• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.401-414
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• 2005

Purpose: This study was to evaluate the utilization of health care service and to provide supportive data for health care policy making in one urban area in Korea. Method: This study tested the significance of public health service using the database of an university hospital and public health center from Feb. 2000 to Dec. 2004. Data were analyzed by multidimensional analysis and data mining technique and produced the information on the classification of utilization characteristics by main disease and the total cost of use and disease association with the users of the public health center. Results: The Results were as follows: 1) Top 10 diseases in the area accounted for 22.4% of total frequency for the most recent 5 years in university hospital, while 59.0% in public health center. 2) There were significant correlations between university hospital and public health center user's insurance type and place of residence: It showed higher use of public health center for free service beneficiaries residing in Seoul than residents in nearby or local area. The medical insurance types for hospital users were more various than those for public health center users. 3) The use of hospital for patients of hypertension, diabetes mellitus and hyperlipidemia was tended to concentrate in mostly autumn and winter since August 2000, while the cost of using public health center for those patients has been steadily reduced since July 2000. 4) As a result of cluster analysis, there were classified into three homogeneous groups according to the total cost of using public health service, age, and the frequency of use. 5) The association analysis on patients with chronic disease in public health center produced a detailed information on accompanying diseases related to the incidence rate of disease of high frequency due to aging, information on drug abuse and immune disease. Conclusion: The health care policy for local community should be evaluated continuously. And the policy to build an integrated data warehousing by public health indicator system and to enhance the faithfulness of data is required.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.329-335
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• 2007

Objectives : To identify the effects of supplemental private health insurance on health care utilization and expenditure under the mandatory National Health Insurance(NHI) system in Korea. Methods : The data were collected by the National Cancer Center in Korea. Cancer patients who were newly diagnosed with stomach (ICD code, C16), lung(C33-C34), liver (C22), colorectal cancer(C18-C20) or breast(C50) cancer were included as study subjects. Data were gathered using a structured questionnaire from face-to-face interviews, the hospital Order Communication System (OCS) and medical records. Clinical, socio-demographic and private health insurance related factors were also gathered. The differences of health care utilization and expenditure were compared between those who have private health insurance and those who do not using t-test and multivariable regression analysis. Results : Individuals with private health insurance spent larger inpatient costs than those without, but no differences were found in utilization in other service such as hospital admissions, hospital days and physician visits. Conclusions : We found that private health insurance exerts a significant effect on the health care expenditure in inpatient service. These study results can provide a rational basis to plan a national health policy regarding private health insurance. Further studies are needed to investigate the impacts of private health insurance on cancer patients' outcomes and survival rates.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.60-70
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to analyze the relation between health behavior and public health center utilization among lower income families who earned half of the average Korean family income. The cross-sectional descriptive survey research we conducted was a nationwide randomization sampling among lower income families. The data was collected from July 12 to August 7. 1999 and the total sample was 5.819 household members 1,735 households). There were, three major findings according to these studies. 1. In health behaviors, 26.5% of respondents had a health examination. Among them, 41.5% were in a poor condition of health. In health promotion behaviors, only 37.3% of respondents were doing activities for health maintenance or promotion. 2. In the results of the public health center utilization for the past year. 57.4% of respondents visited one or more times. In addition, 46.2% of respondents wanted to use a visiting nursing service. 3. In the results of multiple logistic regression, we found that less education, larger family size, and medicaid affects more utilization of public health center. In addition, older age, living without a spouse, less education, larger family size, lower family income. and public health center usage affects requests for the visiting nurse service.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.77-91
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• 1993

This study was conducted to assess health medical center utilization pattern and its related factors among the rural inhabitants for the purpose of contribution to establishment of health medical center institutions. A questionnaire survey was carried out for object of 3,754 population of three primary school and three middle school student's parents (total 832 household) in Kyungbook Ulchin Gun rural area from 24 to 28 September, 1990. The summarized result are as follows, Respondents are 60.3% in male, 39.7% in female and 30-40s 81.3% in age, high school graduates 40.3% in education level and a regional medical insurance scheme in 44.1% in forms of health insurance. Recognition for health medical center was showed higher according to high educational, high income level, and short distance for location of health medical center of respondents (p < 0.01). Recognition for health medical center services was showed higher about care of medicaid in medical treatment services and higher preventive vaccination in health prevention services by respondents. Utilization rates of health medical center by out-patient care and preventive care service were 11.1 and 4.5 per 100 persons by year, but admission utilization rate was 34.6 per 10.000 persons by year. Motivations of health medical center utilization were showed a good care(45.7%), a good drugs(45.2%), and nearby health medical center(42.9%). In comparison health service levels of health medical center with general clinic was better (16.3%), similar(38.7%), 7(19.0%), and worse(19.0%) in view of health medical center utilizators. Inconvinience about health medical center utilized was the most higher longtime waiting, the next was limited utilization times. Transportation utilited were on foot(55%), by bus(35.5%), and so on. As mentioned above, there are many inhabitants who less understanding and less acknowledgement about health medical center and even mistake health center for health medical center. Therefore, there must be more information about health medical center. For higher utilization of health medical center, there must be considered expansion of health equipment, facilities, accomplishment with reinforcement of health staffs and efficiency management.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.22 no.1 s.25
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• pp.136-145
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• 1989

This study made a descriptive analysis of the cumulative amount and rate of sports medical care utilization during the 24th Seoul Olympic Games by the participating athletes, officials, etc. The sports medical care utilization was a component of the total medical care use and was basically caused by the prevention and treatment of sports injuries. The analytic data were derived from the Olympic Health Management Information System(OHMIS) of the SLOOC and the Korea Athlete Trainer Association(KATA). These were analyzed according to the quantity of physician visits and the utilization rate, which was the amount of utilization divided by the total number of participating persons. The results were as follows: Firstly, the sports medical care utilization by the persons participating in the Seoul Olympics amounted to 17.9% of the total medical care utilization. The venue medical services utilization accounted for 54.7% of the total physician visits, which was larger than the village medical center's utilization. The number of physician visits per hundred persons during the 2 week period in the venue clinic was 3.03 and that of the village medical center was 2.51, therefore, the total was 5.54. Secondly, athletes accounted for 82.3% and officials 12.2% in the sports medical care utilization by participants. These results were because athletes, who were directly related to the games, called extremely often on the physicians. The utilization rate of sports medical care by athletes was 34.29. Thirdly, the sports medical demand according to type of therapy could be ranked from high to low in the following order: sports massage, thermal therapy, and electrical stimulation treatment, etc. The department of physical therapy in the village medical center was used a great deal. Fourthly, the trend of daily sports medical care utilization by the athletes showed a bell shape centering around the opening day of the Seoul Olympic Games. The utilization rate of athletes was 2.3; however, that of officials was 0.6. Lastly, the sports medical demand was calculated according to the continents, and Central America, Africa and Middle-East Asia proved to have a higher rate of sports medical care utilization than the more powerful and industrialized continent or regions.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.180-188
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• 2011

Purpose: This study was done to evaluate the operating status of community-based home health center for revitalization of the centers. Method: In this study performance data including organization plan and service utilization plan were evaluated according process theory. Target of evaluation was the community-based home health care center. Results: The vulnerable part of the organization was the information system and financial resources. The home health center introduced PDA (Personal Digital Assistants) in 2005, however home health care nurses did not make full use of it. This service received full support from Seoul city and local government and there were no other sources of income. The vulnerable part of service utilization was service expansion and standardization due to vulnerability of organizational aspects. Conclusions: The home health care center provides high quality services to underprivileged people. In the future, these services should be provided with equity for continuous health care for this population.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.272-279
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• 2002

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to analyze health service utilization, and its related factors in low income families who earned half of the average Korean household income. Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive survey study in which a nationwide randomization sampling technique was used. The data were collected from July 12 to August 7, 1999, and the total sample size was 5,819 individuals, belonging to 1.753 households. Results: 1) In the utilization of health services for the last 3months, the pharmacy was the type of service that was the most utilized (32.0%), and the health center was the one that was the least utilized (10.3%). About 29% (29.2%) of the respondents could not utilize the health service at all. and 19.8% of the respondents terminated their medical treatments half way to completion because of financial difficulty (89.4%). 2) Analysis of the data using logistic regression showed that living with spouse, level of education, occupation, and income had statistically significant effects on health service utilization. Conclusion: The parameters of health care policies are equity and efficacy for health status, and the health service utilization by low income families. The conclusive resolution for these is the improvement of public health centers for an increased utilization rate of their services.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 2017

Objectives: The accurate measurement of geographic patterns of health care utilization is a prerequisite for the study of geographic variations in health care utilization. While several measures have been developed to measure how accurately geographic units reflect the health care utilization patterns of residents, they have been only applied to hospitalization and need further evaluation. This study aimed to evaluate geographic indices describing health care utilization. Methods: We measured the utilization rate and four health care utilization indices (localization index, outflow index, inflow index, and net patient flow) for eight major procedures (coronary artery bypass graft surgery, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, surgery after hip fracture, knee replacement surgery, caesarean sections, hysterectomy, computed tomography scans, and magnetic resonance imaging scans) according to three levels of geographic units in Korea. Data were obtained from the National Health Insurance database in Korea. We evaluated the associations among the health care utilization indices and the utilization rates. Results: In higher-level geographic units, the localization index tended to be high, while the inflow index and outflow index were lower. The indices showed different patterns depending on the procedure. A strong negative correlation between the localization index and the outflow index was observed for all procedures. Net patient flow showed a moderate positive correlation with the localization index and the inflow index. Conclusions: Health care utilization indices can be used as a proxy to describe the utilization pattern of a procedure in a geographic unit.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.120-127
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• 2014

Background: Since December 2010, online computerized prospective drug utilization review (pDUR) has been implemented in Korea. pDUR involves the review of each prescription before the medication is dispensed to the individual patient. The pDUR is performed electronically by Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA), which is a Korean governmental agency, and then HIRA provides medical institutions and pharmacies with information that can be helpful to them in preventing potential drug problems such as drug/drug interactions or ingredient duplication. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the Korean pDUR implementation on the proportion of drug-drug interactions (DDIs) using claims data from HIRA. Methods: A before-after comparison of the prevalence of DDIs between prescription was conducted, using HIRA administrative claims data of medical institution from January 2010 to December 2011. The analysis unit was the prescription issued and pairs before and after. The main outcome measures were the proportion of DDIs within- (control group) or between- physician encounters. To examine the difference, a paired t-test was applied. Results: We found that DDIs proportion between prescription decreased significantly (t=3.04, p=0.0026) after the implementation of pDUR, whereas there is no significant reduction within prescription (t=1.15, p=0.2518). With respect to the prevalence of DDIs between drug groups, the most dramatic reduction was occurred between 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors and anti-fungal agents. Conclusion: It seems effective that giving a direct feedback to prescribers by a prospective DUR. Further research is needed to assess the impact of DUR to final outcomes such as hospitalization.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.17-26
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• 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify policy implications for the construction of public health facilities in the field of international cooperation, by examining the case of establishing a health care delivery system using a public health center in a rural area of Paraguay. Methods: Firstly, to map the capacity of the 20 public health centers that were studied, we used the WHO Capacity Mapping tool to select and analyze relevant items. Secondly, to assess the utilization of public health centers, we conducted a direct visit survey and analyzed the results using the M-survey tool. Results: The floor plan of each public health center, the structure of the health center, the size of the population served by each health center, the number of monthly visitors, medical human resources, and the budget were classified by health center for comparative analysis. In addition, by utilizing the M-survey tool, we analyzed the general characteristics of the respondents, their perceptions of the purpose and accessibility of public health centers, their satisfaction with using public health centers, and the level of demand for public health centers to play a role in promoting community health. Implications: The results of this study suggest that access to public health facilities for residents in the research area was improved. By classifying public health centers into two types, these centers can perform the functions and roles of primary health facilities. A patient request and evacuation system was established in the research area. Finally, a network, such as a social prescribing program, is needed so that public health centers can function as a "setting" for community members to live together.