• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.48-52
• /
• 2018

Background: The current study evaluated the hospital utilization and characteristics of patients who received health care services for acute cerebral infarction outside their own residential area. Methods: Using the 2014 national patient survey data, information on 2,982 patients diagnosed with acute cerebral infarction through emergency department were retrieved for the analyses. Multiple logistic regression was performed to investigate the characteristics associated with using hospitals outside residential area among patients diagnosed with acute cerebral infarction. Results: Fifteen point nine percent of patients admitted for acute cerebral infarction utilized hospitals outside their residential area. Patients residing in a province were 7.7 times more likely to utilize hospitals located outside their residential areas compared to those living in Seoul metropolitan city. Patients living in Gangwon and Jeolla were 0.26 times and 0.48 times more likely to go to hospitals in different geographical areas. Also, patients within the age group of 80 years and over were 0.65 times less likely to be admitted to hospitals outside their residential area compared to those in their 40s-50s. Conclusion: The use of hospitals outside patient's residential area is shown to be substantial, given that the acute cerebral infarction requires immediate recognition and treatment. The findings on the geographical differences in the hospital utilization suggest further investigation.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
• /
• v.35 no.1
• /
• pp.84-88
• /
• 2018

A 33-year-old woman visited the emergency department presenting with fever and dyspnea. She was pregnant with gestational age of 31 weeks and 6 days. She had dysuria for 7 days, and fever and dyspnea for 1 day. The vital signs were as follows: blood pressure 110/70 mmHg, heart rate 118 beats/minute, respiratory rate 28/minute, body temperature $38.7^{\circ}C$, and oxygen saturation by pulse oximetry 84% during inhalation of 5 liters of oxygen by nasal prongs. Crackles were heard over both lung fields. There were no signs of uterine contractions. Chest X-ray and chest computed tomography scan showed multiple consolidations and air bronchograms in both lungs. According to urinalysis, there was pyuria and microscopic hematuria. She was diagnosed with community-acquired pneumonia and urinary tract infection (UTI) that progressed to severe sepsis and acute respiratory failure. We found extended-spectrum beta-lactamase producing Escherichia coli in the blood culture and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in the sputum culture. The patient was transferred to the intensive care unit with administration of antibiotics and supplementation of high-flow oxygen. On hospital day 2, hypoxemia was aggravated. She underwent endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation. After 3 hours, fetal distress was suspected. Under 100% fraction of inspired oxygen, her oxygen partial pressure was 87 mmHg in the arterial blood. She developed acute kidney injury and thrombocytopenia. We diagnosed her with multi-organ failure due to severe sepsis. After an emergent cesarean section, pneumonia, UTI, and other organ failures gradually recovered. The patient and baby were discharged soon thereafter.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
• /
• v.39 no.3
• /
• pp.223-229
• /
• 2022

Background: The first large coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak outside China occurred in Daegu. In response, we developed infection prevention measures for surgical patients during the outbreak at our hospital and retrospectively reviewed the outcomes of COVID-19-related surgical patients. Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 118 COVID-19-related surgical patients and monitored their clinical outcomes until March 31, 2021. We also interviewed healthcare workers who participated in their perioperative care at Kyungpook National University Chilgok Hospital. The perioperative management guidelines for COVID-19-related patients were prepared through multidisciplinary discussions, including the infection control department, surgical departments, and anesthesiology department before and during the COVID-19 outbreak. Results: One standard operating room was temporarily converted to a negative-pressure room by increasing the exhaust air volume, creating a relative pressure of -11.3 Pa. The healthcare workers were equipped with personal protective equipment according to the patient's classification of the risk of COVID-19 transmission. The 118 COVID-19-related patients underwent emergent surgery in the negative-pressure room, including three COVID-19-confirmed patients and five COVID-19-exposed patients. Conclusion: All surgeries of the COVID-19-related patients were performed without specific adverse events or perioperative COVID-19 transmission. Our experience setting up a negative-pressure operating room and conservative perioperative protocol to prevent COVID-19 transmission will help plan and execute infection control measures in the future.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.58-67
• /
• 1995

Background: This paper describes an effort to provide baseline informations for appropriate utilization of emergency room in a tertiary hospital. Methods: Authors have evaluated that the admissions in the emergency room were medically necessary by objective criteria, Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol(AEP), for one month in a tertiary hospital. Data were analysed by chi-square test and multiple logistic regression to exmaine statistical significances at the level of 0.05. Results: The prevalence of inappropriate decisions for admission was found to be 47.8%(154/322). Whether the physician decided the patient to admit or not was affected by type of services, number of departments involved, patients' medical condition, route of visit, and a day of the week visited. Level of appropriateness of admission is significantly related to patients' age, type of services, and a day of the week visited. Conclusion: We found that substantial proportion of admissions through emergency room are medically unnecessary and that non-medical factors are related to physician's for admission decisions and level of appropriateness of admission. This suggests that policy measures be required to relieve the overcrowding problem and to reduce non-emergent utilization of emergency room in a tertiary hospital.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.561-566
• /
• 2008

This is a retrospective clinical study on 2,955 patients who had visited the Emergency Room of Sang-gye Paik Hospital and then been treated in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery during recent 4 years from Aug. 2002 to Dec. 2006. The obtained results were as follows. The total number of patients was 2,955 and the ratio of male to female was 1.72:1. The age distribution peak was the 1st decade (30.8%), followed by the 3rd decade (14.3%) and the 4th decade (14.0%). Trauma (62.3%) was the most frequent cause in dental emergency patients, pulpitis (13.0%) and infection patients were next in order of frequency. In trauma patients group, facial bone injury, tooth injury, soft tissue injury were included and soft tissue injury group was most prevalent, followed by tooth injury group and facial bone group. In total patient, the ratio of admission was 3.5%. We obtained the results of the distribution of primary emergency care in the traumatic injury, causal distribution of the jaw fracture, distribution of related medical department in multiple associated injuries, distribution of emergency care in infection, causal distribution and control methods of oral bleeding, distribution of TMJ disorder. The trauma patient group was major in the dental patients who had visited the emergency room, but other various groups were included. So we should analyze the pattern and the variation of the dental emergent patient to provide the proper treatment.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.163-201
• /
• 2019

Doctor has the duty of an inter-hospital transfer, known as inter-facility or secondary transfer, when the diagnostic and therapeutic facilities required for a patient are not available at the given hospital. Also, the decision to transfer the patient to an another facility is rely on whether ill patient is the benefits of care, including clinical and non-clinical reasons, available at the another facility against the potential risks. Crucial point to note is that issues about 'inter-hospital transfer' is limited to questions occurred in the course of transfer between emergency medicals (facilities). 'emergency medical (facility)' is specified by Medical Law, article 3 and the duty of an inter-hospital transfer includes any possible adverse events, medical or technical, during the transfer. Because each medical facility has an different ability to care for a patient in an emergency condition, coordination between the referring and receiving hospitals' emergency medicals would be important to ensure prompt transfer to the definitive destination avoiding delay at an emergency. Simultaneously, transfer of documents about the transfer process, medical record and investigation reports are important materials for maintaining continuity of medical care. Although the duty of an inter-hospital transfer is recognized as one of duty of doctor and more often than not it occurs, there is constant legal conflict between a doctor and a patient related to the duty of the inter-hospital transfer. Therefore, we need clear and specific legal standard about the inter-hospital transfer. This paper attempts to review the Supreme Court's cases associated to the inter-hospital transfer and to compare opinion of the cases with guideline for an inter-hospital transfer already given. Furthermore, this article is intended to broaden our horizons of understanding the duty of an inter-hospital transfer and I wish this article helps to resolve the settlement and case dealt with the duty of inter-hospital transfer.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.199-212
• /
• 2001

This research, aiming at analyzing the Emergency Medical Technicians' duties prior to establishing a baseline for question development in the national exams to qualify for the EMTs, investigated the importance and frequency per unit specified in the description with the EMTs to be subjects working on the task spot by means of questionnaires. The EMT duties were classified into 9 items like 1) the notification and response, 2) the scene size-up, 3) the patient assessment, 4) the emergency care, 5) the patient transport, 6) the duties at hospital clinics, 7) the operational management, 8) the receiving and responding to a call, 9) the self-development, and put the functional tasks into 52 items, describing the task elements into 177 items, and then questioned 112 EMTs working on the spot from July 21 through August 30, 2000, which showed the following results. 1) The distribution of subjects' career showed the highest rate with 33.9% for those who careered "less than a year", only 13.4% for those with more than 4 years and the highest rate with 43.8% for those who aged at 20-25. And 70.5% of all those who were questioned was the junior college graduates, 58.9% for those working at fire station and 29.5% working at hospital clinics. 2) Looking at the distribution of frequency and importance for each task element, questioning 'the patients main symptoms', 'accidental type', 'place of the patients identification' showed the highest rate in both frequency and importance in the field of "notification and response". 3) In the "scene size-up", identifying the patients showed the highest rate of frequency and importance, compared to other field of tasks, among which "identifying the patients' state" showed the highest rate of frequency (2.66) and importance (2.81). 4) In the "patient assessment", "identifying the patients" showed the high rate of frequency and importance in most elements of task, especially the importance showed the highest rate with 2.83 for the task of airway management and the cervical immobilization during "the primary assessment", and the frequency showed the highest rate for questioning the past case of the task of grasping the patients' history. 5) In the "emergency care", "the management of the heart attacked patients" and "the advanced cardiac life support" showed a high rate in the importance, whereas the frequency showed a very low rate. The high rate of frequency during the emergent task was the management of "musculoskeletal system injury patients" and of "the gastro-intestinal and urinary genital system injury patient support." In care of the patients with heart attack, the management of the airway showed the highest rate with 2.95, whereas the management of alcoholic abused patients and of dying patients, showed comparatively lower rate of assessment in the importance. The frequency of tasks showed the highest rate with 2.69 in the control of bleeding and the lowest with 0.47 in the management of abnormal delivery of child. 6) As to the patient transport, "the emergency transport" showed the highest rate with 2.74 and the unemergent transport with 2.55 in the importance, and the task importance at hospital showed the highest rate with 2.89 in managing the cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and with 2.60 in identifying the patient state. 7) Of all the tasks related with "operational task", the high importance was to "educate for the management of the first responder", but the frequency of tasks mostly showed a low rate and "receiving and responding to a call" showed relatively a high rate of importance and frequency. And related with "the self-development", "the health care management" and "the stress control" on working spot showed a high rate, but the frequency mostly showed a low rate.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
• /
• v.36 no.1
• /
• pp.36-46
• /
• 2011

Objectives: To investigate the experience and competence of physicians providing emergency medical services at public health sub-centers on remote Korean islands. Methods: This study enrolled 79 doctors who work at public health sub-centers on remote Korean islands. Data were collected in December 2009 via self-administered e-mail questionnaires. The response rate was 44.3%. Results: Emergent situations occurred at most (58.68%) of the public health sub-centers that were surveyed in December 2009. An average of 1.92 cases required treatment by public health physicians. Only 20.25% of the physicians were specialists in emergency medicine, while the remainder were general practitioners (GPs) without clinical experience as emergency doctors. We also found that the physicians we surveyed had insufficient knowledge of emergency medical care. At some health centers only one doctor was available, and there was no medical team in holiday, although most of the physicians indicated that the ideal number of doctors per center was two or three. In cases of emergency, patients were often sent to the mainland by ship without receiving first-aid treatment. The public health sub-centers lacked the necessary medical equipment to save lives in emergencies and lacked escort systems for emergency patients. Conclusions: The Korean government should address the importance of providing emergency care in remote areas. Health administrators should provide suitable manpower, medical equipment, guidelines for emergency medicine, and education for public health physicians on remote islands.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.12 no.8
• /
• pp.501-513
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this study was to examine experiences of caring parents-in-law in Korea among daughters-in-law who are currently caring their parents-in-law while living with them, or have experienced such care-giving, and who have been married for at least 5 years. Daughters-in-law this study deals with are from three countries: Korean women, Chinese and Japanese women who immigrated to Korea by getting married with Korean husbands. To find out those women who can express their experiences clearly, this study used an intentional sampling method where this study asked the Multicultural Family Support Center to recommend five Chinese and five Japanese housewives who matched the following qualifications: those who have experiences of caring their parents-in-law at home, who have lived in Korea for at least five years, and who had no difficulty in expressing their opinions in Korean language. Korean married women were recommended by the neighbors. This study conducted in-depth interviews to those 15 housewives from Korea, china, and Japan. Before doing the interview, this study gave explanation of the contents and aims of this study to those interview participants over phone, and got the written consent from each of the women. To analyze the interview data, Colaizzi's phenomenological method was used. The emergent themes identified in the findings were as follows: 'positive perception of traditional nature of filial duty', 'help and encouragement by those who are nearby', 'exhausting marriage life', 'Korean family culture that is hard to adapt to', and 'unreasonable male-focused patriarchal culture.'

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.111-124
• /
• 2013

Purpose: We should prepare proper medical service for disaster control as South Korea is not free from terrorism and war, as we experienced through the two naval battles of the Yeonpyeong, one in 1999 and the other in 2002, the sinking of Cheonan in 2010, and the attack against the border island of Yeonpyeong in 2010. Moreover, North Korea's increasingly bellicose rhetoric and mounting military threats against the world demand instant action to address the issue. The aim of this article is to describe our experience with three patients with combat-related gunshot and explosive injuries to their extremities and to establish useful methods for the management of patients with combat-related injuries. Methods: Three personnel who had been injured by gunshot or explosion during either the second naval battle of the Yeonpyeong in 2002 or the attack against the border island of Yeonpyeong in 2010 were included in our retrospective analysis. There were one case of gunshot injury and two cases of explosive injuries to the extremities, and the injured regions were the left hand, the right foot, and the right humerus. In one case, the patient had accompanying abdominal injuries, and his vital signs were unstable. He recovered after early initial management and appropriate emergency surgery. Results: All patients underwent emergent surgical debridement and temporary fixation surgery in the same military hospital immediately after their evacuations from the combat area. After that, continuous administration of antibiotics and wound care were performed, and definite reconstructions were carried out in a delayed manner. In the two cases in which flap operations for soft tissue coverage were required, one operation was performed 5 weeks after the injury, and the other operation was performed 7 weeks after the injury. Definite procedures for osteosynthesis were performed at 3 months in all cases. Complete union and adequate functional recovery were achieved in all cases. Conclusion: The patient should be stabilized and any life-threatening injuries must first be evaluated and treated with damage control surgery. Staged treatment and strict adherence to traditional principles for open fractures are recommended for combat-related gunshot and explosive injuries to the extremities.