• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.163-193
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• 1997

Medical services are a fundamental and essential service in all urban areas. The location and accessibility of medical service facilities and institutions are critical to the diagnosis, control and prevention of illness and disease. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study on the location of medical facilities in Kwangju and the utilization of these facilities by the inhabitants. The following information is a summary of the findings: (1) Korea, like many countries, is now witnessing an increase in the age of its population as a result of higher living standards and better medical services. Korea is also experiencing a rapid increase in health care costs. To ensure easy access to medical consultation, diagnosis and treatment by individuals, the hierarchical efficient location of medical facilities, low medical costs, equalized medical services, preventive medical care is important. (2) In Korea, the quality of medical services has improved significantly as evident by the increased number of medical facilities and medical personnel. However, there is still a need for not only quantitative improvements but also for a more equitable distribution of and location of medical services. (3) There are 503 medical facilities in Kwangju each with a need to service 2,556 people. This is below the national average of 1,498 inhabitants per facility. The higher locational quotient and satisfactory population per medical facility showed at the civic center. On the other hand, problem regions such as the traditional residential area in Buk-Gu, Moo-deung mountain area and the outer areas of west Kwangju still maintain rural characteristics. (4) In the study area there are 86 general medicine clinics which provide basic medical services. i. e. one clinic per every 14,949 residents. As a basic service, its higher locational quotient showed in the residential area. The lower population concentration per clinic was found in the civic center and in the former town center, Songjeong-dong. In recently build residential areas and in the civic center, the lack of general medicine clinics is not a serious medical services issue because of the surplus of medical specialists in Korea. People are inclined to seek a consultation with a specialist in specific fields rather than consult a general practitioner. As a result of this phenomenon, there are 81 internal medicine facilities. Of these, 32.1% provide services to people who are not referred by a primary care physician but who self-diagnose then choose a medical facility specializing in what they believe to be their health problem. Areas in the city, called dongs, without any internal facilities make up 50% of the total 101 dongs. (5) There are 78 surgical facilities within the area, and there is little difference at the locational appearance from internal medicine facilities. There are also 71 pediatric health clinics for people under 15 years of age in this area, represents one clinic per 5,063 people. On the quantitative aspect, this is a positive situation. Accessibility is the most important facility choice factor, so it should be evenly located in proportion to demander distribution. However, 61% of 102 dongs have no pediatric clinics because of the uneven location. (6) There are 43 obstetrical and gynecological clinics in Kwangju, and the number of residents being served per clinic is 15,063. These services need to be given regularly so it should increase the numbers. There are 37 ENT clinics in the study area with the lower concentration in Dong-gu (32.4%) making no locational differences by dong. There are 23 dermatology clinics with the largest concentration in Dong-Gu. There are 17 ophthalmic clinics concentrated in the residential area because of the primary function of this type of specialization. (7) The use of general medicine clinics, internal medicine clinics, pediatric clinics, ENT clinics by the inhabitants indicate a trend toward primary or routine medical services. Obstetrics and gynecology clinics are used on a regular basis. In choosing a general medicine clinic, internal medicine clinic, pediatric clinic, and a ENT clinic, accessibility is the key factor while choice of a general hospital, surgery clinic, or an obstetrics and gynecology clinic, thes faith and trust in the medical practitioner is the priority consideration. (8) I considered the efficient use of medical facilities in the aspect of locational and management and suggest the following: First, primary care facilities should be evenly distributed in every area. In Kwangju, the number of medical facilities is the lowest among the six largest cities in Korea. Moreover, they are concentrated in Dong-gu and in newly developed areas. The desired number of medical facilities should be within 30 minutes of each person's home. For regional development there is a need to develop a plan to balance, for example, taxes and funds supporting personnel, equipment and facilities. Secondly, medical services should be co-ordinated to ensure consistent, appropriate, quality services. Primary medical facilities should take charge of out-patient activities, and every effort should be made to standardize and equalize equipment and facility resources and to ensure ongoing development and training in the primary services field. A few specialty medical facilities and general hospitals should establish a priority service for incurable and terminally ill patients. (9) The management scheme for the inhabitants' efficient use of medical service is as follows: The first task is to efficiently manage medical facilities and related services. Higher quality of medical services can be accomplished within the rapidly changing medical environment. A network of social, administrative and medical organizations within an area should be established to promote information gathering and sharing strategies to better assist the community. Statistics and trends on the rate or occurrence of diseases, births, deaths, medical and environment conditions of the poor or estranged people should be maintained and monitored. The second task is to increase resources in the area of disease prevention and health promotion. Currently the focus is on the treatment and care of individuals with illness or disease. A strong emphasis should also be placed on promoting prevention of illness and injury within the community through not only public health offices but also via medical service facilities. Home medical care should be established and medical testing centers should be located as an ordinary service level. Also, reduced medical costs for the physically handicapped, cardiac patients, and mentally ill or handicapped patients should be considered.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.38C no.12
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• pp.1106-1113
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• 2013

For patients who have senile mental disorder such as dementia, quantity of excercise and amount of sunlight are important clue for dose and the treatment. Therefore, monitoring health information of daily life is necessary for patients' safety and healthy life. Portable & wearable sensor device and server configuration monitoring data are needed to provide these services for patients. Watch-type device(smart watch) which patients wear and server system are developed in this paper. Smart watch developed includes GPS, accelerometer and illumination sensor, and can obtain real time health information by measuring the position of patients, quantity of exercise and amount of sunlight. Server system includes the sensor data analysis algorithm and web server that doctor and protector can monitor through sensor data acquired from smart watch. The proposed data analysis algorithm acquires quantity of exercise information and detects step count in patients' motion acquired from acceleration sensor and to verify this, the three cases with fast pace, slow pace, and walking pace show 96% of the experimental result. If developed u-Healthcare System for dementia patients is applied, more high-quality medical service can be provided to patients.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.8 no.8
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• pp.127-136
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• 2017

The purpose of the study was to investigate the awareness of basic emergency care by private ambulance drivers. A self-reported questionnaire was completed by 300 private ambulance drivers in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon from February 20 to April 1, 2013. The questionnaire consisted of basic life support related airway management(3 items), respiratory management(9 items), circulation(4 items), consciousness(4 items), and infection control(3 items). The awareness of infection control accounted for 87% and emergency care including airway, breathing, consciousness, and respiration was 60%. The knowledge of emergency care was 15.20(maximum 23.0 points). Consciousness was 2.55(maximum 4.0), airway management was 2.08(maximum 3.0), respiration was 5.35(maximum 9.0), circulation was 2.56(maximum 4.0), and infection control was 2.64(maximum 4.0). In order to improve the quality of private ambulance drivers, it is important to develop the emergency care program and expansion.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.370-379
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• 2013

In an effort to resolve the burden of patients hiring patient sitters, this study sought to review the Ministry-of-Health-and-Welfare-initiated pilot program of running hospitals without patient-sitter to identify its background, operation method, performance results, and limitations. Based on the review, the study derived the necessity of introducing a hospital system without patient-sitter as well as its operation and systemization methods. The ministry-initiated pilot programs were conducted twice: in 2007, and in 2010. A review of the 2007 pilot program revealed that the patients and families' satisfaction score with nursing services was 9.1 points (on a 10-point scale), their intention to reuse the service was 97.8%, and their intention to recommend the service was 98.0%, all high scores. Appropriate nursing manpower, derived from the 2007 pilot project, indicated 2.3 patients per nurse and 4.0 patients per nurse aid. The 2010 pilot project results indicated that the patients and families' satisfaction was high at 8.0-9.1 points (on a 10-point scale), and that the intention to reuse and recommend the service was also high. Compared with the 2007 pilot project, however, the types of medical institutions and the nurse to patient ratios were diverse, offering limitations. In conclusion, to systemize hospitals without patient-sitter, it is necessary to develop policies designed to establish criteria for the appropriate nurse to patient ratio and skill-mix, to standardize the work, to prepare finances for securing nursing staff, to evaluate the nursing demands, and to monitor the quality management.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.391-396
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• 2014

This study was conducted to be helpful to the expansion and development of hospice and to provide the basic data for Hospice palliative care by identifying the general characteristics of curriculum of hospice perception, level of perception, practice experiences, routes, times, meanings, needs, targets, supply, types, organizations, experiences, use of hospice and physical, emotional, social and spiritual aspects of hospice services. Study tools which were used in this study were composed of three sections. Survey paper is 3-point Likert scale which is composed of 6 questions of general characteristics, nominal scale of 24 questions about hospice perception and hospice service contents. Respondents can reply with 3 answers of Necessary (1), Mediocre (2), and Not necessary (3), in physical, emotional, social and spiritual aspects. Score ranges of this tool are from minimum of 24 points to maximum of 72 points and higher scores mean higher perception of Hospice. Hospice is a behavior to take care of terminal patients who are waiting for death and their family and it should be conducted physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually in order that the patients could meet their last moments of life by maintaining a high quality of life, human dignity and peace for the rest of their lives. Hospice could be mentioned to be a comprehensive care to relieve the pains and grieves of bereaved family.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.407-414
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• 2016

This study was conducted to provide basic data to evaluate the appropriateness of convalescent hospitalization treatment by investigating the number of hospitalization days and the total treatment expenses of a total of 44,037 monthly billing statements requested from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. Evaluated data consisted of medical care expenses of patients of the diem payment system hospitalized at convalescent hospitals in Daejeon, Chungnam, Chungbuk and Sejong from January through December of 2014. According to the analysis result of the general characteristics of the study objects and the canonical correlation analysis of the top 15 main diagnosis names, 7 canonical functions have been deducted. Among them, six canonical functions were shown to be statistically significant (p<0.001), and canonical function 1 had a chi-squared value of 5955.49 and 98 degrees of freedom at p<0.001 level. Overall, the results indicated that if health and welfare service in the regional society is magnified, social hospitalization can be reduced.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.58-64
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• 2018

Purpose: This study was conducted to evaluate the impact of a two-week palliative care education program on Korean Hospice volunteers. Methods: A total of 71 volunteers were assigned to two groups: Group A (intervention, n=34) and Group B (usual care, n=37). Group A received six sessions of palliative care education for two weeks. The level of volunteers' motivation, death anxiety, and communication with the dying were measured at baseline and after the program ended. Results: The palliative care education program had positive influence on the volunteers' motivation (t=2.341, P=0.022), death anxiety (t=-2.166, P=0.034), and communication with the dying (t=-2.808, P=0.006). Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that a palliative care education program may be an effective way to boost hospice volunteers' motivation, ease their death anxiety and improve their communication with the dying.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.65-72
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• 2016

Personal Health Record(PHR) service can be helpful to patients with diseases requiring strict everyday care and medical treatment, such as diabetes or cancer. In this paper, we propose a PHR system specialized in collecting and analyzing health record data of cancer patients, and present the process of how the system can improve the efficiency of cancer treatment process. Through the smart device application, cancer PHR system obtains daily PHR data which is highly related and critical to cancer therapy. The analysis report is provided to the medical staff with an available format suited for Electronic Medical Record used at medical institution. With the final result of PHR analysis which is easily merged with medical chart, most efficient Chemotherapy treatment can be provided for the patients. Also it is possible for the patients to give the information of side-effect and other pain experience during therapy to their doctors without loss of information. The proposed PHR system has the effect of improving the quality of patient care by allowing the medical staff to acquire the main objective data necessary for drug prescription and medical care benefits.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.35-45
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• 2009

Emergency medical center(EMC) is the place for patients who need medical treatment immediately due to a disease, childbirth, or all sorts of accidents. Currently, most of EMCs use temporary beds because regular EMC beds cannot afford to serve all incoming patients. However, since it decreases the quality of service(QoS) of EMC patients and their guardians and efficiency of the EMC, some improvements are highly required to diminish the usage of temporary beds. The system duration time is one of the typical QoSs. This thesis proposes the information which is critical to make a better decision for cut down the number of temporary beds without sacrificing QoS of patients. The key point is to control the duration time of medical treatments for the consultation and hospitalization process, since it is the major reason of overcrowding in EMC and the usage of temporary beds. In this paper, we proposed an Arena simulation model reflecting real world substantially. Arena is one of the most widely accepted simulation softwares in the world. Using the developed model, we can obtain the optimal EMC operation parameters through simulation experiments. Optquest, included in the Arena, is used to make the developed simulation model collaborate with an optimization model. The results showed one can determine the set of optimal operation parameters decreasing the required number of temporary beds without deteriorating EMC patient's QoS.

• 한국노년학
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.631-647
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of climacteric women's attitude to developmental phenomena and their menopausal symptoms on their meaning of life in an attempt to provide some information on the improvement of climacteric women's quality of life. The subjects in this study were 313 women who resided in different regions involving a large city D and another city C. They were aged between 40 and 60 and were going through their menopause. They were aged between 40 and 60 and were going through their menopause. The subjects were selected by convenient sampling, which was one of nonprobability sampling methods. The collected data were analyzed by the statistical package SPSS. The major findings of the study were as follows: First, the climacteric women didn't take a positive attitude toward developmental phenomena. They occasionally suffered severe menopausal symptoms, and they didn't find a great meaning in their life. Second, the climacteric women found a more meaning in their life when they took a more positive attitude to developmental phenomena, and those who underwent severer menopausal symptoms found a less meaning in their life. Third, the climacteric women's meaning of life was under the influence of their attitude toward developmental phenomena and menopausal symptoms. Specifically, their attitude to menopause and mental symptoms had a large impact on that. Given the findings of the study, social welfare intervention should be provided for climacteric women to promote their physical health related to menopausal symptoms and psychological health related to attitude toward developmental phenomena to find a more meaning in their life. Besides, local welfare centers should be open to climacteric women as one of governmental policies so that they could lead a healthy life. Education should be provided for them to be ready for their own menopause, and social welfare counseling service should be offered from diverse angles