• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.109-129
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was the acquisition of the optimum scale of the apportionment of standard & high-class bed for the maximum profit representative of the desire of customers in a General Hospital with 1,100 beds located in Seoul. This investigation was proceeded by the analysis of the result of the simulation with the survey of both the patients' needs for bed and the degree of the medical service by the grade of the ward. And finally the consequence was obtained as follows: 1. The result of the investigation of the inpatients' preference for the grade of ward classes shows that a private ward reflected 4.3 percent, a semi-private ward 1.7 percent, a three-bed ward 0.1 percent, and a ward with six beds 93.9 percent each other. 2. A questionnaire poll was paralleled of service terms of a medical doctor and a nurse by ward class, the data were used for the standard of the allotment of labor cost by the ward class. The poll shows that the service tenn of a medical doctor and a nurse based on a ward with six beds by ward class showed 1.7 times in internal medicine and 1.9 times in surgery at a private ward; 1.4 times in internal medicine and 1.7 times in surgery at a semi-private room; and 1.2 times both in internal medicine and in surgery at a three-bed ward 3. The resultant findings revealed the most profit per bed and per patient in a private ward. However, an analysis of profit with a standard of unit area by ward class represented a higher profit in both the internal medicine and the surgery semi-private ward than other ward classes. 4. The result of the analysis through simulation based on the data of the prime cost per the ward class proved the optimum scale of the distribution of beds by class as follows: sixteen beds of the internal medicine and twenty three beds of the surgery in the private ward; two hundreds and two of the internal medicine and one hundred and ninety eight of the surgery in the semi-private room; three of both the internal medicine and the surgery each other in the three-bed ward; one hundred and ninety eight of the internal medicine and two hundred and fifty two of the surgery in the ward with six beds. The result of this research exhibits that the income and expenditure of the hospital could be improved by changing parts of wards into private ones(containing the maximum profit per a unit of width) in case the scale of the number of beds is reset with the consideration of the profit per the unit width. In the near future it's strongly expected that the research for the more scientific standard of the allotment of labour cost by ward class and for definition of the optimum scale of the number of beds that actualize the maximum profit with the change of the three elements of the prime cost: cost of materials; labor costs; management expenses.