• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.66-94
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• 2004

The objective of this study is to examine how to maximize the efficiency of hospital management by minimizing the unit cost of hospital operation. For this purpose, this paper proposes to develop a model of the profit maximization based on the cost minimization dictum using the statistical tools of arriving at the maximum likelihood values. The preliminary survey data are collected from the annual statistics and their analyses published by Korea Health Industry Development Institute and Korean Hospital Association. The maximum likelihood value statistical analyses are conducted from the information on the cost (function) of each of 36 hospitals selected by the random stratified sampling method according to the size and location (urban or rural) of hospitals. We believe that, although the size of sample is relatively small, because of the sampling method used and the high response rate, the power of estimation of the results of the statistical analyses of the sample hospitals is acceptable. The conceptual framework of analyses is adopted from the various models of the determinants of hospital costs used by the previous studies. According to this framework, the study postulates that the unit cost of hospital operation is determined by the size, scope of service, technology (production function) as measured by capacity utilization, labor capital ratio and labor input-mix variables, and by exogeneous variables. The variables to represent the above cost determinants are selected by using the step-wise regression so that only the statistically significant variables may be utilized in analyzing how these variables impact on the hospital unit cost. The results of the analyses show that the models of hospital cost determinants adopted are well chosen. The various models analyzed have the (goodness of fit) overall determination (R2) which all turned out to be significant, regardless of the variables put in to represent the cost determinants. Specifically, the size and scope of service, no matter how it is measured, i. e., number of admissions per bed, number of ambulatory visits per bed, adjusted inpatient days and adjusted outpatients, have overall effects of reducing the hospital unit costs as measured by the cost per admission, per inpatient day, or office visit implying the existence of the economy of scale in the hospital operation. Thirdly, the technology used in operating a hospital has turned out to have its ramifications on the hospital unit cost similar to those postulated in the static theory of the firm. For example, the capacity utilization as represented by the inpatient days per employee tuned out to have statistically significant negative impacts on the unit cost of hospital operation, while payroll expenses per inpatient cost has a positive effect. The input-mix of hospital operation, as represented by the ratio of the number of doctor, nurse or medical staff per general employee, supports the known thesis that the specialized manpower costs more than the general employees. The labor/capital ratio as represented by the employees per 100 beds is shown to have a positive effect on the cost as expected. As for the exogeneous variable's impacts on the cost, when this variable is represented by the percent of urban 100 population at the location where the hospital is located, the regression analysis shows that the hospitals located in the urban area have a higher cost than those in the rural area. Finally, the case study of the sample hospitals offers a specific information to hospital administrators about how they share in terms of the cost they are incurring in comparison to other hospitals. For example, if his/her hospital is of small size and located in a city, he/she can compare the various costs of his/her hospital operation with those of other similar hospitals. Therefore, he/she may be able to find the reasons why the cost of his/her hospital operation has a higher or lower cost than other similar hospitals in what factors of the hospital cost determinants.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.654-667
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• 2005

To survey the different view points about food service programs among parents and teachers, 2 types of questionnaires, which consisted of attitude, perception, satisfaction and demand of the food service program in child education centers, were used. The data was collected from 2450 parents and 450 teachers who attended a child education center in 16 provinces, nationwide. SPSS was used for descriptive analysis and ANOVA test and $X^2-test$. The frinding results were as follows. 1. The average serving size of meal (lunch) were 80 meals per day and 167 meals per day at large institutions. Mean cost of snacks was 14,709 won per month and mean costs of lunch were 29,319 won per month. The mean price was not significantly different according to the scale of institution. The numbers of servings of lunch, morning snack and afternoon snack were 5, 3.4 and 3.5 times per week each. $56.4\%$ of the institutions served meals to children in classrooms, but the national/public institutions, which were attending elementary school, served meals in a dining place in the elementary school. 2. Teacher controlled serving portion size of snacks $(79.6\%)$ and lunch $(88.8\%)\;and\;30.1\%$ of teacher did not allow leaving lunch food. The ratio of knowing about preserved meals of the teacher who worked at a small institution was significantly higher than the teacher who worked at large institutions (p<0.01). 3. Between parents and teachers, several different view points about school lunch programs were detected. Most parents and teachers wanted that the school lunch to be fully cooked and served at the child education institution itself, but $12.2\%$ of parents and $14.4\%$ of teachers wanted a catering service. The teachers group preferred 'lunch box from home' and 'home partially prepared lunch' as an ideal meal serving type than the parent groups (p<0.01). And there were significantly different view points about price factors in school meals, teachers group highly answered that operating expenses must be added in meal prices. 4. The teacher groups' priorities of education activities during meal time were a significantly lower score than parents group in overall education activities. Teacher and parent groups pointed out that individual sanitation activities were most important of the education activities during meal time, but promoting good eating habits was the lowest score in both groups. 5. 'Improving taste and food quality' was most urgent in food service at child education centers, but there were significantly different view points between parent groups $(64.5\%)$ and teacher groups $(43.8\%)\;(p<0.05)$. They answered at a lower percent in 'employee qualified person' and 'cost control' point to improve food service, but there were also different opinions between the two groups (p<0.01). 6. As to the matter of the advantages and disadvantages of catering services, two group answered that the advantages of a catering service were 'convenience' and 'to solve facilities and labor problems', disadvantages were 'lower in food freshness' and 'sanitation problems'. There were also several different view pionts in catering services, the parents groups were more anxious about food sanitation than teachers. This study found several different view points about school food services among parents and teachers. To improve food services at child education institutions, there is a need to adjust the differences between the two groups through interactive communication channels and education and to employ dietitians as taking charge of adjusting roles between the two groups.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.67-77
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• 2015

Now that it is the current situation that the smooth supply and demand are necessary for 2nd phase of beginning construction and stable development of Gaesung Industrial Complex, this study was willing to offer the planning criteria and model to establish the lodging for the workers in Gaesung Industrial Complex based on the agreement that both South and North Korea agreed in 2007. Regarding the plan, its standard and the alternative were reviewed considering welfare of workers, economic efficiency, technical validity, possibility of agreement and long-term development. The exclusive area per capita was calculated through Labor Standards Act of Korea and status survey of lodging for the workers provided to border line area between China and North Korea and the economic alternative based on one room for 6 persons with the public restroom was compared with that of development type based on one room for 4 persons with indoor restroom. Especially regarding the proposed site, the area with the optimized position was set by considering gradient, accessibility and convenience of development out of the area of Dongchang-ri where was agreed already and the priority of the proposed site that can keep the existing building site and provide was offered. The necessary period for whole construction was set as approximately 36 months. Regarding construction method, RC Rahmen method was selected as the optimized alternative considering the workmanship of manpower of North Korea and conditions of supply and demand of materials and cluster-type vehicle allocation plan based on 4~6 units considering the efficiency of supplying service facilities and convenient facilities along the simultaneous accommodation of 15,000 people was offered. It was analyzed that total business expenses of approximately 80~100 billion Korean Won would required though there were the difference for each alternative in the charged rental way that the development business owner develops by lending the inter-Korea Cooperation Fund and withdraws the rent by the benefit principle. The possibility of withdrawing the rent was analyzed assuming that the period of withdrawing the investment is 30 years. Especially for the operation management after moving, the establishment of the committee of operating the lodging for the workers of Gaesung Industrial Complex (tentative name) was offered with the dualized governance that the constructor takes charge of operational management, collecting fees and management of infrastructure and human resource management is delegated to North Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.5-21
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• 2015

An energy pile is a novel type of ground heat exchangers (GHEX's) which sets up heat exchange pipes inside a pile foundation, and allows to circulate a working fluid through the pipe for exchanging thermal energy with the surrounding ground stratum. Using existing foundation structure, the energy pile can function not only as a structural foundation but also as a GHEX. In this paper, six full-scale energy piles were constructed in a test bed with various configurations of the heat exchange pipe inside large-diameter cast-in-place piles, that is, three parallel U-type heat exchangers (5, 8 and 10 pairs), two coil type heat exchangers (with a 500 mm and 200 mm pitch), and one S-type heat exchanger. During constructing the energy piles, the constructability of each energy pile was evaluated with consideration of the installation time, the number of workers and any difficulty for installing. In order to evaluate the thermal performance of energy piles, the thermal performance tests were carried out by applying intermittent (8 hours operating-16 hours pause) artificial cooling operation to simulate a cooling load for commercial buildings. Through the thermal performance tests, the heat exchange rates of the six energy piles were evaluated in terms of the heat exchange amount normalized with the length of energy pile and/or the length of heat exchange pipe. Finally, the economic feasibility of energy pile was evaluated according to the various types of heat exchange pipe by calculating demanded expenses per 1 W/m based on the thermal performance test results along with the market value of heat exchange pipes and labor cost.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.67-77
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• 2003

Objectives: This study is designed to suggest the health service goals necessary for providing the more efficient services relevant to the requests of the community, through the evaluation on the operating status of the unified health subcenters. Methods: We visited total 5 unified health subcenters comprising 3 ones located in Gyeongsangbuk-do and 2 ones located in Gyeongsangnam-do from December 2000 to January 2001, and interviewed about the pre- and post-unified status related to manpower, facilities, equipment, medical service and health service quality, and the problems and improvement plans of the unified management. Results: According to the evaluation on the manpower before and after the unification of the health subcenters, the total employees increased by 2.8 persons on average from 6.8 to 9.6 persons in the investigated subjects. The numbers of doctors, dentists and nurses were almost the same as before. There were no clinical pathologic technician and radiological technician before but they were appointed to duty in 3 unified health subcenters later. The unification of the health subcenters has produced slight increases in the frequency of the medical service and dental treatment and considerable increases in that of the physical therapy and laboratory tests. In relating to the changes of the health service, the cases of visiting health care and ambulatory medical service, and the total number of health education participants were greatly increased after the unification. The number of cases undergoing the vaccination and cervical cancer screening was similar to that of the pre-unification while the patient number of the registration to hypertension or diabetes showed a tendency to increase a little. Since the unification of the health subcenters, the frequency of laboratory tests has been increased, but the quality of health service has not been improved yet. Nevertheless, the unification seems to be positive according to the result of the great improvement in visiting health care, ambulatory medical service and health education service. The problems of the unification of the health subcenters were indicated in indefiniteness of the service details between the workers; excessively large building hard to be effectively managed; insufficient medical instruments, inappropriation of working expenses, lack of professional training for the health education, etc. Conclusions: For further active functions of the unified health subcenters, the minimal allocation basis to appoint doctors, nurses and administrative workers to do the duty should be differentiated from the basis for a health subcenter, and the fundamental instruments needs to be expanded to improve the quality of the medical service and visiting health care service. Moreover, the unified health subcenter needs to have definite service details between the workers, and should improve the working efficiency through the development of service-related guidelines.