• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.339-351
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• 2018

Background: The purpose of this study is to estimate empirically whether there is a difference in medical use among income groups, and if so, how much. This study applies econometric model to the most recent year of Korean Medical Panel, 2015. The model consists of outpatient service and inpatient service models. Methods: The probit model is applied to the model which indicate whether or not the medical care has been used. Two step estimation method using maximum likelihood estimation is applied to the models of outpatient visits, hospital days, and outpatient and inpatient out-of-pocket cost models, with disconnected selection problems. Results: The results show that there was the inequality favorable to the low income group in medical care use. However, after controlling basic medical needs, there were no inequities among income groups in the outpatient visit model and the model of probability of inpatient service use. However, there were inequities favorable to the upper income groups in the models of probability of outpatient service use and outpatient out-of-pocket cost and the models of the number of length of stay and inpatient out-of-pocket cost. In particular, it shows clearly how the difference in outpatient service and inpatient service utilizations by income groups when basic medical needs are controlled. Conclusion: This means that the income contributes significantly to the degree of inequality in outpatient and inpatient care services. Therefore, the existence of medical care use difference under the same medical needs among income groups is a problem in terms of equity of medical care use, so great efforts should be made to establish policies to improve equity among income groups.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.129-146
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• 1999

The overall objective of this article is to identify the strategic type of Korean hospitals in terms of Porter's framework and to examine differences in performance of the hospitals across strategic types. A survey was conducted through structured questionnaire for 739 hospitals in Korea and the data from 120 hospitals were utilized in the final analysis. Study results indicate that the most frequently used strategy was 'stuck-in-the-middle strategy'(26.7%), followed by 'focused cost leadership strategy'(24.0%), 'focused differentiation strategy'(20.8%), 'cost leadership strategy'(15.8%), and 'differentiation strategy'(13.7%). Overall, 'focused differentiation strategy' showed superior performance in terms of profitability of services, ability to retain patients and growth in revenue, while 'differentiation strategy' produced relatively low performance in general. Implications of these findings are also discussed.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.28-40
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• 1990

Rapid industrialization has induced the migration of rural people to urban areas. Such migration has created enlarged the existing low income group. Residents of low income area have increased health risk owing to their poor living environment, low income. overwork and inappropriate health care. The general objective of this study was to group the pattern of medical care utilization of low income group. The specific objectives were to identify disease prevalence and medical care utilization of low income group. To meet the objectives of this study, household interview method was applied. A total of 1845 households in 5 areas such as Bongchon 5th Dong, Bongchon 2nd Dong, Sanggae 5th Dong, Sanggae 4th Dong, and Shinrim 7th Dong were visited and interviewed by field team during the period from April 19 to May 3. 1989. The major findings obtained from the information collected were as follows : The Number of room per household used was one to two rooms. The employment state of the head of household disclosed that 88.6% had a job and the remaining 11.4% were unemployed. The average monthly income was 502,770won. however, 30% of the total income was less than 300,000 won in Bongchon 5th dong area. and 34.5% in Shinrim 7th Dong area. 41.3% of households had debts, which was consisted of household expense(33.4%), income formulation(22.7%) and medical care cost(15.9%) etc. Prevalence rate of diseases during the preceding 30days before the date of the household interview was 387.7 per 1000 persons. The prevalence rate of female was higher than that of male. 8.9% of the sick persons wasn't receiving any medical treatment, and the main reasons of which were lack of economic availability(43.3%) and feeling of non treatment needed(33.7%). According to the study results it was found that the prevalence rate of chroic diseases and the disabled in low income resident areas was higher than that in the other areas. Therefore, the health status of this group should be improved through PHC approaches. In addition. in order to prevent the diseases and promote the health of those people, the health center as well as health subcenter should be strengthened.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.45-57
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• 2010

Background : If different cost efficiency indexes were informed to the same clinic depending on the inclusion or exclusion of pharmacy cost, it may impair the reliability of provider-profiling system. This study aimed to investigate whether the omission of pharmacy cost affects cost-efficiency rankings in medical clinics. Methods : Data for ambulatory care cost at 23,112 medical clinics were collected from the claims database, which was constructed after review by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) of Korea in April 2007. We calculated two types of cost efficiency indexes by inclusion or exclusion of pharmacy cost for a medical clinic. The agreement between the decile rankings of the two indexes was also assessed using the weighted kappa statistic of Landis and Koch. Results : When the cost efficiency index for total cost including pharmacy cost was compared with the index for total cost excluding it, the agreement between the two indexes was only 55%. The agreements between the two indexes were relatively low within specialties which have larger pharmacy volume of total cost and lower correlation between total cost with or without pharmacy cost included than the average level of all the specialties. Conclusion : These results suggest that the omission of pharmacy cost may result in contradictory outcomes that may be confusing to a medical institution and may impair the reliability of provider-profiling systems. It is very important to standardize profiling criteria for the reliability of provider profiling system.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.49-58
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• 2016

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to find factors affecting the cost-reduction practice of clinical nurses. Methods : The Data were collected from Feb. 25, to Mar. 15, 2015.the Total subjects were 201 nurses working in secondary-care hospitals located in Busan Results : The Meaningful variables that explain the cost-reduction practice in clinical nurses were psychological ownership, religion, and marital status in that order. Total explanation power was 22.1.% and psychological ownership has most explanation power. Conclusions : Psychological ownership and economic consciousness need to improve to develop cost-reduction practices. Additionally, nurses with and low concern about finances need to receive financial-related education.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.630-641
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of current study was to explore the positive outcomes of advanced practice nurse who have experienced the roles in their clinical settings. Methods: This study adopted a qualitative research design based on conventional content analysis. Participants were 16 nurse practitioners have been worked at hospitals or community centers. Data were collected via focus group interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis method. Results: Patients' aspect outcomes were "client-centered care in providing continuity", "providing trust based on expertise", "promoting skilled intervention in patient recovering", "blocking the negative consequences", "quality improvement: nursing becoming tighter", "providing total care for cases that require intensive care", "improving patients outcomes by total management", "increasing confidence in evidence-based professional nursing", "rising the satisfaction by cost-effective services", "providing skilled professional practice", and "providing comprehensive care related to covering various aspects". Other themes elicited also included "promoting efficacy by inter-related health professions supervising", "the expansion of specialized practice areas increase business efficiency", "formation of outside customers due to increasing the satisfaction with skilled nursing care", "filling in the emptying spaces of doctors by practicing reliable role to bridge", "attracting external customers through successful management of subjects", "increasing staff's satisfaction on the role to make a bridge between inside and outside doctors", "24 hours medical expertise of professional staff ready secured", and "low cost, same results, that is, cost-effective" in reference to health care resources aspect. Conclusion: These findings suggested that advanced practice nurses perceived various positive outcomes and provided basic data for outcome indicators of advanced practice nurses' role.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2023

Purpose: This study purposed to analyze the economic feasibility of introducing a third party logistics system as a strategic alternative to hospital management. Methods: Economic analysis was performed by measuring changes in costs and benefits before and after implement the third party logistics system and estimating the size of net benefits for the next five years for the target hospital. A questionnaire survey and in-depth interview with stake-holders were conducted to find out the satisfaction and effectiveness of the system. Findings: According to results, the cost-benefit ratio for the implementation of the system was 1.18. For the next five years, the cost-benefit ratio was 1.48, the net present value was about 1.7 billion won, and the internal rate of return was 64%. The satisfaction of internal stake-holders was relatively high, in terms of improving the concentration of unique tasks and increasing the efficiency of inventory management. Practical Implications: It was found that the increase in benefits had a greater effect on the change in the cost-benefit ratio than the increase in costs resulting from the expansion of logistics, and the increase in the present value of net benefits gradually decreased as the cost increased. In addition, overall job satisfaction and satisfaction with outsourcing companies were relatively low, which means that stabilization of the new system is important. Further study is needed for more accurate economic analysis.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.303-322
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• 2011

The increased needs for medical cost containment and the quality of life improvement for the low-income elderly with chronic disease require the complementary relationship between hospital care and community health services. This study investigated the current status of the linkage between Korean hospital care and community services using Seoul Welfare Panel Study(SWPS) data. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the effects of experiences of hospitalization and outpatient health services on use and needs of community health services. The analysis results indicated that the elderly with chronic disease who have not experienced outpatient health services were unlikely to receive health and social services in the community. Even those who have experienced hospitalization were not provided complementary health services in the community despite the increasing demand.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.202-214
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• 1999

This study was conducted to provide the data for the improvement of home health nursing services through the investigation of burden and satisfaction felt by family caregivers under home health nursing care. The study subjects consisted of 200 family caregivers who were enrolled m six university hospital home care services. Data were collected by using constructed questionnaires through mail from March to April of 1999. and analyzed by using t-test. ANOVA, Duncan-test. and Pearson Correlation Coefficients. The results were as follows: 1. The mean score of burden was 2.24. Among the SIX burden dimensions. the highest score was marked in time-dependence dimension. Caregivers were found to have greater burden in the low income families living in flats. In relation to the characteristics of patients. higher scores were shown in the male patients with cerebrospinal diseases. who also revealed higher score of dependency in the Activities of Daily Living. As a whole. there was no significant difference between home nursing care and clinical nursing care in terms of family caregivers' burden. The burden of time-dependence dimension in home nursing care was significantly higher than that of clinical nursing care while the burdens of physical. social. and financial dimensions were significantly lower than those of the clinical nursing care. 2. The mean score of satisfaction was 3.14. Among the six items. the highest score was marked in the nursing care and treatment skill. while the lowest score was marked in the cost containment. Family caregivers with higher academic background and higher income showed higher satisfaction score. The mean score of home care nursmg was significantly higher than that of clinical nursing care.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.96-110
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• 2021

Korea is faced with the challenge of adapting to the world's fastest - growing low birthrate, aging society, and low growth with low interest rate era. With low fertility and aging population, the factors of financial income of health insurance are decreasing, and the increase of public interest in health, high cost medical technology and the development of medicine are leading to increase expenditure of health insurance. In this study, I will examine the strengthen protection of health insurance, financial stabilization, and fairness of medical care. First, the present status and limitations of health insurance were identified through domestic policy report, domestic and foreign literature, and precedent research. Second, the foreign health insurance policy measures to stabilize the finances were examined separately. Based on this study, in order to maintain sustainable health insurance through reinforcement and financial stabilization of health insurance, the current financial income structure of health insurance must be renovated. It will be necessary to expand government subsidies and discover new tax revenues. In addition, a policy to save finances by reorganizing the medical bill payment system and medical delivery system will also be needed.