• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.418-429
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• 2020

Background: This study aims to analyze the cost and the length of stay (LOS) of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients with coronary artery stenting according to the characteristics of individuals and institutions. Methods: The data was collected from Korean National Health Insurance Service's customized database in 2010 and 2015. Chi-square test, t-test, analysis of variance, and multilevel analysis were performed. Results: The intraclass correlation coefficients for cost were 7.02% in 2010, 5.61% in 2015 and for LOS were 3.17%, 1.40%, respectively. The average costs were 9,067,000 won in 2010 and 9,889,000 won in 2015 (p<0.0001). However, the cost in 2015 was lower than the cost applying increased fee. The costs increased in aged 50-59 years, 60-69 years, and aged ≥70 years versus in aged under 49 years. The cost was higher in Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) 3 to 4 and ≥5 than in CCI 0. The costs were lower in male, medical aid recipients, metropolises, and local hospitals in other regions in 2010. LOS decreased from 8.1 days in 2010 to 7.4 days in 2015. It decreased in male, high income group, and the group of admission via emergency room. However, it increased in higher ages and medical aid recipients, and it also increased when CCI rose. The Internal Herfindahl Index was related to LOS in 2010. Conclusion: The variation of hospital level was small compared to the patient level. Therefore, it is important to implement applicable policies at the patient level in order to reduce cost and LOS of AMI patients.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.9-17
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to draw out objective bases for selecting various applicable facilities in case of the establishment of rainwater management strategies. To do so, sixteen facilities were selected from decentralized rainwater management systems that induce rainwater infiltration and detention as well as centralized end-of-pipe type infiltration and detention facilities in local areas. With these facilities, it attempted to evaluate them in terms of sustainability, pollutant elimination, flood control capacity and costs and subsequently analyzed correlations between each characteristic. The outcomes of the analysis were as follows: First was the analysis of characteristics between decentralized rainwater management systems and end-of-pipe rainwater management systems. From the decentralized rainwater management systems, the mulden-rigolen system and grass swale at street level had the highest in the total of the four items while the totals of the underground detention tank and temporary detention site were highest in end-of-pipe rainwater management systems. After analyzing the correlation between different types of facilities and each variable, it can be said that decentralized rainwater management systems have a higher correlation than end-of-pipe rainwater management systems in terms of sustainability whereas the latter are better in flood control capacity than the former. Second, the analysis of correlation in variables of each facility is as follows: first, there is a negative correlation between sustainability value and flood control capacity value; and there is a positive correlation between flood control capability and pollutants elimination. In addition, it revealed that the higher the flood control and pollutant elimination capability the higher the facility costs. Based on these assessments, it is possible to use them as objective selection criteria for facility application in case of site development project or complex plan.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.199-217
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• 2008

Many studies have identified the determinants of shippers' selection of ports, and of these, a number have repetitively cited major elements. However, different researchers came up with somewhat different research results depending on the position and preference of research targets. Accordingly, to deduce the determinants of shippers' selection of Gwangyang Port, appropriate research and analysis is required in addition to literature study. This study first deduced from previous studies the determinants that have influence on shippers when selecting a port and positively analyzed the effects of those determinants on the shippers using Gwangyang Port. In this regard, whether shippers using Gwangyang Port have continuously used the port was set as a dependent variable, and port service, port facilities, location of ports, port costs, and other determinants for port selection deduced in the previous studies were set as independent variables. This study's analysis finds shippers using Gwangyang Port are all influenced by the elements of port service, port facilities, location of ports, and port costs in their selection of Gwangyang Port. Their degree of importance is in the order of port costs, location of ports, port service and port facilities. This indicates that shippers consider port costs and location of ports more important than port facilities in their selection of a port.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.527-534
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• 2020

A significant factor in construction work is cost. At early- and advanced-stage design, costs should be calculated to derive realistic cost estimates according to unit price calculation. Based on these estimates, the economic feasibility of construction work is assessed, and whether to proceed is determined. Through the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology, the construction cost index has been calculated by indirect methods after both the producer price index and construction market labor have been reprocessed to easily adjust the price changes of construction costs in Korea, and the Institute has announced it since 2004. As of January 2000, however, the construction cost index was released, and this has a time constraint on the correction and use of past construction cost data to the present moment. Variables were calculated to compute a rough construction cost that utilized past construction costs through surveys of the producer price index and the construction market labor force consisting of the construction cost index. After significant independent variables among the many variables were selected through correlation analysis, the construction cost index from 1970 to 1999 was calculated and presented through multiple regression analysis. This study therefore has prominent significance in terms of proposing a method of calculating rough construction costs that utilize construction costs that pre-date the 2000s.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.297-304
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• 2020

Design for Safety(DfS) at the design stage is introduced and executed in order to fundamentally reduce the occurrence of construction safety accidents in Korea. Therefore, in this study, the construction method selected by Design for Safety can reduce safety accidents, but the effects on construction duration and costs were examined to confirm the effectiveness of various aspects. The construction method of the structural frame for the exterior wall cladding of the building, which have the factors for the fall accident, was selected for construction safety and compared and analyzed in terms of construction duration and costs. As a result, it was found to be effective not only in terms of safety, but also in terms of construction duration and costs. Therefore, it is considered that the construction method selected by the Design for Safety at the design stage will have a positive effect on the entire construction project.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.393-410
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• 2013

We employ a threshold vector error correction models (TVECM) to investigate the nonlinear dynamic adjustment of gasoline prices in Korea. We consider 10 regional gasoline markets including Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Incheon, Kwangju, Daejeon, Ulsan, Kangwon, Chungbuk, Jeonbuk and construct 9 price differences against Seoul. We use the bootstrap procedure suggested by Hansen (1999) and generalized by Lo and Zivot (2001) to show that three-regime TVECM is suitable for our analysis. Results indicate the gasoline price adjustment processes are nonlinear. Our estimation shows that Seoul-Daejeon, Seoul-Daegu and Seoul-Ulsan have bigger transaction costs than other market pairs and thus gasoline prices of these three regional markets are lower than that of Seoul. Gasoline prices of the other 6 regional markets are close to Seoul's price. One interesting finding is that the transaction costs are not proportional to geographical distances. This implies that transportation costs are not the main factor of the transaction costs. The transaction costs may depends on the competition intensity of gasoline markets in supply side.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.653-661
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• 2017

This study compares and analyzes the operation costs of traditional and direct delivery strategies considering carbon emissions. For the determination of minimum operation costs and order quantity, we use the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) model, which is the proper method for calculate the operation costs by logistics strategy. Using the classical EOQ model, we expand the EOQ model considering carbon emissions and domestic logistics environment. We conduct an empirical study on two agri-food logistics strategies under limitation of the carbon emissions using the expanded EOQ model. From the results of the empirical study, we find that the operation costs of direct delivery strategy are about 50% lower than those of the traditional strategy. Economic order quantity is also smaller than that of the traditional strategy. These results indicate that agri-food products can be transported quickly and freshly under direct delivery strategy. Consequently, considering carbon emissions, direct delivery logistics strategy are analyzed to have more positive effect on economic and environmental issues than existing logistics strategy. It is judged that direct strategy will also increase the freshness of agricultural products.

• Journal of Korean Foot and Ankle Society
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.165-169
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• 2011

Purpose: The objective of this study was to analyze diabetic foot patients' direct service costs until the cure of the disease. Materials Methods: The subjects of this study were randomly sampled 60 patients who had been treated for diabetic foot at one of two tertiary hospitals and cured of the disease during from January 2008 to December 2009, and whose diagnostic code was E11.5 or E14.5. Data were collected from medical records and direct service costs were analyzed using data on the payments of individual service charges. Direct service costs spent at other medical institutions for the same disease were excluded. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: The subjects' mean hospital stay was 29 days, and mean period until cure was 132 days. The inpatient cost per patient was 10,844,648 won, outpatient cost was 715,751 won, and home care services cost was 641,854 won, so total direct service cost per patient was 11,913,419 won. The total direct service cost in patients who had their foot amputated was 12,769,822 won, 1.3 times higher than without amputation, who had vascular intervention was 16,219,477 won, 1.9 times higher than non-vascular intervention, who had both infection and artery occlusion was 17,522,435 won, 2.0 times higher than either infection or artery occlusion. Conclusion: In diabetic foot patients, the direct service cost was highest as 17,522,435 won in patients accompanied with both infection and occlusion of lower extremity artery.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.157-166
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• 2010

The aim of this paper was to estimate efficiency using a directional distance function to compare performances of bus agencies to determine if they have made efforts to operate efficiently and reduce emissions and accidents since public transportation reforms 2004. Drivers, mechanics, staff, buses, and fuel were used as input data and vehicle-kilometers (a desirable output), accident costs, and emission costs (undesirable outputs) as output data during June 2005. As a result, the efficiency with undesirable outputs was lower than the efficiency without undesirable outputs. However, the number of efficient agencies was more in case of the consideration of undesirable outputs. The reason is that the number of agencies whose possibility to reduce undesirable outputs are less than the possibility to reduce inputs was increasing, while the efficiency deviation among agencies was larger in case of the consideration of undesirable outputs. Meanwhile, the increase of CNG buses and operating speed and the improvement of mechanical efficiency had positive influence on the efficiency.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.85 no.1
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• pp.11-17
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• 2022

Background: In asthma, consistent control of chronic airway inflammation is crucial, and the use of asthma-controller medication has been emphasized. Our purpose in this study is to compare the incidence of acute exacerbation and healthcare costs related to the use of asthma-controller medication. Methods: By using data collected by the National Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, we compared one-year clinical outcomes and medical costs from July 2014 to June 2015 (follow-up period) between two groups of patients with asthma who received different prescriptions for recommended asthma-controller medication (inhaled corticosteroids or leukotriene receptor antagonists) at least once from July 2013 to June 2014 (assessment period). Results: There were 51,757 patients who satisfied our inclusion criteria. Among them, 13,702 patients (26.5%) were prescribed a recommended asthma-controller medication during the assessment period. In patients using a recommended asthma-controller medication, the frequency of acute exacerbations decreased in the follow-up period, from 2.7% to 1.1%. The total medical costs of the controller group decreased during the follow-up period compared to the assessment period, from $3,772,692 to $1,985,475. Only 50.9% of patients in the controller group used healthcare services in the follow-up period, and the use of asthma-controller medication decreased in the follow-up period. Conclusion: Overall, patients using a recommended asthma-controller medication showed decreased acute exacerbation and reduced total healthcare cost by half.