• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.229-240
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• 2008

Purpose: To develop the patient classification system based on the resource utilization for reimbursement of long-term care hospitals in Korea. Method: Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA) conducted a survey in July 2006 that included 2,899 patients from 35 long-term care hospitals. To calculate resource utilization, we measured care time of direct care staff (physicians, nursing personnel, physical and occupational therapists, social workers). The survey of patient characteristics included ADL, cognitive and behavioral status, diseases and treatments. Major category criteria was developed by modified delphi method from 9 experts. Each category was divided into 2-3 groups by ADL using tree regression. Relative resource use was expressed as a case mix index (CMI) calculated as a proportion of mean resource use. Result: This patient classification system composed of 6 major categories (ultra high medical care, high medical care, medium medical care, behavioral problem, impaired cognition and reduced physical function) and 11 subgroups by ADL score. The differences of CMI between groups were statistically significant (p<.0001). Homogeneity of groups was examined by total coefficient of variation (CV) of CMI. The range of CV was 29.68-40.77%. Conclusions: This patient classification system is feasible for reimbursement of long-term care hospitals.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.29-45
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• 1985

Computed Tomography Scanner (CT) is highly expensive in operation as well as purchasing. That reason may cause not only to increase the burden of patients but also to waste the capital resources leading to financial difficulties. However the numbers of CT installed throughout the country is increasing, because of efficiency in medical care, patient's concern, competitions among the hospitals within the same area. In the non-Metropolitan area the scanners were expected to be less utilized and less profitable. Nine hospitals equipped with the CT were studied on the utilization of that equipment during the period from November 1984 to February 1985 in non-Metropolitan area and break-even point in one hospital was analyzed for estimating profitabilities. The results were as follows ; 1. Among those nine hospitals, four hospitals had less than 400 beds, which is one of the restrictive minimum standards on the installation of Whole-body Computed Tomography Scanner. 2. The operating time during the normal operation period was longer than those of any other studies, but the accumulated down time was also longer than those of any other studies. The average number of scanning per week for each CT was 45, while the estimated number of for the break-even point was 56.7 cases. 3. When the downtime was excluded in calculating the average operation would be much closer to the cases for the break-even point. Therefore the break-down of the equipment was to be a main cause of the low profitability. 4. The average scanning rate for head area was 33.6%, however three of the nine hospitals showed about 20%. 5. If scanning ratio for the body parts excepting head was increased, the number of scanning for the break-even point would be diminished. 6. The small size hospital especially located near the Metropolitan area showed largest loss in the CT operation. In purchasing the highly expensive equipments in hospitals, demand should be taken into account and planning is recommended.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.9-44
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• 1993

An explorative and descriptive study in order to determine the effect of family structure and other socio-demographic variables on health behavior, belief, locus, and value and utilization of public health service was carried out. Data were collected from 1,653 subjects randomly sampled in three areas, Seoul, Kyunggi province, and Cheju province. From Seoul 849 subjects were selected, 397 subjects Kyunggi, and 407 subjects from Cheju, respectively. Self-reporting questionaires were administered during the period from March to June, 1992. The major findings were as follows: 1) The subjects visited herb-doctor's at irregular intervals mainly to have tonic medicine prepared. They preferred herb-doctor's rather than with doctors at clinics and hospitals. Statistically significant difference was found among the regions studied (p<0.05). 2) The reason for visiting hospitals was primarily for treatment of diseases. They preferred hospital because they felt that the hospitals offer much highly reliable treatment services as well as medical accessibility. For the purpose of hospital utilization, statistically significant differences existed among sex, educational level, family type and region. However, no significance was found among sex, educational level, and region (p<0.05). 3) The subjects utilized general hospitals mainly for diagnosis and treatment of diseases. They preferred general hospitals because of their much better facilities and reliability. Statistical significance was found among sex, educational level, and region (p<0.05). 4) The subjects visited dentist at irregular intervals basis. They visited once half a year or three to four months. their purpose of visit was mainly for diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Statistical significance differences were found among educational level, region and economic standard (p<0.05). 5) Whenever their illnesses were mild and the pharmacies was located in nearby they visited to pharmacies. They visited once a month and patient medicines. Statistically significant differences were found among sex, educational level and region (p<0.05). 6) The subjects believed that herb medicine was quite efficacious for treatment of some diseases, particularly by information handed down through time-honored tradition and experience. However, they recognized that the efficacy of folk medicine can vary with type and severity of diseases. Statistical significance was among sex, educational level, region and economic standard (p<0.05). 7) The reason why subjects believed that pray and superstition are effective for treatment of certain type of diseases, particularly in neuropathy, was the belief in God's almighty. Statistically significant differences were found among sex, educational level, regions and economic standard (p<0.05). 8) Most of subjects under same condition preferred western medicine because they believed that it is more scientific and prompts in showing therapeutic effect. Statistical significance was not found in the choice of type of public health service among, regions. But significant differences were found among sex, educational level and region (p<0.05). 9) The subjects looked for pharmacy if they thought the symptom was mild. However, they visited hospitals for chronic disease and general hospitals for emergency treatment. Statistical significances were found among educational level, region and economic standard (p<0.05). 10) Although most of students wanted to have a healthy life as for the component of health standard and value, they think that they are not healthy (p<0.05). As for the health behavior, significant difference was found in the proportion of smoking and drinking between educational level and region (p<0.05). The health locus was affected by educational level, and health behavior was influenced by region, sex and educational level. The utilization of type of public health service was influenced by family type and region, and health belief by region and educational level, and the health values by region and economic standard respectively, most of correlation showed statistical significance. Among them, the highest correlation was seen between locus of control and external/internal locus of control, which is quite obvious. The correlation between health belief and behavior was the next highest, but still low (0.343). All the other variables are low but significant except only a few of those. These findings indicate that health education should be incorporated into the curriculum so as to develop desirable health habit, and ability of self-control in accordance with their growth stages. A systematic and scientific understanding on the herb/folk medicine is needed, and greater reliability of the utilization of public health services are is still required. Health policy for equal distribution of health service throughout the country along the hierarchical health service system and complementary mutual assistance and cooperation among various health organizations are also required.

• Journal of the Korean Catholic Hospital Association
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.7-9
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• 1973

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.546-555
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• 1999

Objectives : To determine the prevalence, pattern. and out-of-pocket expenditure of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) utilization in Korean adult population. Methods : We conducted a representative telephone survey of 2,042 persons aged 18 or older. Data about any health problem, details of their use of medical doctors(MDs) offices/hospitals/pharmacies services and CAM during the preceding 12 months were collected with structured questionnaire. Results : The utilization rate of CAM among Korean adults was 29% in one year. A total of 231 kinds of CAM was identified from this survey. Annual out-of-pocket expenditure associated with CAM use in 1998 amounted to ${\xi}{\S}1.88$ billion and was comparable to 40.8% of out-of-pocket expenditure paid for MDs offices/hospitals/pharmacies services. Among those(N=424) who paid for both MDs offices/hospitals/pharmacies services an d CAM, 35.8% paid more for CAM. CAM gave more satisfaction than western medicine to those who had experience of both types of therapy. About half of CAM users were willing to recommend CAM to others. Disclosure rate to physician among CAM users was not high(40.6%). Conclusion : CAM became a popular source of health care in Korea, Korean spent a substantial amount of out-of-pocket money on CAM without any public control. Because CAM use is likely to be increased rapidly through lay referral system, health policy makers and health professionals should pay more attention to CAM for making appropriate utilization of CAM.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.121-133
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• 1998

We analyzed volume changes in the computerized tomography(CT) and the magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) utilizations. These two volumes are comparative because CT has been covered by the Medical Insurance from the beginning of 1996, however, MRI has not been covered up to now. We investigated 80 hospitals which afforded a facility of CT by the end of 1994. For the comparison of CT utilization, we selected two periods. The first period was from January to June of 1995, in which CT had not been covered by the Medical Insurance and the second period was from January to June of 1966, in which CT had been covered. The information we obtained were characteristics of hospitals, patients numbers per month, monthly uses of CT and MRI, and payments of CT claims, etc. After the Medical Insurance coverage, the number of CT uses per 1,000 patients were increased from January to March, however, was decreased from April to June in 1996 compared to the same periods of 1995. the number of CT uses in clinics were large than those in tertiary hospitals. The number of CT uses in small cities were larger than those in big cities. On the other hand, the number of MRI uses per 1,000 patients did not changed from January to May and was increased from June in 1996 compared to the same periods of 1995. These results showed the substitutional relationship of CT and MRI uses. After the insurance coverage for CT, the utilization of CT was increased because patients payed less than before. However, insurers restricted the payments to the CT claims. This impact might explain the substitutional relationship between CT and MRI.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.26 no.3 s.43
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• pp.400-411
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• 1993

The aim of this study is to analyze the variations among hospitals and hospital groups in resource use and procedures of diagnostic and therapeutic process, such as laboratory tests, radiologic examinations, tissue diagnosis, timing of surgery after admission, the time required for operation. The study was performed for five procedures including cesarean section (C/S), appendectomy, cholecystectomy, cataract extraction, and pediatric pneumonia. The 2,316 subjects were selected from medical insurance claims list, and from this list 413 cases were sampled for medical record review. The patterns of resource utilization and process of treatment were described according to hospitals and characteristics of hospital groups. The major results were as follows : 1. The numbers of laboratory and radiologic tests showed significant difference among hospitals and hospital groups. In case of hospital groups, we could find tendencies of more tests with increasing hospital bed size. 2. In general, the proportion of operative cases evaluated by tissue diagnosis postoperatively among all operations ranged from 28.3% to 100%. The proportion varied among hospital groups, of which general hospital A group(more than 15 specialty) showed the highest proportion. 3. Post-admission delay until operation and the time required for operative procedure were not invariable among hospitals and hospital groups. The duration of operation in tertiary hospitals was slightly shorter than general hospitals, with varying statistical significance. We could find that probably there were differences of quality among hospitals in some components of procedures, which suggested that the implementation of quality assurance activities would be mandatory. In this study, we simply described the patterns of resource utilization and some features of clinical process, with institution of the need for advanced studies with in-depth analyses for each component of diagnosis and treatment procedures.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.31-58
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• 1995

The Korean government achieved the universal coverage of health insurance in July 1989, and concomitantly introduced a new measure of regulated health care delivery system in using medical care. There are three reasons why the government took the new health care delivery system. Firstly, there was ample room for improving the allocative efficiency in the use of medical facilities. And the second one was to constrain the dramatic increase of medical demand under health insurance. Thirdly, and the most important reason was to alleviate the patient crowdedness in big general hospitals, particularly tertiary hospitals. There are essentially two different ways to control the use of health care : one is to cut the demand for health care, and the other to regulate behaviors of providers through the use of incentives/disincentives, demand-side approach or supply-side approach. The objective of this study is to examine whether or not medical care utilization behaviors under health insurance scheme have been changed among medical facilities such as clinic, hospital, general hospital and tertiary hospital in comparison with those before and after the introduction, particularly whether the patient crowdedness in tertiary hospitals has been alleviated or not. In order to conduct this study, the insurance claim data during the period of January 1989 and July 1992 were analyzed by focusing on diagnosis of both inpatients and outpatients, and especially the fifteen most frequent diseases in ambulatory care and the seven most frequent diseases in hospitalizatio. In addition, the same analyses were made on the changes in medical care utilization by specialty department. This was because the five departments, such as family medicine, ENT, eye, dermatology and rehabilitation, were exempted from applying the regulated health care delivery system in tertiary hospitals. The study revealed that a remarkable alleviation effect in the crowdness was noted for tertiary hospitals. This effect was most conspicuous for the most frequent mild diseases of both inpatient and outpatient care. For example, the fifteen most frequent OPD care at tertiary facilities have decreased as much as by 40%, of which 34% belonged to the cut in initial visits. Meanwhile, the proportion of those who used general hospitals and private practitioner's clinics have increased due to the shift of patients. The cases from the five special departments were also decreased, but not so much as other departments. A problem was noted that, as time passed by, the decreasing tendencies of crowdness at tertiary hospitals due to the regulated system became slightly smaller. Therefore, through complementary remedies are needed for the future implementation.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 1978

To examine the result of the government Medical Aid Program which began in January, 1977 as a part of social security policy implementation, all the medical records of the clients and official statistics in the year were analysed. The specific objectives this study pursues include the magnitudes and patterns of morbidity and utilization, and the characteristics of clients. One Korean rural area, Koje county was selected as the study area and subsequently all the clinics and hospitals assigned to work out the Aid Program are the subjects for the survey. A brief summary of the sutdy results as follows: a. The clients of Koje county are 6.4% of the total population in the area, more than the average percentage of the clients in Korea. It reflects on low level of economic status of the residents of the area. b. The population structure of the clients indicates that the large proportions of young and old age group are overwhelming, while the middle age group share very small portions. c. The utilization rates for primary care are 2.0 persons, 11.6 visits and 22.6 treatment days per 100 persons per months. Annual hospitalization is rated as 13.7 cases and 164 days per 1,000 persons, The utilization rates are slightly lower than those expected rates during planning period but eventually become higher than those of general population in rural Korea. d. The factors which influence the utilization rates are identified with client group (low income vs indigent), age and sex. e. The utilization pattern for primary care demonstrates seasonal variation similar to the pattern of general rural population in the low income group, but none in the indigent group. f. The most common diseases revealed at the primary care clinics are the acute respiratory infection (26.9%), acute gastritis (10.8%), skin and subcutaneous infection (6.8%). The cases of acute conditions are outnumbered than the cases of chronic condition. 8. The clinics, hospitals and other related health institutions are well cooperated in dealing health care services in their own capacities. Considering the above results Medical Aid Program generated satisfactory results at least in the utilization aspect.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.523-529
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• 2017

This study analyzed the financial information between 2011 and 2014 comparing management performance and utilization of capital and human resources between private non-profit general hospitals and regional public hospitals operated as general hospitals. The purpose of this study was to enhance the productivity for financial independence of regional public hospitals. Comparison analysis variables were value added to the total assets, value added to the productive activity tangible fixed assets, value added to personnel expenses, ratio of value added, and operating margin to revenues. According to the analysis results, regional public hospitals showed lower investment efficiency indicator and higher ratio of value added, as well as significantly lower operating margin-to-revenues compared with private non-profit general hospitals. Moreover, the effect of investment efficiency indicators on operating margin-to-revenues was value added to the productive activity of tangible fixed assets and value added to personnel expenses in regional public hospitals; the value added to personnel expenses in private non-profit general hospitals had a significant effect on the operating margin-to-revenues, the effect of value added to personnel expenses was the greatest. Therefore, it is necessary to asset utilization to the revenue and propriety of human resources to personnel expenses in regional public hospitals.