• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.29-50
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• 2018

Since 2006, the Korean government has introduced a series of policies to create social service related jobs. Facing the new social risk of Jobless Growth, the newly launched Moon Jae-In administration had no choice but to include job creation in the social service sector as one of the 100 National Tasks for the next five years. The primary purpose of this study is to provide based on the last 10 years' experience a critical analysis of the new government's social service job creation policies. It has been proven that containing budget growth and creating jobs are not compatible goals. The government's control over social service prices has been persistent for the last 10 years serving the purpose of containing social service budget. The author argues that low quality jobs and depressed social service market are the results of such policy. The current problems created by the past policies and a number of new problems that the new government's plan to establish so-called Social Service Corporation might create are discussed, and a set of policy tasks including a social insurance for social services are suggested as alternative solutions for the old and new problems.

• 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.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.58-61
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• 2002

The degree of doctors' autonomy is decided by the relations between the profession and the state. The exclusive right required by doctors is based on knowledge, but it is most often decided by the relations between the profession and the state. The critical factor affecting the status of the medical profession is the span of its control on medical related areas. Therefore, the status of doctors depends on the degree of institutionalization and the span of their control. The status of Korean Oriental Medicine doctors has been largely affected by the governments medical policies. The dramatic change of the status of Korean Oriental Medicine in modern Korea dearly shows the effects of medical policy on the status of a medical system. Under the plural medical system every medical group lobbies for more favorable medical policies. Korean Oriental Medicine doctors have secured an enhanced status in government and expanded the range of medical insurance coverage. Also, they have accomplished the standardization of knowledge in their efforts to expand it. These achievements are the most important aspects of the professionalization of Korean Oriental Medicine. Therefore, we can conclude that the conflicts between Korean Oriental Medicine doctors and government representatives have had significantly positive effects on the professionalization of Korean Oriental Medicine.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.18-48
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• 2004

Health policies in many countries have come under critical scrutiny in recent years. This is because of increasing national health expenditures. Also many persons in health sector have been the perception that resources allocated to health services are not always deployed in an optimal fashion. And they believe that the scope of resources in health services is limited, there is need to search for ways of using existing resources more efficiently. A further concern has been the desire to ensure access to healthcare of various groups on an equitable basis. In some European countries this has been linked to a wish to enhance patient choice and to make service providers more responsive to consumers, while Korea integrated health insurance funds into single fund in 2000. Many European countries are under considerable pressure to review and restructure their health care systems. There are several reasons of pressure to reform. There are demographic changes, pattern of disease change, advances in medical sciences will also give rise to new demands within the health services, public expectations of health services are rising as those who use services demand higher standards of care. These circumstances require the change of health care delivery system based on hierarchical regionalism, which was basis of health care delivery since 1920s. Korea is also under similarly pressure to restructure our own health care systems. We will have good learning from OECD experiences. In this paper we reviewed and compared among OECD countries' various experiences.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.81 no.3
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• pp.175-186
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• 2018

Pneumonia is an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Since 2014, the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) has assessed the overall quality of care among hospitalized adult patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) provided by all medical institutions in Korea. A committee of the Korea Academy of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases developed the hospital inpatient quality measures set for CAP consisting of eight core measures and five monitoring measures. The composite measure score was calculated. The medical records of hospitalized adult patients ages 18 years or more with CAP from October to December 2014 were evaluated. The data of 523 hospitals (42 tertiary hospitals [8.0%], 256 general hospitals [49%], and 225 hospitals [43.0%]) and 15,432 cases (tertiary hospitals, 1,673 cases [10.8%]; general hospitals, 8,803 cases [57.1%]; hospitals, 4,956 cases [32.1%]) were analyzed. We found large variations among institutions in terms of performance of care measures for CAP. For the composite measure score, the mean value was 66.7 (tertiary hospitals, 98.5; general hospitals, 79.2; hospitals, 43.8). Despite significant differences in measure scores between tertiary, general hospitals and hospitals, no significant differences were found in mortality between hospitals. Further studies are needed to determine the care measures appropriate for CAP.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.99-108
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• 2016

Hospice palliative care (HPC) in Korea has developed steadily since its introduction in 1965. Currently, HPC in Korea is targeted only towards terminal cancer patients and their families, and the national health insurance scheme covers only inpatient hospice care for said patients. In recent years, healthcare professionals and policy makers began to recognize the need for HPC services in diverse settings including outside hospital boundaries, and for all terminally-ill patients. A law on HPC passed in January 2016 allows terminally-ill patients to refuse life-sustaining treatments, and will likely facilitate further development of HPC services. It is critical for the government and all interested parties in the medical, academic and social sectors to collaborate to ensure its success once it takes effect in 2017. This article will briefly review the half-century history of HPC in Korea, and discuss how to prepare for and cope with death and, thereby, improve the quality of death.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 2007

This paper develops a Sustainable Regional Economic Growth Model (SREG) which estimates the relation of labor population change and employment increase in each occupation and maximum limits and minimum requirements of employment increase by labor population change in a specified region using multiplier theory. To develop the proposed model, sustainable regional economic growth is defined as a steady increase of labor population over a long term period and the limit of employment increase is defined as the estimated labor population change in the region with no need for commutation from the surrounded areas. Developed model was applied to 67 county in Pennsylvania State and the results revealed that the investment in infrastructure occupations, such as transportation, warehousing, utilities, information, communication, and other public utilities, maximizes the effects for increasing employment, whereas finance, insurance, and real estate occupations have minimum effects for increasing employment. Calculated minimum requirements of occupations show that infra-structure occupations is a critical factor for labor population change and maximum limits of occupations show that agriculture and finance occupations are difficult to increase independently.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.57-68
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• 2000

This study has been performed to review critical issues affecting continuous residence in profit(self-paid) assistant living facilities for the elderly in the United States. There are three factors influencing continuous residence of frail elderly in the facilities as long as they want without involuntary discharge : Financial ability, behavioral aspects, and facility management situation. Regarding financial ability, income, purchase of insurance policy, cashable assets, willingfulness to pay, and health status were found to be crucial determinants of continuous residence. Overall, 40-50% of those aged 65+ are financially able to stay in the assistant facilities as long as they want, without involuntary discharge. As for behavioral aspects, extroversions, congeniality, culture & life style, conscientiousness, preference for person, and physiological habits were found to be crucial determinants of continuous residence. As for the management situation, it is essential that facilities reach nature level of self-governing rights of the older residents and good local images, and conflicts among the residents and managing parties be resolved on the agreeable standards of inspectors. finally in this study, it is proposed that in Korea, national pension authority offer a liability package for assistant residence, for the case of individual bankruptcy.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information Security & Cryptology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.1605-1618
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• 2016

In recent years, security incidents - such as personal information leakage, homepage hacking, DDoS and etc. - targeting finance companies(banks, securities companies, credit card companies, insurance companies and etc.) have increased steadily. In this paper, we analyze problems of information security management level in the existing electronic financial infrastructure from perspective of compliance and information security certification system and propose improvements to enable sustainable high level of information security activities under a comprehensive management system for the financial sector characteristics using ISMS, SECU-STAR and CNIVAM system.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.617-624
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• 2004

Purpose. Korean American women have twice the rate of cervical cancer than white women and demonstrate low rates in participation in cervical cancer screening. This study was to describe the perceptions about cervical cancer and factors related to cervical cancer screening among Korean American women. Method. Focus group methods. Results. Five themes emerged. First, knowledge about cervical cancer; misconceptions about cervical cancer, its causes, reproductive anatomy and the treatment Second, perceived meanings of having cervical cancer; most of the women felt that cervical cancer represented a loss of femininity and existential value of woman-hood. Third, knowledge about cervical cancer screening; regular medical check-ups were necessary for early detection and prevention of cervical cancer. Forth, experiences and perceived meanings of cervical cancer screening; the participants expressed their feelings; embarrassment, fear, shame and shyness. Fifth, practices of cervical cancer screening; various intervals in participating in cervical cancer screening. But they mentioned several deterrents, language, insurance, time constraint, embarrassment, fear of the screening results, misbelief about susceptibility, lack of health prevention behavior, and lack of information written in Korean. Conclusion: Results emphasize the critical need for culturally appropriate health education to encourage participation of Korean American women in cervical cancer screening.