• Title/Summary/Keyword: quality improvement measures

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The Effects of Horizontal Eye Movement on Mental Health Indices and Psychophysiological Activities in Healthy Subjects

  • Choi, Kyung-Mook;Min, Jung-Ah;Park, Gewn-Hi;Lee, Seung-Hwan;Chae, Jeong-Ho
    • Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.148-158
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    • 2011
  • Objectives The eye movement (EM) has been reported to play a role in enhancing the retrieval of episodic memories and reducing effects of fearful episodes in the past and worries for the futures. However, it is still unclear in the mechanism of EM in normal subjects. We examined the horizontal eye movement (HEM) effect using an aiding apparatus on mental health indices including negative and positive psychological factors, and psychophysiological measures such as heart rate variability and quantitative electroencepaholography (qEEG) in healthy subjects. Methods Twenty eight healthy subjects were recruited and randomly allocated into two groups : active HEM group and control group. The active HEM group conducted the HEM training with usual stress management audio-intervention using the apparatus inducing eye movement once a day for 14 days. The control group also conducted the same training once a day for 14 days, however, the saccadic eye movement was not included in this training. Psychological measurements, neurocognitive function tests, heart rate variability measurement and qEEG were conducted before and after the training in both groups. Results In the active HEM group, sleep status using Sleep Quality Scale (SQS) positive factors significantly increased after the training. By contrast, scores on the negative items of Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWBS), and negative items of the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R) were significantly decreased after the training. The percentage of delta amplitude (1-3 Hz) in qEEG significantly decreased after the HEM training. The percentage of alpha amplitude (8-12 Hz) significantly increased after HEM training. The change of delta amplitude in the active HEM group was positively correlated with the change of sleep satisfaction of Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), and the change of alpha amplitude was negatively correlated with depression of VAS, anxiety of VAS and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Conclusions The HEM training improved sleep quality and well-being, and sense of optimism. The HEM training also increased alpha amplitude and decreased delta amplitude in qEEG. The qEEG changes were well correlated with subjective improvement of mental health indices in healthy subjects. These results suggest some evidences that HEM training using the apparatus that induces EM would be helpful in improving subjective mental health in healthy subjects. Further study with larger samples size would be needed.

Appropriateness of Admissions in the Emergency Room of a Tertiary Hospital (응급실 방문 환자의 입원의 적절성에 영향을 미치는 요인)

  • Cho, Hong-Jun;Lee, Sang-Il
    • Quality Improvement in Health Care
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    • v.2 no.1
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    • pp.58-67
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    • 1995
  • Background: This paper describes an effort to provide baseline informations for appropriate utilization of emergency room in a tertiary hospital. Methods: Authors have evaluated that the admissions in the emergency room were medically necessary by objective criteria, Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol(AEP), for one month in a tertiary hospital. Data were analysed by chi-square test and multiple logistic regression to exmaine statistical significances at the level of 0.05. Results: The prevalence of inappropriate decisions for admission was found to be 47.8%(154/322). Whether the physician decided the patient to admit or not was affected by type of services, number of departments involved, patients' medical condition, route of visit, and a day of the week visited. Level of appropriateness of admission is significantly related to patients' age, type of services, and a day of the week visited. Conclusion: We found that substantial proportion of admissions through emergency room are medically unnecessary and that non-medical factors are related to physician's for admission decisions and level of appropriateness of admission. This suggests that policy measures be required to relieve the overcrowding problem and to reduce non-emergent utilization of emergency room in a tertiary hospital.

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Effects of Home-based Virtual Reality on Upper Extremity Motor Function for Stroke - An Experimenter Blind Case Study (가정-중심 가상현실이 만성뇌졸중환자의 팔 운동기능에 미치는 영향 - 실험자 맹검 단일실험연구)

  • Lee, Jung-Ah;Hwang, Su-Jin;Song, Chiang-Soon
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.13 no.7
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    • pp.3023-3029
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    • 2012
  • The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the home-based virtual reality (VR) on upper extremity motor function in hemiparetic stroke patients. Two matched subjects with left hemiplegia were volunteered to participate in this study. One subject received the home-based VR whereas the other subject recovered a modified home-based constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT). Both interventions were given for 4 hours x 5 times a week for 4 weeks. Outcome measures included Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA), Motor Activity Log (MAL), and Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT). The VR-trained subject showed considerable improvement in all the tested motor functions when compared with the home-based CIMT. Specifically, the FMA measure demonstrated that the VR subject showed 17% enhancement whereas the CIMT subject showed 5% increase. Similarly, Amount of Use (AOU) and Quality of Movement (QOM) of the MAL scores of the VR subject showed 40% and 20% increase whereas the CIMT subject showed 0% and 20% increase, respectively. The WMFT scores of the VR subject and CIMT subject showed 20% increase. Our home-based VR was effective in upper extremity motor recovery of chronic hemiparetic patients even when compared with the well-established CIMT approach in stroke victims.

Improvement of Atmospheric PM2.5 Levels and Related Premature Deaths in Seoul, Korea (서울시 대기 중 PM2.5 농도 개선과 조기사망 감소 효과)

  • Bae, Hyun-Joo;Shin, JI-Young;Park, Chan-Koo;Jung, Kweon;Lee, Sang-Yol;Kim, Min-Young;Park, Jeong-Im
    • Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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    • v.26 no.1
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    • pp.10-20
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    • 2010
  • In recent studies, $PM_{2.5}$ has been reported to be more harmful to human health than $PM_{10}$ because it penetrates more deeply into the lung. We estimated $PM_{2.5}$ related health benefits in Seoul from implementing the World Health Organization (WHO)'s guidelines (annual average $10{\mu}g/m^3$, 24-hour average $25{\mu}g/m^3$) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s National Ambient Air Quality Standard (annual average $15{\mu}g/m^3$, 24-hour average $35{\mu}g/m^3$). U.S. EPA's Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program was utilized for the analysis. It was predicted that the attainment of the WHO annual guideline and U.S. EPA's annual standard, relative to the concentration in 2006, would result in reduction of 2,333~2,895 premature deaths and 1,703~2,121 premature deaths, respectively. If the WHO and EPA's daily standard for $PM_{2.5}$ are attained, 1,211~1,394 and 1,012~1,165 premature deaths could be avoided, respectively. Sensitivity analyses indicated that the estimates were robust regardless of air quality simulation methods for attaining the $PM_{2.5}$ goals. This study provides a quantitative approach to evaluate health risks from air pollution as well as to assess the potential health benefits of improving atmospheric $PM_{2.5}$ concentration. Even considering the intrinsic limitations and uncertainties of the analysis, it is an important information to rationalize the enforcement of $PM_{2.5}$ management policies and measures in Seoul, Korea.

Geospatial Analysis for Oriental Medical Services of Jinju (진주시 한의원 의료서비스 공간특성분석)

  • Kim, Mi Song;Yoo, Hwan Hee
    • Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
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    • v.22 no.3
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    • pp.107-112
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    • 2014
  • In keeping with the increasing demand for medical services in accordance with the economic development, the use of oriental medicine is on the rise year by year. In particular, it is a tendency that the elderly over age 65 prefer the oriental medicine to the western medicine in Korea. Under the circumstance, changing into an aging society, the importance of oriental medical services has been growing. In this regard, this study evaluated the quality of medical services by conducting the density analysis and the accessibility analysis of oriental medical clinic targeting Jinju, which is one of local small and medium-sized cities. The study results reveal that oriental medical hospitals accounted for 27% of the entire medical facilities in Jinju, and there was an imbalance in the quality of the oriental medical services according to districts(called dong) because oriental medical hospitals were mainly concentrated in the central commercial areas. In particular, in terms of the analysis on the accessibility of an aging population over age 65 to the oriental medical hospitals, over 50% of the whole districts (dongs) in Jinju were blind spots in medical services, showing a very vulnerable condition. Accordingly, it is judged that systematic measures for improvement in support of the oriental medical services in local small and medium-sized cities should be provided in Korea when we consider the characteristics of Korea where an aging population is rapidly increasing.

Improvement of Migration Image for Ocean-bottom Seismic Data using Wavefield Separation and Mirror Imaging (파동장 분리와 미러 이미징을 이용한 해저면 탄성파 탐사 자료의 참반사 보정 영상 개선)

  • Lee, Ganghoon;Pyun, Sukjoon
    • Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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    • v.21 no.2
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    • pp.112-124
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    • 2018
  • Ocean-bottom seismic survey is a seismic acquisition technique which measures data by installing 4-component receiver on the sea floor. It can produce more improved data in quality than any other acquisition techniques. In the ocean-bottom seismic survey, however, the number of receivers is limited due to high cost. Since only a small number of receivers are used for acquisition, ocean-bottom seismic data may suffer from discontinuities of events over traces, which can result in spatial aliasing. In this paper, we implemented Kirchhoff migration using mirror-imaging algorithm to improve the quality of ocean-bottom seismic image. In order to implement the mirror imaging algorithm, the seismograms should be separated into up-going and down-going wavefields and the down-going wavefield should be used for migration. In this paper, we use the P-Z summation method to separate the wavefield. Numerical examples show that the migration results using mirror imaging algorithm have wider illumination than the conventional migration, especially in the shallow layers.

Analysis of Duty-Free Shopping Attributes and Shopping Satisfaction of Chinese Tourists : Focusing on duty free shops in Busan (중국인 관광객의 면세점 선택속성과 쇼핑 만족도 분석 : 부산지역 면세점을 중심으로)

  • Hwang, Seong-Jun;Kim, Dong-Il
    • Journal of Digital Convergence
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    • v.15 no.12
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    • pp.137-145
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    • 2017
  • The purpose of this study is to suggest the measures to measure the shopping satisfaction and to increase the shopping satisfaction. We conducted surveys and conducted empirical analysis on Chinese tourists visiting duty free shops in Busan using direct survey method. The results of this study are as follows. First, factor analysis for subdividing the duty - free choice attribute was analyzed as store attribute, product attribute, and service attribute. Second, based on this analysis, the effect of each attribute on shopping satisfaction showed statistically significant positive results. Third, the analysis of the relative size of the effects of analytic attributes on satisfaction showed that store attributes were the highest. That is, the quality of duty-free shops, services, and products increases overall shopping satisfaction. Therefore, it can be said that the strategy implementation that improves the quality of the attributes affecting the satisfaction is expected to contribute to the improvement of the management performance, and suggests the management implications for the activation of the operation of the duty - free shop. Future studies will be more meaningful if more variety of shopping places are studied.

A Study on Self-sufficiency for Hospital Injury Inpatients in Korea (우리나라 의료기관 입원손상환자의 자체충족도에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Hee-Won;Park, Jong-Ho;Kang, Sung-Hong;Kim, Won-Joong
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.12 no.12
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    • pp.5779-5788
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    • 2011
  • This study was conducted to comprehend the current status of regional self-sufficiency of Hospital injury inpatients and, based on this, to prepare some measures for improving the self-sufficiency. For this purpose, 2005 & 2008 Patient Survey data, regional medical utilization data of National Health Insurance Corporation, yearbook of Central Emergency Medical Center and evaluation results of emergency medical institutions were obtained. Frequency analysis, cross-tabulation, decision tree and logistic regression techniques were used in the analysis of data. Self-sufficiency in 'metropolitan city/Do' area was lowest for Chungcheongnam-do for the year 2005 and 2008, followed by Gyeongsangbuk-do, Gyeonggi-do and Jeollanam-do. As for the self-sufficiency in 'Si/Gun/Gu' area with regard to local medical supply, for both 2005 and 2008, It was higher when general hospital, district emergency medical center, regional emergency medical center and regional emergency medical institution existed in the residential area. It was also found that, the higher the quality level of local emergency medical institution, the higher the self-sufficiency. It was confirmed that, when promoting the national policy for injury patients, priority should be placed on 'Do' area where the level of emergency medical supply was low, and that enhancing the quality level of emergency medical institutions was helpful for the improvement of self-sufficiency.

A Study on Environmental Impact Assessment Guidelines for Marine Environmentsin Construction Projects of Offshore Waste Disposal Landfills (해상최종처리장 건설사업의 해양환경 환경영향평가 가이드라인 개발 연구)

  • Lee, Haemi;Son, Minho;Kang, Taesoon;Maeng, Junho
    • Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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    • v.28 no.3
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    • pp.312-331
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    • 2019
  • An offshore waste disposal facility refers to a landfill site for final landfilling of stabilized inorganic solid waste such as land and marine waste incineration materials, and the aim of such a facility is to solve the problem of insufficient waste disposal space on land and create and develop environmentally friendly marine spaces. The purpose of this study is to prepare guidelines for the construction of offshore waste disposal facilities, which reflect the need and importance of paying sufficient heed to environmental considerations from the initial stage of the project, in order to investigate, predict, and assess how such guidelines will affect the marine environment in relation to the construction of offshore waste disposal facilities, with the goal of minimizing the impact on and damage to the environment. For the purpose of this research, guidelines focusing on the construction of offshore waste disposal facilities were derived through an analysis of domestic cases and similar foreign cases and an assessment of their level of compliance with existing EIA guidelines through the operation of a discussion forum. In order to review the EIA report on similar cases in Korea, 17 EIA documents (2005~2016) for dredged soil dumping areas and ash ponds of thermal power plants were analyzed to investigate the status of marine organisms, marine physics, marine water quality, and marine sediment and to understand what types of problems can occur and what improvement measures can be taken. The purpose of these guidelines were to minimize damage to the marine environment by promoting EIA protocols in accordance with scientific and systematic procedures, to reduce the consultation period related to projects, to resolve social conflicts, and to reduce economic costs.

Effects of Transcutaneous Electrical Stimulation on Physiological Symptoms and Psychological Satisfaction in Women With Stress Urinary Incontinence: A Preliminary Study

  • Kim, Ji-hyun;Kwon, Oh-yun;Jeon, Hye-seon;Hwang, Ui-jae;Gwak, Kyeong-tae;Yoon, Hyeo-bin;Park, Eun-young
    • Physical Therapy Korea
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    • v.26 no.3
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    • pp.67-75
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    • 2019
  • Background: Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is an involuntary leakage of urine from the urethra when intra-abdominal pressure increases, such as from sneezing, coughing, or physical exertion. It is caused by insufficient strength of the pelvic floor and sphincter muscles, resulting from vaginal delivery, obesity, hard physical work, or aging. The pelvic floor electrical stimulator is a conservative treatment generally used to relieve the symptoms of urinary incontinence. it recommended to applied before surgery is performed. Objects: The purpose of this study was to determine if the transcutaneous electrical stimulation (TCES) would be effective for the physiological symptoms and psychological satisfaction of women with SUI for an 8-weeks intervention. Methods: Easy-K is a specially designed user-friendly TCES. Five female who were diagnosed with SUI by a gynecologist but who did not require surgical intervention were included in this study. Intervention was implemented over an 8-week period. Outcome measures included vaginal ultrasonography, Levator ani muscle (LAM) contraction strength, incontinence quality of life (I-QOL), and female sexual function index (FSFI) questionnaires. Results: The bladder neck position significantly decreased across assessment time. Funneling index and urethral width significantly decreased after 8 weeks of intervention (p<.05). The bladder necksymphyseal distance and posterior rhabdosphincter thickness statistically increased and the anterior rhabdosphincter thickness showed a tendency to increase. All participants demonstrated a significant increase in the LAM contraction score across three assessment times (p<.05). Although the total score of the I-QOL did not show significant improvement, it steadily increased and among I-QOL subscales, only the "avoidance" subscale showed statistical improvements (p<.05). The total score of the FSFI statistically improved and the "desire" score significantly changed (p<.05). Conclusion: The TCES is recommended for women who want to apply conservative treatments before surgery and who have suffered from SUI in aspects of sexual function and quality of life.