• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.31-41
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• 2020

Background : The introduction of policies expanding the coverage of uninsured Korean Medicine (KM) services have requires an understanding of the following components of the service : current financial expenses, degree of financial burden on the patient, and financial effect of the coverage expansion. Objectives : This study aims to determine the annual trend of outpatients' characteristics and the category of out-of-pocket spending in KM. Methods : This study uses data from the Korea Health Panel to analyze use of KM in the Korean population. Using the user characteristics and behavior drawn from the Korea Health Panel data, out-of-pocket spending trends of KM were analyzed by year. The diagnosis and prescription of out-of-pocket spending were also analyzed. Results : The proportion of patients receiving uninsured medical treatment and the number of uninsured medical treatment in outpatient clinics have increased. However, the average out-of-pocket spending per person and out-of-pocket spending per visit are consistent or have decreased. Meaningful trends are the increase of R00-R99 (unclassified symptoms) and the decrease of K00-K93 (digestive system disease) and J00-J99 (respiratory system disease). Conclusions : Expansion of KM medical service and insurance is influenced by uninsured medical treatment of KM. Hence, research to increase medical treatment categories for out-of-pocket spending or explore diseases where KM diagnosis has been proven effective should be further developed.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.68-90
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• 2007

Nurse staffing level is an important factor that influences the quality of health service and patient outcomes. This study was carried out to examine the current state of acute hospital nurse staffing and find out factors that affect the nurse staffing level. Nurse staffing of individual hospitals was measured using the number of registered nurses per 100 beds. Descriptive and multiple regression analyses were conducted using 592 acute care hospitals' data. Regression model included structure factors such as referral level, ownership, medical and general staffing, and financial outcome factors such as occupancy rate, inpatient and outpatient revenues. Market characteristics included strength of competition, supply of nurses, and income and health status level of consumers. The average number of nurses per 100 beds was 28 and showed a great variation according to the referral level. Regression model explained this variation as much as 76.87%. Hospital structure variables which affecting the hospital nurse staffing level positively were ICU bed ratio, the staffing level of specialist, training doctor and employees except doctor and nursing personnel, while the negative factor was nurse aid staffing level. General hospitals employed more nurses than hospitals. Among outcome characteristics, occupancy rate and the amount of health insurance inpatient revenue affected positively on the hospital nurse staffing level. The more supply of the new nurse and the higher consumer income and health status in the medical service markets, the more nurses were employed by the medical institutes. According to the study result, hospitals employed more nurses when they had more financial incentive by increasing nurses. This means appropriate hospital incentive policy and regulation policy, which hospital violate nurse staffing level have to pay penality, should be needed. Clarifying job description between nurses and nurse aids and the reentry program for unemployed experienced nurses will be helpful to increase nurse staffing level.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.49-59
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• 2012

This study is aimed to increase the fire-fighting manpower utilization and the increasing of its services in aging society. Due to continuous improvement of living standards and development of medical technology, the elderly population rate is being increased and it brings rapid progresses of aging society. Therefore, as a fire-fighting organization which is responsible for safety from various disasters, they should grasp comprehensively and systematically exact status of weak person from disaster in perspective of it with conjunction of all concerned department and at the same time proceed to speedy move as well as determine the appropriate emergency measures. In order to do this, safe life education for elderly people and the comprehensive measures of home security should be taken by transforming the policy from particular object-oriented policy to demand-driven policy. And through the expansion of one one nine services such as using grandeur of powerful IT nation out of old-fashioned promotion way, they should provide fire-fighting service for convenient and comfortable life of elderly people after retirement. A consideration of the elderly people is the best way to penetrate a advancement fire-fighting in aging society.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.103-111
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• 2016

The paradigm of the housing policy has been transformed from housing supply to housing welfare, from the policy of housing quantity expansion to the policy of customized housing welfare. The Housing Act was newly enacted to realize the new paradigm of the housing policy. The Act establishes the role of the Housing Welfare Centers in the housing welfare delivery system, but they have some difficulties in doing their role because of limited amount of centers and their manpower. The desirable and efficient model of housing welfare delivery system, therefore, is that the demand of housing welfare is discovered on local base, and that demanders can be provided housing welfare service connected to local governments or neighborhood housing welfare centers. To do so local communities should be established and activated, and the needs of housing welfare service also be discovered. This study is a exploratory one on communities' role in housing welfare delivery system in spite of some limitations based on existing theories and studies, and is significant as a new trial.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.53-70
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• 2015

The number of Healthy Family Support Centers has dramatically increased and the services for healthy families such as family education, family counsel, family culture and family care have increased during the past ten years since the Framework Act on Healthy Families was enacted. This growth is largely credited to Healthy Family Specialists. At a time when the family policy delivery system is changing, it is most urgent to enhance the capability of Healthy Family Specialists. In this study, we aim to investigate the current capability of Healthy Family Specialists and suggest the education plan for their empowerment. We collected data from 151 Healthy Family Support Centers by mail and e-mail in June 2014. There were total of 1,001 subjects for analysis(781 by mail and 220 by e-mail). We analyzed the capabilities of Healthy Family Specialist by service areas according to work-related characteristics and possession of a license. Our findings revealed that the capabilities of Healthy Family Specialist varied depending on the service year and whether or not having a licence. These results suggest that the education program for empowerment will provide a differentiated content according to the service year and whether or not having a license. This study contributes to a better understanding of Healthy Family Specialists' current capability and provides insights on how to enhance their capability in order to change the family policy delivery system.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.45-57
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• 2010

Background : If different cost efficiency indexes were informed to the same clinic depending on the inclusion or exclusion of pharmacy cost, it may impair the reliability of provider-profiling system. This study aimed to investigate whether the omission of pharmacy cost affects cost-efficiency rankings in medical clinics. Methods : Data for ambulatory care cost at 23,112 medical clinics were collected from the claims database, which was constructed after review by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) of Korea in April 2007. We calculated two types of cost efficiency indexes by inclusion or exclusion of pharmacy cost for a medical clinic. The agreement between the decile rankings of the two indexes was also assessed using the weighted kappa statistic of Landis and Koch. Results : When the cost efficiency index for total cost including pharmacy cost was compared with the index for total cost excluding it, the agreement between the two indexes was only 55%. The agreements between the two indexes were relatively low within specialties which have larger pharmacy volume of total cost and lower correlation between total cost with or without pharmacy cost included than the average level of all the specialties. Conclusion : These results suggest that the omission of pharmacy cost may result in contradictory outcomes that may be confusing to a medical institution and may impair the reliability of provider-profiling systems. It is very important to standardize profiling criteria for the reliability of provider profiling system.

• Osong Public Health and Research Perspectives
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.314-324
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• 2018

Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze research and development projects in mental health services in Korea, using priority evaluation of mental health promotion policies to determine direction of the service. Methods: An online survey was conducted that targeted experts in the mental health service regarding promotion of mental health in Korea in 2016. The survey was based on 32 policy projects that resulted from 12 strategies according to 4 policy objectives. Results: Analysis of 32 mental health projects were assessed regarding the possibility of technology development success, magnitude of the ripple effect, and necessity of a national response. It was observed that 3 policy projects relevant to suicide, had a high relative priority. This was followed by policies for improvement of health insurance and the medical benefit cost system, and policies for reinforcement of crisis psychological support such as those for disaster victims. Conclusion: The prioritization of mental health services should place an emphasis on promotion of a healthy mental lifestyle, rehabilitation support for patients with serious mental illness, and reinforcement of social safety networks for suicide prevention.

• 한국노년학
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.429-449
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• 2019

The purpose of this research is both to analyse the dynamics of welfare pluralism in the personal social service policy for elderly British people and to provide policy implications based on analysis of the post World War II time era up until the end of the New Labour Government. Content analysis of government and parliament reports, minutes, scripts for party conferences, legislations, declassified government documents, and institutes' reports of the Conservative, Labour, and New Labour Governments from 1945 to 2010 shows that the governments played only assistive roles in welfare pluralism at any given point in time. The negative experiences of elderly British can be attributed to the unbalanced structure of roles held by public and private institutions for personal social services. They ultimately have important policy implications for the foundation of welfare pluralism in elderly Korean community care by the Moon Jae-in government.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.761-769
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• 2022

The Livestock Raw Material Purchase Fund is a policy to increase the export of livestock products by providing loans to exporters of livestock products (including byproducts). The policy started in 2015 and the annual budget is about 26 billion won. However, a quantitative evaluation of policy effects has not yet been made. Therefore, in this study, the economic surplus of the policy was analyzed using the equilibrium displacement model (EDM). From the results of the welfare analysis, from 2016 to 2019, producer surplus in the chicken and duck market increased by KRW 70.9 billion, while consumer surplus decreased by KRW 70 billion. In other words, the total economic surplus of the chicken and duck market increased by about one billion won during the same period due to the increase in export demand according to the policy. Therefore, the Livestock Raw Material Purchase Fund can be viewed as a policy to maintain and increase export demand for export livestock products and to improve the economic surplus of the livestock product market. Also, since the policy is based on loans, it does not place a burden on the government's finances. Therefore, this policy should continue in the future.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.251-268
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• 2005

This study analyzes the amendment history of Educare Law of Infants and Children, the Equal Employment Opportunity Law, and Employment Insurance Law, and also examines the present status of the employer-supported child care service through secondary analysis of other policy studies. The three laws concerning employer-supported child care can be said to hold in itself two main concepts: employers' obligations to provide child care, and government's financial support and administrative management. In terms of the first concept, laws have been amended to enlarge the number of enterprises legally-responsible for child care service and to relieve the financial burden from them. In terms of the second, laws have been amended to gradually extend the magnitude of government's financial support and to establish the systematic administrative management. Approximately a half of the policy target enterprises, however, is not complying the laws. In addition, employer-supported child care centers are only occupying less than 1% of the whole child care market. Thus, this study evaluates the current employer-supported child care service system and suggests several principles for its improvement.