• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.219-237
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• 1998

Economists have identified informed consumer choice as one element of a better-functioning health care market, and thus increased attention is directed to the role of information in the health care system. In this country, however, little work has been done for understanding consumers' search behavior in health care market. Based upon this observation, expectant mothers' information search for the choice of delivery care institution was investigated. In doing so, two hypotheses were proposed: 1) Those women who were more active in the search for information would make choice of a delivery care institution with more confidence and would feel greater subsequent satisfaction. 2) The activeness of expectant mothers in information search would depend upon their various personal characteristics, such as socio-economic status, obstetric conditions, and knowledge and attitudes in relation to delivery and health care. The data used for the analysis were collected through face-to-face interviews with those women who had childbirth during the period from January 1, 1996 to the date of interview in February 1998. The survey was conducted using prepared structured questionnaire in Seoul. The sample was drawn from each of arbitrarily defined four regions of Seoul, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest, in proportion to the number of births reported in 1996 in each of them. The distribution of the interviewed women by educational level was made similar to that of mothers of new babies reported in 1996. The sample size was planned to be about 300, but ended up with 319. The results of analysis were generally consistent with the proposed hypotheses. Apparently, information increased expectant mothers' confidence in selecting a delivery care institution and subsequent satisfaction with the institution. Indication is that policy efforts should be strengthened to produce and disseminate relevant, comprehensible and credible information that can aid patient decision making. Also, attention should be directed to motivate patients to actively engage in information search from adequate sources.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.112-134
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to analyze the consumer's expectation before the health care service and the consumer's satisfaction after it. The participants of the study are inpatients in a general hospital located in Seoul. The resources were collected from the self-administration questionnaire survey run parallel with face to face interview. In order to measure the degree of the consumer's expectation, 349 samples were collected from the first questionnaire survey on the date of admission to the hospital. The second questionnaire survey was carried out on the date of discharge to the hospital with the participants responding to the first questionnaire survey. There are 154 samples collected from this survey. The results from the analysis of these resources are as follow. First, the survey shows that one of the highest consumers' expectations was about the generosity, kindliness and sincerity from the staff at the hospital, specially from doctors. Second, according to the analysis of the factors affecting the expectations of the consumers, with regard to path of admission to a hospital relating to patient's features, outpatient who gets into a hospital expected good medical care much more than the other patients. In regard of doctor's features, patients usually and highly expect good medical care from doctors who have good carrier and much experience. Third, according to the second questionnaire survey, what patients are satisfied most with is about the generosity and sincerity from staff at a hospital, especially from doctors and their gem attitudes. The results from survey show that the differences among the degree of consumers' satisfaction are very variable, depending on surrounding environments and facilities. The only fact that expectation didn't meet with satisfaction appeared to the case about technology and skill of medical care and the case about updated medical skills and equipments. Fourth, comparing the degree of expectation with the degree of satisfaction of consumers, correlative analysis was concerned significantly and specifically about the part of overall cleanliness relating to facilities and surrounding environments, the items about medical examination and test plan procedure relating to skill of medical care, professional specialties and convenience for procedure, and the items about satisfying explanations and concern about patients from doctors relating to staff's generosity and sincerity. Fifth, the analysis of the factors affecting the degree of how much patients are satisfied with shows that relating to sociodemographical features, patients are not satisfied with the case when the time and process of medical treatment are getting longer. It is surveyed that consumer were satisfied with the motivation to visit a hospital and the insurance type in patient's feature and so were the medical department and the factor of the degree of the expectation in disease's feature. Sixth, according to analysis based on the survey, patients would join again a hospital when they get satisfaction from the medical care and also they want to come again regarding to doctor's capability. For example, when doctors are old, have a good carrier and much experience, patients would come again. As seen from the above, consumers are usually satisfied with the medical treatment more than that they expected before. They would intend to use again when they get satisfaction from the medical care provided at a hospital. Patients and consumers highly expect good attitude as well as capacity from medical doctors and they are also generally satisfied with those things. Therefore, in order to increase the degree of consumer's satisfaction and their intention to come again, the hospital staff would have to commit themselves to achieve high quality service continuously and would have to make an effort to offer the finest quality service.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.25 no.1 s.37
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• pp.53-63
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• 1992

There are increasing interest and need for information on health care consumer with the significance of hospital marketing and strategic planning being increasingly emphasized. This study was conducted to investigate the criteria for selection of medical facilities according to the characteristics of health care consumer by the types of medical services on a sample of 1,500 population aged 20 years and above. Major findings are as follows ; 1. When considering the criteria for selection of medical facilities into two factors, namely, quality or convenience factors, convenience factor was the major contributor for outpatient and dental services whereas it was quality factor for inpatient services. 2. Females and those residing in large cities selected medical facilities based on convenience factor in the outpatient services. In the case of inpatient service, persons who considered their present health status to be good and whose ages were 50 years old and above choose medical facilities based on quality factor. 3. Persons who considered medical facilities to be profit-making tended to choose medical facilities based on convenience factor for outpatient services. There were no differences in the cases of inpatient and dental services. 4. There was no significant difference on the criteria for selection of medical facilities according to the decision maker for selection or trust on medical facilities. On the use of health service information, selection of medical facilities was based on quality factor for those who made more use of the information in the cases of outpatient and dental services. 5. Analysis using the logistic regression model on the criteria for the selection of medical facilities with the characteristics of health care consumer as independent variables was performed. The selection of medical facilities was significantly related with residential area, sex, and use of information on medical facilities for outpatient services and with age, average monthly income, and perception of health status for inpatient services. For dental services significant association with residential area and use of information on medical facilities was seen. The results of this study, despite some limitations, can be used as baseline data for marketing and strategic planning of hospital management.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.11-17
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to describe the policy agenda and alternatives for the home health care system in Korea. The home health care system development was not fully integrated while the medical laws were established in 2000, community health law in 1995, and elderly long-term health insurance law in 2007. Because of the increasing population of people over the age of 65 and dramatically decreasing fertility rate, the burden of various health-care expenses has become a great obstacle for the Korean government. Under these circumstances, the home of home health care system in has taken on an important role under the mandate of the national health care system. The types of home health care system in Korean shows a greater contrast from those utilized in other more industrialized countries, such as, U.S. or Japan. In conclusion, the strategy in overcoming the obstacles to enhance home health care system under the national health system would be developing it as a comprehensive and exchangeable consumer-focused organization.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.1-14
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• 2019

Objectives: This study was conducted to analyze the effect of hospital social responsibility(HSR) activities on organizational health and customer orientation. Methods: We conducted an online survey with hospital employees and analyzed the questionnaires of 206 selected respondents. A regression analysis was performed to determine the relationship between independent and dependent variables. Results: First, 'consumer issues', 'community involvement and development', and 'fair operating practice' factors in HSR influenced 'medical environment suitability' in organizational health. The 'fair operating practice' factor in HSR affected 'management environment suitability' and 'community orientation' in organizational health. The 'labor practices' factor in HSR affected 'practices suitability' and 'vitality' in organizational health. Second, the activities on 'consumer issues' and 'environment' in HSR have influenced 'Reliability', 'Reactivity' and 'Tangibility' in Customer Orientation. The activities on 'consumer issues' have affected 'Empathy'. Conclusions: The results of this study provide a positive direction for medical institutions as they conduct HSR activities and provide a basis for establishing effective HSR strategies.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.21-37
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to examine internet agent of IT(Information Technology) in health care industry Since IT is essential for corporate strategy in service management, this section examines IT in health care service, especially from the view of 'Agent Technology' that has been recently issued. Intelligent agent is a new paradigm for developing software applications. More than this, agent-based computing has been hailed as 'the next significant break-through in software development' and 'the new revolution in software'. And health care service is a non-mechanic, human-based service. This paper reviewed what possible suggestions or advices can be made to the health care service. Since many health care services using internet have been attempted over the recent years, this study will hopefully be able to come up with good suggestions from many aspects. Thus, information inequality between producer(physician) and consumer(patient) in health care service will be decreased through the introduction of agent technology.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.167-177
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• 2019

Innovation of genomics technology has recently been extended to Direct To Consumer Genetic Test (DTC-GT) which consumers purchase without requesting the service on medical institutes. In 2016, Korea has introduced the DTC-GT but the market size is small comparing to global market. This study analyzes consumers' purchase intentions and purposes and their influential factors based on 2018 consumer survey. According to the results of binominal and multinominal logistic regression, knowledge after purchase, attitude on medical care benefit, health status are statistically significant on purchase intentions. Purchase purposes are different on age group and related on medical care rather than health care. These results imply that DTC-GT is needed to improve consumer satisfaction, re-purchase and effective care service. This paper is expected to contribute on strategic directions for the new DTC-GT product development.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.212-218
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• 2022

This study aims to understand health care consumer's information searching behavior according to their presence of chronic diseases. For this purpose, 240 patients' data of university hospital located in Seoul were collected by surveys from 9 February to 11 February 2016. For statistical analysis, we used SPSS Ver. 26.0. The main results of this study are as follows: First, Chi-square test showed that chronic patients used expert information sources and experiential information sources more than those without chronic diseases. Second, chronic patients were found to search nutrition management, exercise management, and patient case. Lastly, in the case of hospital-related searches, patients with chronic diseases searched more waiting time and medical expenses than those without chronic diseases. The significance of this study is to provide basic data for efficient information provision and establishment of marketing strategies reflecting information needs of health care consumers.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.159-174
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to examine the health care expenditure of elderly single and elderly couple households whose head is more than 60 years old. The data analyzed for the study were Korean Retirement and Income Study(KRelS) conducted in 2007 by National Pension Corporation. The major finding of this study were as follows: First, the amount of health care expenditure of elderly single households was lower than that of elderly couple households. However, ratio of health care expenditure to total consumption expenditure of elderly single households was larger than that of elderly couple households. Second, the ratio of health care expenditure in consumption expenditure in this study was larger than the ratios in past analyse showed in the previous studies. Third, common factor affecting on health care expenditure of elderly single and elderly couple households was the existence of the family member with chronic disease or handicap. The health care expenditure of elderly singer households was influenced by income, gender and the ownership of national health insurance. The influence of income for elderly singer households seemed to be greater than for elderly couple households. The variables which affected health care expenditure of elderly couple households were age and housing tenure status. The amount and ratio health care expenditure were increased as the age increases. These results show that the health care expenditures for each groups varied according to socio-demographic variables and health-related behavior variables. It is suggested that there should be a discriminative health care policy for each elderly single and elderly couple households. In addition, the health care policy for the elderly households of which member has a chronic disease is certainly necessary. Especially a health care plan for the elderly single households with lower income is in need. For the elderly couple households, the priority group of health care policy would be the high age group.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.85-102
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• 2018

Objectives: In order to cope with the quality and the substantiality issues in long-term care for the elderly, we should have a wider view of long-term system components based on the understanding of health care organizations, management services, support for care providers and beneficiaries, education of the workforce, and management of finance and resources. Methods: For resolving the issues raised and offering guidance in the area of long-term care, we reviewed 20 reports and documents of the government and government-related institutions using the Internet home pages of the Australian government and the related organizations in the health care sector. These organizations are undergoing a huge system reform to implement consumer-directed care since 2015, in the areas of service, resources, finances, organization, and management. Results and conclusions: The study outcomes can have some implications for the long-term care system in Korea based on the differences in the service components. The results can provide basic information for improving the long-term care service, and can have several other implications for long-term care in Korea.