• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.39
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• pp.350-373
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• 1999

The patient population of U. S. state mental hospitals has changed drastically since the 1960s, when the deintstitutionalization movement began. This paper is designed to look at what happened to the number of inpatients of state hospitals in California during the last 150 years and, from this, to explore implications for the future of the mental health system in Korea, especially for the viability of mental hospitals. The data had been collected by field research(visits to state hospitals and State Department of Mental Health, and interviews with mental health administrators) and accessing statistical publications and various reports. Since the first state hospital opened in 1851 the statewide inpatient population of individuals who were mentally disabled has grown and peaked at 37,489 in 1959. The number of patients in state hospitals, however, began declining in the early 1960s and was reduced to 10,874 by 1971, and to 4,973 by 1986. As of 1997, there were only 4, 263 inpatients remaining in the state hospital system. This dramatic decrease slowed down somewhat in 1980s and 1990s, but this trend seems irreversible except for the inpatients referred by the court. Now the beds in state hospitals are filled with more and more forensic patients, which constitutes nearly 70% of the total inpatient population. Based on these findings, it is well expected that the number of inpatients of mental hospitals in Korea will also be reduced in a significant way as the community-based mental health care system is gradually replacing the traditional one. Mental hospitals need to introduce more diversified programs for the care of the mentally ill, and concurrently more vigorous aftercare programs are required in the community.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.207-218
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to provide preliminary data for political measures to minimize the variations by understanding the regional variations and trends of hospital services for heart diseases, and analyzing the factors that could occur any variations. The various data collected from nation-wide inpatient services conducted separately by small region show that there have been some differences in income level, supply of medical resources, standardized rate of hospitalization by sex and age, health level in the residence, and the length of stay per head. Then it indicated that the number of special medical equipment per 10,000 people and the rate of vigorous physical activity have the highest influence over the regional variations in using hospital services. On the other hand, the number of sick-beds per 10,000 people, the number of special medical equipment, and the present smoking rate have significant degree of influence on the length of stay per head. Thus, it is imperative for the authorities to set aside health promoting policies and to distribute the medical resources equitably throughout the country and to enhance the accessibility of local residents to the health care services.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.77-88
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• 2010

Objectives: This study was conducted to estimate medical expenditure attributable to overweight and obesity in adults with hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia using Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination survey data and Korea National Health Corporation data. Methods: The medical expenditure of hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia related to overweight and obesity were composed of inpatient care costs, outpatient care costs and medication costs. The population attributable risk (PAR) of overweight and obesity was calculated from national representative data of Korea such as the National Health Insurance Corporation cohort data and 2005 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination survey data. Results: The medical expenditure attributable to overweight and obesity of hypertension were 456 billion won (men : 215 billion won, women : 241 billion won). Those of diabetes were 282 billion won (men : 148 billion won, women : 135 billion won), and of dyslipidemia were 17 billion won (men : 9 billion won, women : 8 billion won). Consequently, these costs corresponded to 33.3% of total medical expenditure due to hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia. Conclusions: We found a substantial medical expenditure due to overweight and obesity of hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia were very high. In order to reduce these costs, effective national strategies for prevention and management of overweight and obesity should be established and implemented.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.63-76
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• 1999

The main objective of this study was to develop a concept of service marketing promotion in nursing that is derived from the concepts of service marketing theory. This research was a descriptive study, at the factor isolation level. The principle of concept derivation suggested by Walker and Avant (1988) and the Hybrid model suggested by Schwarz-Barcott and Kim (1993) were employed as the research method. The data were collected from December, 1997 to April. 1998 at a large general hospital located in Seoul. The procedures of this study were as follows: First. at the theoretical phase: the meaning, attributes, and definition of service marketing promotion were identified through an extensive review of the literature. Second, at the empirical phase: fieldwork was done to identify the promotional activities and events in nursing. Top nurse managers from 4 units (Director of Nursing, Head nurses of inpatient nursing unit, outpatient nursing unit. and home care nursing unit) were interviewed and the content of the interview was analyzed to identify the meaning and attributes of promotion in nursing. Other methods such as brochures and other audio-visual materials which were relevant to nursing promotion were used to supplement the interviews. Finally, the results of the theoretical and empirical analyses were intergrated to develop a concept of service marketing in nursing practice. A final definition of service marketing promotion in nursing was identified as follows. 1. Promotion as a marketing function in nursing service is concerned with communication to target markets on all information related to nursing service in order to satisfy the objectives of both a nursing service organization and the target markets. 2. The goals of nursing service promotion include: 1) increasing visibility of nursing services and delivering the information on nursing services, 2) affirming the value of nursing services, so it can contribute to formulation of reimbursement policy for nursing services. 3) advancing the general image of the nursing profession and nursing services. 4) achieving and attaining a desirable positioning for nurses among health care professionals. and 5) creating and stimulating the demand for nursing services. 3. In order to obtain these goals it is necessary to provide information on nursing services, to persuade target markets. to remind them about nursing services. and to establish a collaborative relationship with related departments. 4. The tools used to carry out the above functions of promotion in nursing are the providing nursing services, public relations and publicity. QA of nursing, advertising, and sales promotion. 5. The target markets of nursing service include the nursing customer markets. the internal markets, the influence markets. the recruitment markets. the supplier markets. and the nursing referral markets. In conclusion, the concept of promotion in other service marketing areas can be applied to the promotion of nursing service marketing. The promotion of nursing service is more than just effective communication in nursing service. it is the effective use of the concepts of service marketing promotion. Promotion of nursing service will contribute to create and expand nursing services.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.66-80
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• 1998

With the opening of healthcare market, the health care environment in Korea is anticipating a drastic change. In this Internationally open market environment, it is necessary to introduce a systematic health care plan and DRG system which offer qualitative medical services as well as reduced cost. Purpose of this study is to develop and test the critical pathway for Cesarean section patient in the way to be possible the integrated inpatient management. It was adopted the process of six phases to develop the critical pathway as the theoretical framework implemented by Johns Hopkins Hospital, Maryland, U.S.A. In the first phase, make a selection of diagnosis/procedures to develop. In the second phase, organize a development team consisted of eight expertises working in maternity nursing area. In the third phase, analyze the overall medical service offered to patient through review medical records and decided the service content and the implementation period for the Cesarean section patient. In the forth phase, make out a preliminary critical pathway after verification of expert group on content validity. In the fifth phase, validity operate to ten Cesarean section patients to test implementation in practice by using the preliminary critical pathway, In the sixth phase, defined the final critical pathway. The result of this study was as follows. 1. There were classified 8 categories as monitoring/assesment, treatment, medication, activity, diet, test, consult, education/discharge plan for vertical axis and showed hospital stayed from admission to discharge for horizontal axis of critical pathway through analysis 68 Cesarean section patients medical records. 2. After critical review 68 medical records to make out a preliminary critical pathway, hospital stays for horizontal axis were showed 6 days, mean hospital stays were 7.5 days, 2.1 days were to be taken operation after admission and 4.2 days were stayed until discharge after operation. 3. After making out a questionare in 90 items of a medical service content of eight categories and verifying the content validity of expertises, the 85 items of the preliminary critical pathway were selected by expertises agreement over 88% and modified or deleted 5 items showing agreement below 75%. 4. After verifying a validity to 10 patients for 4 weeks, hospital stays were 5.9 days. There were deleted 1 item and modified or supplemented the 9 items of the 10 items.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.210-228
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• 2002

Background: The purpose of this research was to examine the fall incidence rate and its related factors of fall in inpatients. Methods: The data were collected from the 138 fall incident reports in one tertiary hospital in Seoul from April 1st 1999 to September 30th 2001. The Fall Incident Report Form was originally developed based on that of Massachusetts General Hospital revised in 1995. And this was modified for this survey by the collaborating work of QI team including researcher and department of nursing service of this particular hospital. The contents of Fall Incident Form were general characteristics of patient. factors related to fall. types and places of fall. circumstances, nursing interventions. and outcome. Results: 1) The incidence rate of fall was 0.08% of total discharged patients and 0.081 per 1000 patient-day. This incidence rate is much lower than that of several hospitals in USA. This finding might result from the different incidence report system of each hospital. 2) The characteristics of fall-prone patient were found as follows. They were mostly over 60 years old, in alert mental status, ambulatory with some assistance, and dependent on ambulatory device. The types of diseases related high incidence rate were cerebrovascular disease(3.2), hypertension(1.6), cardiovascular disease(1.4), diabetes(1.3) and liver disease(0.6). 3) The majority of fall events usually occurred m bed. bedside(walking or standing) and bathroom in patient room. Usually they were up on their own when they fell. And there were more falls of elderly occurred during night time than day or evening. 4) 63.8% of fall events resulted in physical injuries such as fracture and usually the patients had diagnostic procedures and some treatment(ex. suture) which caused additional cost to the patients and their families. 5) The found risk factors of fall were drugs(antihypertensive drug, diuretics) and environmental factors like too high bed height, long distance of bedside table and lamp switch, and slippery tile of bathroom floor. Conclusion: Considering these results, every medical and nursing staff should be aware of the risk factors of patients in hospital, and should intervene more actively the preventive managements, specially for the elderly patients during night. Therefore, it is recommended that the development of Fall Prevention Programs based on these results.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.22 no.4 s.28
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• pp.542-554
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• 1989

The skyrocketing inflation of medical costs has become a major health problem among most developed countries. Korea, which recently covered the entire population with National Health Insurance, is facing the same problem. The proportion of health expenditure to GNP has increased from 3% to 4.8% during the last decade. This was remarkable, if we consider the rapid economic growth during that time. A few policy analysts began to raise cost containment as an agenda, after recognizing the importance of medical cost inflation. In order to Prepare an appropriate alternative for the agenda, it is necessary to find out reasons for the cost inflation. Then, we should focus on the reasons which are controllable, and those whose control are socially desirable. This study is designed to articulate the theory of medical cost inflation through literature reviews, to find out reasons for cost inflation, by analyzing aggregated data with a deterministic model. Finally to identify determinants of changes in both medical demand and service intensity which are major reasons for cost inflation. The reasons for cost inflation are classified into cost push inflation and demand pull inflation, The former consists of increases in price and intensity of services, while the latter is made of consumer derived demand and supplier induced demand. We used a time series (1983-1987), and cross sectional (over regions) data of health insurance. The deterministic model reveals, that an increase in service intensity is a major cause of inflation in the case of inpatient care, while, more utilization, is a primary attribute in the case of physician visits. Multiple regression analysis shows that an increase in hospital beds is a leading explanatory variable for the increase in hospital care. It also reveals, that an introduction of a deductible clause, an increase in hospital beds and degree of urbanization, are statistically significant variables explaining physician visits. The results are consistent with the existing theory, The magnitude of service intensity is influenced by the level of co-payment, the proportion of old age and an increase in co-payment. In short, an increase in co-payment reduced the utilization, but it induced more intensities or services. We can conclude that the strict fee regulation or increase in the level of co-payment can not be an effective measure for cost containment under the fee for service system. Because the provider can react against the regulation by inducing more services.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.30-38
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• 2022

Purpose: The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) in South Korea initiated a quality assessment (QA) program for blood transfusion healthcare services in 2020 to ensure patient safety and appropriate blood use. This study examines the quality of blood transfusion services since the first national QA program for blood transfusion services in Korea. Methods: We analyzed HIRA claims and QA investigation data based on inpatient medical records from all tertiary, general, and primary hospitals between October 2020 and March 2021. The target population was patients aged 18 years and older who received either total knee arthroplasty or red blood cell transfusion. The QA indicators for transfusion healthcare service consisted of four quality indicators and four monitoring indicators. Results: We analyzed the results of QA indicators for transfusion service from the medical records of 189,668 patients from 1,171hospitals and expressed indicators as proportions. The average results for evaluation indicators were as follows: transfusion checklist presence, 64.8%; irregular antibody tests, 61.8%; transfusions in which the hemoglobin levels before transfusion met the transfusion guidelines for patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty, 20.6%, and transfusions in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty, 59.3%. The average results for monitoring indicators were as follows: transfusion management implementation in medical institutions, 56.9%; preoperative anemia management in anemia patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty, 43.9%; one-unit transfusions, 82.5%; and the transfusion index. Conclusion: The quality of blood transfusion healthcare varied and the assessment revealed that there is scope for improvement. Hospitals require more effective blood transfusion management and this can be facilitated by providing feedback on the QA results about blood transfusion healthcare services to medical institutions, and by disclosing the results to the public.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.3547-3554
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• 2011

The aim of this study is to take hold of the present situation as well as the perspective of the domestic alcohol specialized hospitals. The structured questionnaire was prepared to understand the type of services, manpower and systematic programs. Among eight hospitals that stand for the alcohol addiction specialized hospitals, six hospitals agreed to participate in the survey, which was made from Jun. 17 to July 15, 2010. The average number of beds of the surveyed hospitals was 208. They were mostly private ones(66.7%), located in urban area(50%), and had experiences of alcohol treatment less than five years(50%). While all of them practiced both the inpatient and outpatient services, only 33% provided the systematic outpatient program that was at least 2 or 3 hours per week. All hospitals practiced the physical and individual psychological evaluations, but only 16.1% had the daytime programs. The beds of protective ward were 72% of all beds, and the beds of night and day occupied 7.6% and 2.6% respectively. It was found that although the average number of mental health social worker and mental health nurse was larger than that required in the regulation of mental health law there are significant deviations between hospitals. However, the manpower of psychiatrists and nurses were comparatively large. The first problem indicated by clinical experts was the patient's refusal of care, which results in an inefficiency in the treatment. The next problem was the lack of local health care institutions that can attend on the discharged patients were important issues. Also the low reimbursement and indifferences to the alcohol abuse were considered as important issues.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.63-74
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• 2009

Purpose : The current nationally representative data on inpatient care are important to make the of the national public health policy because distributions and the prevalence of diseases among children and adolescents represent the socioeconomic status of the society. The prevalence of chronic disease is increasing now in Korea as the socioeconomic condition is improving. We analyzed a part of genitourinary tract disease of the cross-sectional hospital discharge survey data in Korea collected recently to delineate the trend of genitourinary tract diseases. Methods : Korean nationwide hospital discharge survey for pediatric inpatients in the period from 2004 to 2006 was analyzed. Diagnoses in the data were coded using ICD-10 classification. Totally 826,896 cases were collected from the 85 training hospitals. Selected data of genitourinary tract diseases (belonging to N00-N99 by ICD-10) among 826,896 cases of final inpatients data were analyzed for this study. Results : Among total patients of 826,896, diseases of the genitourinary system accounted for 4.1%. and four diagnostic categories accounted for 92.8%. These were other diseases of the urinary system (N30-39), 45.8%, disease of male genital organs (N40-51),19.1%, glomerular diseases (N00-08), 17.3%, renal tubulo-interstitial diseases (N10-16), 10.6%, respectively. Conclusion : Genitourinary tract disease in pediatric inpatient shows decreasing tendency but the prevalence of chronic diseases is increasing in Korea as the socioeconomic condition is improving. For further comprehensive analysis, regular and organized nationwide survey should be performed. Development of a new data collecting system will improve the performance of such nationwide survey.