• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.84-94
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• 2001

Background : in order to adapt to changes of the medical environm interests that is drawn in ambulatory surgery are increased as a method of approaching a patients' satisfaction and cost-effective management. The purpose of this study is to a assess the operation which is able to perform through ambulatory care unit, to identify the problem in ambulatory surgery, and to increased the opportunity of ambulatory surgery with safety. Methods : Between May 13th, 1998 and June 30th, 2000, we performed surgical treatment through ambulatory care unit, and evaluate the results of them. The sorts of operation, duration of stay in the hospital, total cost of treatment, satisfaction of patients and safety if anesthesia were assessed. Results : We performed ambulatory surgery without serve complications and the patients were satisfied with surgical treatment through ambulatory care unit. In comparison of ambulatory and admission surgery, there was a reduction of cost to 16.7~25.3% in ambulatory surgery. Also, the duration of admission was 2 days shorter than admission surgery. Conclusions : According to our results, the surgical treatment through ambulatory care unit is safe and useful method that increase the quality of medical service, satisfaction of patients and reduce the cost of treatments.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.6-16
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• 2006

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics influencing consultation and waiting time in ambulatory patients. Methods : This study was conducted in a tertiary teaching hospital. Subjects were a total of 10,383 ambulatory patients. Consultation time was measured by time spent for meeting with his/her physician per patient. Waiting time was defined as the time difference between each patient's reserved time and time to meet with his/her physician for ambulatory care. Multiple regression analyses were performed to determine the factors influencing consultation and waiting time. Results : Consultation time was different according to patient' age, previous experience of clinic visit, recent admission history, medical department, specialist care, type of reservation, and day of the week. Significant factors influencing waiting time were patient' age, residential area, previous experience of clinic visit, recent admission history, medical department, specialist care, time spent after ambulatory care begins, and day of the week. Conclusions : The medical department was the strongest factor affecting both consultation time and waiting time. The ambulatory reservation management systems should take into account patient characteristics as well as care-related features.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.61-67
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• 1995

The purpose of this study is to define the problems associated with ambulatory care facilities, to classify the types of ambulatory care facilities, to examine significant architectural case studies, and to point the way toward enhanced architectural solutions for healthier ambulatory health care service environments for the patients. The case study will provide a brief introduction to the selected cases and examine planning concepts and design factors.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.451-461
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore emotional labor experienced by nurses in ambulatory care setting. Method: The phenomenological method developed by Giorgi was used for this study. The participants were 9 nurses who had experienced emotional labor. Data were collected between May and August 2010 by face-to-face interviews. The interview was recorded and then transcribed. Results: The constituents associated with the meaning of the nurses' experiences of emotional labor in ambulatory care setting were as followings: bearing down of suffering emotions coming up from the bottom, feeling loneliness when having to undertake care alone by oneself, having conflict between nursing professional and services, managing mind by means of both internal and external resources, getting ridding oneself of conflict with forced emotions over time. Conclusions: The results of this study should contribute to a deeper understanding of the meaning of emotional labor experienced by nurses in ambulatory care. The results also highlight the need to develop programs for nurses in ambulatory care setting to help them express their real action.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.90-100
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a tool to evaluate the nursing competency of ambulatory nurses and to verify the reliability and validity of the developed tool for use in general hospitals. Methods: The evaluation tool for ambulatory nursing competency was developed through a literature review and tests for validity and reliability. Results: Subsequent to a review of the literature on nursing performance of ambulatory nurses, a 12 item questionnaire was developed. Through factor analysis, 12 items in a 2 factor solution were derived. Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ coefficient of the final instrument was .86. Conclusion: The assessment tool developed in this study allows for objective assessments of nursing competencies in relation to the competencies expected of ambulatory care nurses. It is hoped that the assessment tool can be used for empirical verification and to provide basic data for establishing the necessary policies to secure outstanding human resources.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.178-187
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• 2009

Background : Atopic dermatitis is chronic exzemaous dermatitis and the recurrence rate of atopic dermatitis is high. Many patients are suffering from pruritus. Objective : This study compared ambulatory care with hospitalization for atopic dermatitis treatment of one patient, and investigated the effect of Oriental medicine program for atopic dermatitis patients during short term hospitalization. Method : We treated a 5 year-old boy with uncontrollable atopic dermatitis by ambulatory care and hospitalizaion. Herbal medication and herbal dressing was done samely during ambulatory care and hospitalization. Intensive life management, education for compliance was done only during hospitalization. Results : Even though he had been treated for 5 months by ambulatory care, he still suffered from severe itching, erythema, oozing and insomnia. Admission duration was 10 days. During admission, the SCORAD scores and subjective scores were decreased rapidly. Conclusion : We concluded that effects of the treatments can be different due to compliance of the patient and in that view the short term hospitalization program could be more helpful than ambulatory care for uncontrollable atopic dermatitis patients.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.36-46
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• 2013

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to find a way to effectively introduce accreditation for ambulatory health care organization by identifying the physicians' attitude for accreditation and characteristics that affect thei r attitude. Methods: A web survey was conducted from February 15 to March 4, 2011 for 183 physicians who work in ambulatory health care organizations throughout the nation. Self-reported questionnaire was used for this study. SPSS WIN(version 12.0) was utilized for statistical analysis. Results: Physician's attitude towards accreditation for ambulatory health care organization was positive(25.7%), moderate(39.3%), and negative(35.0%). Clinics that practice as a group or which treat more patients per day showed more positive attitude(p<0.05). The result of ordinal regression analysis indicates the groups with daily patients over 100 showed 36.3 times more positive attitude than the one under 75(p<0.05). Conclusion: The accreditation for ambulatory health care organization has not been throughly discussed yet. Many physicians did not have knowledge about accreditation. Clinics that see more patients per day had more positive attitude for accreditation. It indicates the cost may play important role in voluntary participation in accreditation.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.21 no.1 s.23
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• pp.47-60
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• 1988

The monthly ambulatory treatment days in newly detected hypertension group and known hypertension group were analyzed. The population was identified through the records of screening examination given by Korea Medical Insurance Corporation during the period from April to July, 1986. From the records of screening examination, 11,614 hypertensive patients were identified. By random sampling,959 patients were selected : among them, 544 fell under the category of known hypertension group and the other 415 fell under the newly detected hypertension group. The monthly ambulatory treatment days of these patients during the period from the April, 1985 to September, 1987 were analyzed in order to compare the exents of medical care utilization as well as to define and analyze the determinants responsible for the ambulatory treatment days between the two groups. The following results were obtained. 1) In the known hypertension group, no statistically significant changes in the ambulatory treatment days was observed after, in comparision to before, the screening examination. However, in the newly detected hypertension group the medical care utilization increased after the screening examination because of hypertension. 2) The ambulatory treatment days for hypertension of the known hypertension was statistically significant and higher than that of the newly detected hypertension group after screening examination. 3) There was no statistically significant change in the ambulatory treatment days in association with diseases other than hypertension in either group before and after the screening examination. 4) There was no statistically significant variable responsible for ambulatory treatment days in the known hypertension group. However, the income was a statistically significant variable in the newly detected hypertension group. 5) After the screening examination, the variables determining the ambulatory treatment days were the age of the patient and the diastolic blood pressure in the known hypertension group. These variables responsible for 2.02% of the total ambulatory treatment days. In the newly detected hypertension group, the income was a statistically significant variable which was responsible for 2.10% of total ambulatory treatment days. The above results satisfied the hypothesis that there would be no significant changes in the ambulatory treatment days before and after the screening examination in the known hypertension group. Also the hypothesis that there would be no significant change in the exents of medical care utilization for the diseases other than hypertension before and after the screening examination in either group was satisfied Also the medical care utilization was significantly higher in the known hypertension group than the newly detected hypertension group after the screening examination. This finding satisfied the hypothesis. This study was limited by the lack of considering fully the variables reponsible for the clinical symptoms of hypertension as well as for the individual characteristics. Thus, the result of this study are not fully adequate to define the determinants responsible for the exents of medical care utilization. In the future studies on medical rare utilization, additional variables should be considered.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2017

The prevalence of diabetes and its related morbidity and mortality are being increased. Despite the advancement of evidence-based pharmacotherapy in the management of diabetes, many patients in our country do not achieve satisfied therapeutic outcomes. Pharmaceutical care service can be defined as a patient-centered clinical service provided by pharmacists to improve therapeutic outcomes and quality of life of patients, by identifying, and preventing or resolving drug-related problems (DRPs). Pharmaceutical care service is interdisciplinary team-based practice, and is provided through collaborative practice agreement (CPA) between one or more physicians and pharmacists. This article describes a model of pharmaceutical care service which can be adopted in our country for patients with diabetes in the ambulatory care settings. With the successful implementation of this service, clinical, economic, and humanistic outcomes of patients will be improved. Therefore, by actively implementing pharmaceutical care service, pharmacist should contribute to the promotion of patients' health and to the advancement of health care delivery system.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.188-194
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• 2015

Objectives: The goal of this study was to identify association between the continuity of ambulatory care of diabetes patients in South Korea (hereafter Korea) and the incidence of macrovascular complications of diabetes, using claims data compiled by the National Health Insurance Services of Korea. Methods: This study was conducted retrospectively. The subjects of the study were 43 002 patients diagnosed with diabetes in 2007, who were over 30 years of age, and had insurance claim data from 2008. The macrovascular complications of diabetes mellitus were limited to ischemic heart disease and ischemic stroke. We compared the characteristics of the patients in whom macrovascular complications occurred from 2009 to 2012 to the characteristics of the patients who had no such complications. Multiple logistic regression was used to assess the effects of continuity of ambulatory care on diabetic macrovascular complications. The continuity of ambulatory diabetes care was estimated by metrics such as the medication possession ratio, the quarterly continuity of care and the number of clinics that were visited. Results: Patients with macrovascular complications showed statistically significant differences regarding sex, age, comorbidities, hypertension, dyslipidemia and continuity of ambulatory diabetes care. Visiting a lower number of clinics reduced the odds ratio for macrovascular complications of diabetes. A medication possession ratio below 80% was associated with an increased odds ratio for macrovascular complications, but this result was of borderline statistical significance. Conclusions: Diabetes care by regular health care providers was found to be associated with a lower occurrence of diabetic macrovascular complications. This result has policy implications for the Korean health care system, in which the delivery system does not work properly.