• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.46-68
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• 2001

The study was to examine the relationships among those variables related to total quality management and to reveal those variables affecting total quality management in Health-Care Organizations. To study the relationship, a questionaire was designed and sent to 220 hospitals of which the number of beds is over 200 beds. Out of 660 questionaire, 263 questionaire were collected. Data analysis were conducted by using t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients and stepwise multiple regression. The result were as follows: 1. TQM was significantly different according to activities of QI, department of QI, age, and position. 2. Leadership was significantly different according to activities of QI, department of QI, age, and position. 3. Significant differences in the level of satisfaction of employee were found according to activities of QI, department of QI, age, position, and duration of employ. 4. Significant differences in the level of participation of employee were found according to activities of QI, department of QI, and position. 5. Education trainning was significantly different according to amount of bed, activities of QI, department of QI, level of education, kind of job, and position. 6. Medical technique was significantly different according to activities of QI, department of QI, and position. 7. Quality of work was significantly different according to activities of QI, department of QI, age, and position. 8. Significant differences in the level of investigation's system in satisfaction of client were found according to activities of QI, department of QI, kind of job, and position. 9. Positive correlations were observed between TQM and those variables related to TQM. 10. TQM was significantly predicted by the level of satisfaction of employee(40.9%), participation of employee(7.0%), investigation's system in satisfaction of client(2.7%), leadership(1.4%), and medical technique(1.1%), respectively.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.19-29
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• 2017

Purpose : To describe and understand the experience of QI (quality improvement) nurses related to the hospital QI activities in public general hospitals. Methods : Purposive sampling was conducted 10 QI nurses and who have QI work experience for more than 1 year. Data were collected through focus group interviews. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed with qualitative content analysis using Strauss and Corbin's methodology. Results : The core categories of experience with QI activities were 'the success and failure of the medical care and overall health service sector', 'the degree of activation of current QI activities', 'characteristics of public hospital QI activities', 'what is needed to activate future QI activities'. The key themes were derived as follows. 'Success of quality enhancement activities according to the characteristic of public hospitals', 'activation of public hospital QI activities through leadership and QI education', 'reorganizing the role of regional hospitals in public hospitals'. Conclusion : Physician participation is important in the success of QI activities in public hospital practice. To lead these physician participation, Sharing doctor's QI experience and providing the necessary knowledge in QI activities and helping their leadership in QI activities are needed. QI nurses at public hospitals should lead QI activities to improve national hospitals' care quality through cooperating with local hospitals.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.172-185
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• 2001

Background : This study was carried out to assess the quality improvement(QI)activities in Korean hospitals. Methods : A mailed questionnaire survey was conducted between September 15 and October 30, 2000. The staffs being charge of QI each of the hospitals with 400 beds or more responded to the questionnaire. Of the 108 hospitals eligible for inclusion in our study, 69 participated, yielding a response rate of 63.9%. Results : Based on these survey, 87.3 percent of the responding hospitals were performing QI projects and 54 percent of the hospitals had a separate department for QI activity. About 62 percent of hospitals performing QI activity (QI hospitals) had a QI manager and 58 percent had a separate budget for QI activities. Among the QI hospitals, 85 percent had cross-functional or cross-departmental teams as the major mechanisms for doing QI projects, 94 percent had one or more educational programs on QI. The level of physician's participation level for QI projects was lower than other staff(CEO, nurses and other administrators). Conclusion : The majority of the hospitals have undertaken activities in QI. For the successful implemented QI, the involvement of and education for employees(including physicians and other health professionals)are needed as well as management strategy and leadership. Understanding of other hospitals experience would be helpful for health care managers to plan and initiate QI activities.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.312-323
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• 1998

Background : Evaluation of patient's satisfaction is one of the most important aspects of quality improvement. If the patient highly satisfies with the medical service provided in the hospital, he/she will be likely to visit the same hospital again. Patient's satisfaction of a particular hospital is directly correlated with hospital profits as well as reputation in the community. For this reason, various kinds of survey measuring satisfaction level have been performed and many kind of QI activities for enhancing the profits as well as reputation in the community. For this reason, various kinds of survey measuring satisfaction level have been performed and many kind of QI activities for enhancing the patient's satisfaction. This study is to find the effect of hospital QI activities on the patent's satisfaction level. Methods: After questionnares were developed, survey of measuring satisfaction level was performed in August, 1998. On the basis of survey results, QI activities were carried out to attain the target point of 4.0 and subsequent survey was done in November, 1998. Results: With three main principles of "problem solving approach with kindness". "helping patient to participate in medical procedure with sufficient information", and "putting employees into practice of attitude with human respect", the average level of satisfaction was enhanced from 3.45 to 3.55 level. Also kindness level of employees was increased from 3.71 to 3.82. Level of dissatisfaction about insufficient explanation and unkind attitude was dropped from 69% to 48% and from 82% to 46% respectively. Conclusion: With the result of this study overall satisfaction level was enhanced. In order to keep these advantages a operation of Quality Improvement Task Force Team in each subject will be required.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.54-69
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• 2001

This study was conducted to assess factors associated with the degree of performance of qualify improvement(QI) activities. A mailed questionnaire survey was conducted between September 15 and October 30, 2000, with the staffs being charge of QI at each of the hospitals with 400 beds or greater. Of the 108 hospitals eligible for inclusion in our study, 79 participated, yielding a response rate of 73.1%. After excluding 12 hospitals that did not perform any QI activities, 117 responses from 67 hospitals were used for the analysis. Using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria(MBNQAC), perceived performance of QI was measured in terms of the improvement of the quality of clinical practice, clinical supporting department, administrative procedure of receiving care, customer satisfaction, efficiency and standardization of work process. Factors evaluated for the association were the extent of QI implementation, compliance to 5 QI principles, participation of hospital CEOs, budget allocation, history of QI, and bed size. Path analysis was performed to assess the relationship between QI performance and these factors. Major findings of this study are as follows. Hospitals showing higher degree of QI implementation (path coefficient=0.5967, p<0.001)) and better compliance with the basic principes of QI(0.5736, p<0.05) tended to achieve better performance. Path analysis results showed that interest and participation of hospital CEOs(0.1954, p<0.05) and compliance with the basic principes of QI(0.4028, p<0.0001) indirectly affected the outcomes of QI by influencing the intermediate variable of the level of QI implementation. This study results suggest that having employees have a good orientation of the basic concept and principes of QI through relevant training be the most important requirement to achieve better outcomes from QI activities. In addition, to educate leaders of hospitals the need of active implementation of QI is important to encourage their participation and draw strong support for QI programs.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.133-141
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• 1999

Recently there are increasing concerns on quality improvement activities related to difficult economic situations, more competitive environment, health professional's emphasis on quality, and customer's needs in health care. The purpose of this study was to identify educational needs in the quality improvement for staff nurses. Study setting was an acute care hospital having more than 1000 bed in Seoul, Korea. The subjects were 40 staff nurses who participated in the first Quality Assurance(QA) inservice education. Data were collected by self-administered questionnaire which consisted of four parts : QA knowledge and attitude(ten items, by five Likert scale), contents of QA education(ten items, by setting the priority), evaluation of the program(structure, time allocation, place, educational method), and general characteristics of respondents (age, duration to work for hospitals etc.) The response rate was 85%(34/40), Most had positive perspective and attitude about QI/QA activities, but 9% had negative impression and knowledge about this activities. Also they'd like to know the plan of hospital-level QI/QA activities, QI/QA current practice, general hospital system, the role of QA specialist and so on. Consequently, for building the quality improvement activities that is customer-focused, coordinated, outcome-oriented, resource-efficient, collaborative in Korea, at first the education about philosophy, theory, and implementation process of QI/QA should be conducted, and then that on QI/QA terminology, quality indicators development, the analysis and presentation of quality-related data and so forth be followed.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.359-368
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• 2013

This study aimed to evaluate conditions and performance of quality improvement (QI) activity in Korean dental hospitals. Twenty one representative dental hospitals in Korea were selected by the selection criteria. A questionnaire was implemented to measure awareness, perceived needs, educations, conferences, works, activating/obstructive factors and satisfaction related to QI activities. Satisfaction score range from 0 (lowest) to 5 (highest) among 329 dental hygienists who worked in the selected 21 dental hospitals. Implementation rate of programs on external customer satisfaction was the highest 59.9% in QI activities, and reduction of expenses (59.4%), Improvement in health care quality (58.7), risk management (52.8) were followed, while improvement in work efficiency (46.5) showed the lowest implementation rate. The most influencing factor accelerating QI activities was 'active participation of hospital workers' (54.7%), and 'effort to improve customer satisfaction' (44.7%) followed. The most influencing QI related obstructive factor was 'lack of QI-related manpower and support' (47.1%). A balanced development including QI programs with lower implementation rates is necessary. Encouraging participation of workers may be the most important in developing dental QI activities further.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.146-159
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• 2001

Background : To propose effective strategies for successful implementation of QI in health care institutions, by identifying facilitating factors and barriers to conducting QI programs. Methods : In order to examine empirical evidence on the success factors or barriers to QI implementation in hospitals, a literature study was performed on the basis of MEDLINE search. Among the identified literature. 13 provided reliable findings and basis comprehensive discussion on this issue and thus were selected for in-depth analysis. A mailed questionnaire survey was conducted for hospital CEOs and QI directors of hospitals with 400 beds or greater to investigate what attributes of their organizations they perceived as success factors or obstacles to QI implementation. Result : The analysis of selected literature and survey results presented that the primary factors considered to be most important as successful implementation of QI were: strong support from hospital CEOs, setting higher priority for QI activities, continuous and persistent efforts in QI activities, and active participation of clinical staffs. The barriers identified in this study were : the lack of orientation and understanding of QI concepts, low level of interest and participation of physician in QI programs, the lack of evaluation and rewarding system for QI activities. Conclusion : By identifying factors that affect facilitation of QI, the study results will be of great use for either institutions being in the early stage of evolving QI or those looking for better strategies to achieve more active and persistent QI implementation in their institutions.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.278-294
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• 1998

This study was planned to provide basic data for activating quality improvement by genera hospital with more than 400 beds across the country, of which 65 coordinators answered. Main results of the study are as follows.. 1. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment by individual characteristics were compared. It was revealed that the sense of self-efficacy was related to job satisfaction positively. But job satisfaction and organizational commitment by locus of control showed no significant difference. 2. In terms of the characteristics of QI activities, the active participation of QI coordinators in QI planning process and smooth communication among hospital staffs were showed positive relationship to job satisfaction significantly. 3. Also support system was proposed as most significant variable related to the job satisfaction and the organizational commitment of QI coordinators. Especially support to QI activities by CEO's, seniors, and other hospital staff was a factor to enhance the job satisfaction and organizational commitment of QI coordinators. 4. In the aspect of organizational culture, culture which were tendency to be recognized high autonomy in their work and organizational identity strongly and to operate reasonable compensation system were related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment positively. The more formalized climate, supportive communication, cooperative teamwork and promoting creative/risk take behavior, it showed the higher organizational commitment. 5. For the aspect of QI job characteristics, QI coordinators' job satisfaction was high when QI office was arranged for independent department which was exclusively in charge of QI activities and their role is exclusively in charge of QI. It can be concluded that organizational support in the aspect of relation and finance and efforts of encouraging their motivation and providing on the job training program are need.

• Journal of Korean Medical classics
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.147-174
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• 2007

"Theory on the Sufficiency of Yang and the Deficiency of Yin(陽有餘陰不足論)" mainly instituted as follows: The 'Yang Qi(陽氣)' of the heaven(天) has changed to 'Qi(氣)', and the 'Yin Qi(陰氣)' of the earth(地) has changed to 'Xue(血)', 'Qi(氣)' is always sufficient and 'Xue(血)' is always deficient. 'The Always Sufficient Qi(氣常有餘)' means 'the fire always exists(常有火)', and 'the fire(火)' is 'the premier fire(相火)'. 'The premier fire(相火)' is always in men's body and causes 'activities(動)' which is the core characteristic in men's life, and in other side it always has opportunities to be made symptoms by 'the abnormal activities of the premier fire(相火妄動)'. In 'the always deficient Xue(血常不足)' , 'Xue(血)' is the 'Yin Qi(陰氣)' of liver and kidneys[肝腎] which is attached by 'the premier fire(相火)', as it means 'Xue(血)' and 'Jing(精)'. He suggested that 'the premier fire(相火)' is the power of human life, but if 'the premier fire(相火)' is not based on 'Yin Qi(陰氣)', it can not fulfill its function. So he thought that the maintenance and fulfillment of 'Yin Qi(陰氣)' is very important. In conclusion, "Theory on the Sufficiency of Yang and the Deficiency of Yin(陽有餘陰不足論)" explains the basic character of men's life which 'Dong Duo Jing Shao(動多靜少)', so 'the premier fire(相火)' which control 'the activities(動)' is always being and 'Jing Xue(精血)' which control 'Jing(靜)' is always scare.