• Information Systems Review
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.59-73
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• 2013

Healthcare costs are continuously increasing due to longer life expectancy and providing global healthcare services through medical tourism is new service growth engine for Korea. Several countries have well established programs and infrastructure dedicated to medical tourism. South Korea is attempting to become a major player in this domain by undertaking broad initiatives. The success of medical tourism is greatly impacted by easy access to two types of information, namely, medical and travel information. The National Health Insurance System in Korea collects huge amount of clinical and financial information from all hospitals. However, this information does not get used effectively in health and travel information systems to support medical tourism. This paper provide clear process map of medical tourism to understand how the patient and information process both medical and tourism fields also describe the need of customer and service provider. In this paper, we develop a medical tourism service system that will promote information exchange and service delivery.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.85-97
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aimed to describe nurses' perceived needs and barriers to pediatric palliative care (PPC). Methods: Mixed methods with an embedded design were applied. An online survey was conducted for nurses who participated in the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium- Pediatric Palliative Care (ELNEC-PPC) train-the-trainer program, of whom 63 responded. Quantitative data were collected with a survey questionnaire developed through the Delphi method. The 47 items for needs and 15 items for barriers to PPC were analyzed with descriptive statistics. Qualitative data were collected through open-ended questions and analyzed with topic modeling techniques. Results: The mean scores of most subdomains of the PPC needs were 3.5 or higher out of 4, and those of PPC barriers ranged from 3.22 to 3.56, indicating the items in the questionnaire developed in this study properly reflect each factor. The needs for PPC were divided into 4 categories: "children and adolescents," "families," "PPC management system," and "community-based PPC." Meanwhile, PPC barriers were divided into 3 categories: "healthcare delivery system," "healthcare provider," and "client." The keywords derived from the topic modeling were perception, palliative, children, and education for necessities and lack, perception, medical care, professional care providers, service, and system for barriers to PPC. Conclusion: In this study, by using mixed-methods, items of nurses' perceived needs and barriers to PPC were identified, categorized, and weighted, and their meanings were explored. For the stable establishment of PPC, the priority should be given to improving perceptions of PPC, establishing an appropriate system, and training professional care providers.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.4-11
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• 2016

Background: Hospital admissions for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs), which are widely used as an indicator of poor access to primary care, can be used as an efficiency indicator of healthcare use in countries providing good access to health care. Korea, which has a national health insurance (NHI) system and a good supply of health care resources, is one such country. To quantify admission rates of ACSC and identify characteristics influencing variation in Korean health care institutions. Methods: By using NHI claims data, we computed the mean ACSC admission rate for all institutions with ACSC admissions. Results: The average ACSC admission rate for 4,461 institutions was 1.45%. Hospitals and clinics with inpatient beds showed larger variations in the ACSC admission rate (0%-87.9% and 0%-99.6%, respectively) and a higher coefficient of variation (7.96 and 2.29) than general/tertiary care hospitals (0%-19.1%, 0.85). The regression analysis results indicate that the ACSC admission rate was significantly higher for hospitals than for clinics (${\beta}=0.986$, p<0.05), and for private corporate institutions than public institutions (${\beta}=0.271$, p<0.05). Conclusion: Substantial variations in ACSC admission rates could suggest the potential problem of inefficient use of healthcare resources. Since hospitals and private corporate institutions tend to increase ACSC admission rates, future health policy should focus on these types of institutions.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.17-28
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the spatial configurations of a sample of Korean regional emergency medical centers (REMCs) to explore its underlying genotypes and thus produce a base line data for the analysis and evaluations of future REMCs designs using space syntax theory. Methods: Space syntax analysis was used as a major tool for the analysis and exploration of Genotype. The measures of Integration(overall integration with exterior and without exterior as well as the integration of individual clinical spaces for each center), base difference factor (DF) and Space link ratio were calculated for a sample of seven Korean REMCs. Results: The result shows a strikingly similar pattern of Syntactic measures across the sample, the mean integration of sample ranges from 0.82-0.99 with exterior (while considering the exterior space as a root) and 0.81-1.01 without exterior (considering the connections of interior spaces only with no outside connection). The base difference factor (DF) of the sample varies from 0.60-0.81 with exterior and from 0.59-0.82 without exterior. Case number-1 was identified as non-genotype with differing order of Syntactic values. Although the genotype had different forms, layouts and even sizes, these results cannot be explained by Phenotypical comparisons. Implications: This study will contribute to the configurational analysis and evaluation of existing and future Korean REMCs design and practice of emergency healthcare delivery system in Korea.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.229-236
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• 2023

Background: In workers with moderate to severe work-related traumatic brain injury (wrTBI), this study aimed to investigate the effect of the timing of rehabilitation therapy initiation on the length of hospital stay and the factors that can influence this timing. Methods: We used data obtained from the Republic of Korea's nationwide Workers' Compensation Insurance. In the Republic of Korea, between the years 2010 and 2019, a total of 26,324 workers filed a claim for compensation for moderate to severe wrTBI. Multiple regression modeling was performed to compare the length of hospital stay according to the timing of rehabilitation therapy initiation following wrTBI. According to the timing of the initiation of rehabilitation therapy following TBI, the proportions of healthcare institutions that provided medical care during each admission step were compared. Results: The length of hospital stay for workers who started rehabilitation therapy within 90 days was significantly shorter than that for workers who started rehabilitationment were first admitted to tertiary hospitals. Approximately 39% of patients who received delayed rehabilitation treatment were first admitted to general hospitals, and 28.5% were first admitted to primary hospitals. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate the importance of early rehabilitation initiation and that the type of healthcare institution that the patient is first admitted to after wrTBI may influence the timing of rehabilitation initiation. The results of this study also emphasize the need to establish a Worker's Compensation Insuranceespecialized rehabilitation healthcare delivery system.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.25-35
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• 2015

Purpose: Signs that are installed at unnoticeable places or that disconnect before the destination can bring errors of location information delivery. Therefore, this study aims to find out the spatial relation between structure of space and signs in the perspective of visual exposure possibility, operating arrangement and assesment by applying spatial structure theory. Methods: Effectiveness of organization of guidance signs was evaluated after the four way-finding factors(Plan Configuration, Sign System, Perceptual Access, Architectural Difference) that G.D.Weisman suggested were interpreted by spatial structure theory(J-Graph analysis, Space Syntax, Visual Graph Analysis) under the premise that it is closely related to the structure of space. Results: 1) Because the south corridor that connects each department of outpatient division is located in the hierarchy center of the space, and walking density is expected to be high, guidance signs need to be organized at the place with high integration value. 2) The depth to the destination space can be estimated through J-Graph analysis. The depth means a switch of direction, and the guidance signs are needed according to the number. 3) According to visibility graph analysis, visual exposure can be different in the same hierarchy unit space according to the shape of the flat surface. Based on these data, location adjustment of signs is possible, and the improvement effect can be estimated quantitatively. Implications: Spatial structure theory can be utilized to design and evaluate sign systems, and it helps to clearly understand the improvement effect. It is desirable to specify design and estimation of sign systems in the order of J-Graph analysis${\rightarrow}$Space Syntax Theory${\rightarrow}$visibility graph analysis.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.81-84
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• 2021

The delivery of high-quality antenatal care is a perennial global concern for improving maternal and neonatal outcomes. Antenatal care is currently provided mainly on a one-to-one basis, but growing evidence has emerged to support the effectiveness of group antenatal care. Providing care in a small group gives expectant mothers the opportunity to have discussions with their peers about certain issues and concerns that are unique to them and to form a support system that will improve the quality and utilization of antenatal care services. The aim of this article is to promote group antenatal care as a means to increase utilization of healthcare.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.512-521
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• 2010

Purpose: The remarkable progress in information and communication technology has had a great effect on the healthcare delivery system. The development of smart phone applications is a new field. The aim of our research was to provide assistance in developing smart phone applications for community health nursing. Methods: Based on an informative approach, this study developed persona and site maps, followed by a storyboard as a way of analyzing users' requirements and designing responses in the context of smart phone application development methodology. Results: We developed persona, user interface and database design successfully, and then seven nurses selected four nursing problems (income, residence, pain, and digestion hydration). The search time in seconds for the 2005 English OMAHA guidelines to find three nursing interventions for these problems was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the smart phone application. The results showed that smart phone applications' search was 21 times faster on the average than book guidelines. Conclusion: An English version of the OMAHA system application was developed for the Android smart phone market. It is hoped that smart phone applications such as this will be used internationally for nursing education.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.67-84
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• 2011

The open Hospital Attending Physician System has been discussed and operated for developing the efficiency and the substitutes for an increase in medical expenses, for overlapping investment in medical resources, and for normalization of medical delivery system. This study assessed the related factors to the acceptance and introduction of Attending Physicians on ophthalmologist. Data was collected mail response to 179 ophthalmologists in 2005. Applying multilevel logistic regression, we examined the relationship between their acknowledgment, attitude and acceptance of the open Hospital Attending Physicians System. The percentage of participation in Hospital Attending was indicated to be 3.9%. The 44.7% of all participants agreed to adopting the Hospital Attending, 33.5% of doctors are willing to participate in the future. The positive and normal attitude of physician toward the Hospital Attending is 6.6 times (95%CI 1.315, 33.138) and 55.2 times(95%CI 11.352, 268.347) more than that of negative after adjustment for other variables. Attitude was found to be the important factor influencing physicians' participation in the Attending Hospital. Thus, it is need to development and implication for the strategies that lead the practical necessity and positive attitude toward the Attending Hospital.

• Korea Science and Art Forum
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• v.19
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• pp.417-424
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• 2015

The healthcare service industry has become one of the business industries in South Korea where service design is most actively being researched on and applied. In accordance with the recent upsurge of the interest in health, healthcare service is expanding its area including disease prevention, patient management, and rehabilitation treatment as well as cure and nursing care. The health manpower is the supplier, and their professional knowledge and ability and the patients' trust in medical technology are the most important factors for their customers. In addition, service design has come into the spotlight given that the medical institute system, health manpower attitude, and information delivery system and touch point are considered important factors contributing to customer satisfaction. It is very hard to satisfy customers only through professionalism, the environment, and product improvement because healthcare service deals with much more sensitive and emotional customers compared to other service industries. This means that a change in the service mind-set and the attitude of the health manpower as emotional labourers have practical effects. Therefore, the fundamental solution is to establish a system that provides related education with manpower and that settles various problems by itself. This paper introduces several solutions, such as education for health manpower and a service design system applied to a national-university-affiliated hospital in South Korea, and takes a close look at its effects.