Quality Improvement in Health Care (한국의료질향상학회지)

Korean Society for Quality in Health Care (한국의료질향상학회)
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Current Status of Repeated Hospitalization in South Korea: Focused on Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions

국내 반복입원의 현황과 환자 특성: 외래진료 민감질환을 중심으로

  • Jung, Hyemin (Office of Education and Human Resource Development, Seoul National University Hospital) ;
  • Kim, Hyun Joo (Department of Nursing Science, Shinsung University) ;
  • Lee, Jin Yong (Department of Health Policy and Management, Seoul National University College of Medicine)
  • 정혜민 (서울대학교병원 교육인재개발실) ;
  • 김현주 (신성대학교 간호학과) ;
  • 이진용 (서울대학교 의과대학 의료관리학교실)
  • Received : 2021.10.01
  • Accepted : 2021.12.10
  • Published : 2021.12.31
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Abstract

Purpose: Repeated hospitalization could be a proxy of unnecessary or preventive admission in South Korea where barriers to hospitalization are relatively low. This study aimed to estimate the current status of repeated hospitalization due to ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC) in South Korea. Methods: Using the National Health Information Database, repeated hospitalization databases were constructed in units of episodes for patients who had been admitted more than twice between January 2017 and December 2018. The number of hospitalizations, total in-hospital days, and total medical expenditure were calculated and compared by patient characteristics in both of the entire patient group and the ACSC patient group. Results: Of total hospitalization episodes, 26.6% reported repeated admission, and 6.7% of repeated hospitalization was due to ACSC. A total of 183,110 patients with ACSC had been admitted an average of 2.9 times and spent an average of KRW5,630,118. In other words, KRW1,309 billion had been spent for repeated hospitalization due to ACSC. The scale of medical expenditure was relatively large in the highest and lowest socioeconomic status. Conclusion: Repeated hospitalization for ACSC can be considered a simple and intuitive indicator when assessing unnecessary hospitalizations or evaluating healthcare policy.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by a clinical research grant-in-aid from the Seoul Metropolitan Government-Seoul National University Boramae Medical Center (03-2019-10). We would like to thank the National Health Insurance Service in Korea for allowing us access to the national health insurance database.

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