. However, some health care providers opened the several medical institutions with another doctor's license for the purpose of the maximization of profit, and did illegal medical cares like the unfair luring of patients, over-treatment, and commission treatment. Also, realistic problems such as the infringed health rights have arisen. Accordingly, lawmakers had come to amend the Medical Law to readjust the system of opening for medical institution so that medical personnel could not open or operate more than one medical institution for any reason. For this reason, the Constitutional Court recently declared a constitutional decision through a long period of in-depth deliberation because the constitutional petition and the adjudication on the constitutionality of statutes had been filed on whether Article 33 paragraph 8 of the revised medical law is unconstitutional. The Constitutional Court acknowledged the "justice of purpose" in view of the importance of public medical institutions, of the prevention from seduction of for-profit patients and from over-treatment, and of the fact that health care should not be the object of commercial transactions. Given the risk that medical personnel might be subject to outside capital, the concern that the holder of the medical institution's opening certificate and the actual operator may be separated, the principle that the human body and life should not be just a means, and the current system's inability to identify over-treatment, it also acknowledged the 'minimum infringement'. Furthermore, The Constitutional Court judged it is constitutional in compliance with the principle of restricting fundamental rights, such as 'balance of legal interests'. In this regard, legislative complements are needed in order to effectively prevent the for-profit management and the over-treatment the Constitutional Court is concerned about. In this regard, consumer groups actively support the need for legislation, and health care providers groups also agree on the need for legislation. Therefore, the legislators should respect the recent Constitutional Court's decision and in the near future complete the complementary legislation to reflect the people's interests.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.13-27
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• 2012

This study aimed to identify the effects of contents, to find out the development approaches of promotion and contribute to increase the expectation on medical institutions and wills to use and improve the customer satisfaction on homepages of such medical institutions by analysis on the contents of hospital homepage. This research performed the frequency analysis, cross analysis, t-test correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis and came to the conclusion. In accordance with the research results, since the university hospital homepages had more contents than the homepage of general hospitals and national and public hospitals, the university hospital homepage provided sufficient information to visitors and tried to satisfy the customers and activate the hospital promotion using the homepage contents. On the contrary, the homepage of general hospitals and national and public hospitals had insufficient contents and unique and differentiated contents were not sufficiently provided. On the basis of the results of this study, further study on the approaches to improve the contents of homepage of general hospitals and national and public hospitals will be of great help to activate the hospital promotion by increasing the average number of visitors and page views. Furthermore, it is required to make every endeavor for systematic management and operation and research on promotion using the homepage contents.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.130-136
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• 2016

The aim of this study was to examine and analyze the infection management status of Jeju-area general hospitals, and in order to convey the importance of infection management, and to determine role plans of medical technologists as infection management staff, the infection management status was examined through surveys targeting 7 general hospitals located in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province. The infection management of Jeju-area medical institutions showed excellence in that all institutions operated an infection management room, there was dedicated manpower, and hospital infection management guidelines were established and executed. However most institutions were operating their infection management room with only 1 nurse, reporting many difficulties in securing dedicated manpower, microbe-related culture deciphering, frequency of multiple-resistance bacteria, infection statistics, and details on microbe testing. Accordingly, it is believed that the medical technologist who can perform the practical tasks of infection management has sufficient qualification and experience in infection management as per the medical law enforcement regulations, and in operation of an infection management room. If medical technologists (infection control microbiological technologist) with expert knowledge on microbes and infection control nurses can execute the tasks as dedicated personnel, the operation of the infection management room will be more advanced. In addition, for proper infection management in the future, the introduction of a medical system specialized in infection management and full support for infection management of vulnerable small/medium hospitals in addition to general hospitals across the country is considered important.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.355-362
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• 2023

Background: Financial efficiency in monetary units and operational efficiency in non-monetary units are separately classified and evaluated. This is done to prevent the duplication of monetary units and non-monetary units in inputs and outputs. In addition, analyses are conducted to determine the factors that affect each aspect of efficiency. To prevent duplication of monetary and non-monetary units in inputs and outputs, financial efficiency, consisting of monetary units, and operational efficiency, comprising non-monetary units, are separately classified and evaluated. Furthermore, an analysis is conducted to identify the factors that affect each aspect of efficiency. Methods: This study conducted a panel analysis of 34 regional public hospitals and influencing factors on efficiency for 5 years from 2015 to 2019. Financial efficiency and operational efficiency were calculated through data envelopment analysis. Moreover, multiple regression analysis was conducted to identify the factors that influence both financial efficiency and operational efficiency. Results: The factors that affect financial efficiency include the number of medical institutions within the treatment area and the ratio of patients receiving medical care. Additionally, operational efficiency is influenced by the type of medical institution, the number of medical institutions within the treatment area, and the number of nursing positions per 100 beds. Conclusion: In order for regional public hospitals to faithfully fulfill their functions and roles as regional base public hospitals, several measures are necessary. Firstly, continuous monitoring and reasonable support are required to ensure efficient operation and performance. Secondly, a financial support plan tailored to the characteristics of local medical centers is needed. Additionally, local medical centers should strive to enhance their own efficiency.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.107-152
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• 2020

During the main ruling in 2019, a number of rulings that were of interest or meaningful were handed down, such as just because the complication of medical practice has occurred, there is no presumption of negligence, a case involving a fall accident in which a lot of culpability has recently been made. the death of a well-known singer that caused a sensation, a case about damages caused by MERS in 2015, which is more meaningful in connection with damages caused by COVID-19, an infectious disease that has recently hit the world, including Korea. In preaching the principles of the law, just because there has been a complication caused by medical practice, there is no presumption of negligence, 'The scope of the complication without presumption of negligence' was determined differently by the court, the court was not able to specify the criteria. Specific circumstances were presented to limit the responsibility of the medical institution while acknowledging the malpractice of the medical institution in relation to the fall accident. In relation to the scope of damages, judgment was made on issues related to the calculation of lost profits of medical malpractice; criteria for determining celebrities' daily income, criteria for determining daily income in case of receiving survivor's pension due to medical accident, an incident in which the daily income is denied if the labor capacity is already lost at the time of a medical accident. But, it seems that judgments should be made based on clearer and more reasonable standards. Related to Medical Advertise, specific logic of judgment was presented as to whether it was interpreted as being in accordance with the specific prohibition listed in Article 27 paragraph 3 of the Medical Law, which is the criterion for violation of the Medical Law, or if it constitutes a significant harm to the order of the medical market. In response to the prohibition of operating the multiple medical institutions, the Constitutional Court decided that it was constitutional because it did not violate the regulations on excessive funding, and rationally limited the scope of the prohibited 'redundant operation'. The Supreme Court ruled for the first time that even a medical institution established and operated in violation of the Medical Service Act did not make it impossible to receive all medical care benefits implemented by a medical institution under the National Health Insurance Act. Significant rulings were finalized that recognized the existence of specific protection obligations for the people of the country in the management of infectious diseases.