• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.394-400
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• 2009

Purpose : On outpatient facilities, our sedation protocol focuses on the intermittent bolus injections of midazolam intravenously, according to patient's and operator's needs during the dental treatment. This multicenter retrospective study was aimed to prove the efficiency and safety of our sedation protocol. Patients and Methods : In three centers using the same outpatient sedation protocol for dental treatment (Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery/Department of Dentistry in Hanyang University Medical Center, S-plant Dental Hospital. and Grand Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery), total 937 patients had various dental treatments under intravenous conscious sedations with independent patient monitoring from March 2006 to March 2009. By reviewing charts, we analyzed the results of sedation and dental treatment, retrospectively. Results : Our sedation protocol had no severe postoperative complications requiring admission. while showing good compatibility with almost all dental treatments, with acceptable satisfaction of both patients and operators. Conclusion : We assure that our sedation protocol can be used efficiently and safely on routine outpatient basis. We also hope that this study will provide the concrete concepts to common dental practitioners, who desire to perform sedation for dental treatment.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.41-65
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• 1999

This study was attempted to identify the factors affecting profitability of general hospital in Kyung-In Region. Operating profit to gross revenues and net profit to gross revenues were used as a proxy indicator for profitability of hospitals. The unit of analysis was hospital, and the data were collected 5 years data from 20 hospitals. The major findings are as follows; (1) The average operating profit rate was 1.03% and the net profit rate was -5.00% in twenty hospitals in the Kyung-In Region for the last five years. In terms of maximum surplus, the operating profit rate was 14% and net profit rate was 3.40%. In terms of maximum loss revenue, the operating profit rate was -16.56% and the net profit rate was -22.83%. (2) Since the year 1993, which was the starting year of this study, the operating profits and the net profits consistently decreased. (3) Analyzing the difference in profits among various hospital groups, the tertiary hospital group and the 501-1000 beds group exhibited the highest in operating profit rate. Also, among the higher grade number of beds in hospital group, per 100 beds group, the 41-50 beds group exhibited the highest in operating profit rate. There is a statistically significant difference in those groups(p<0.05, p<0.01). (4) In the health care delivery system, the profit gain in the secondary hospital was 51.5% and in the tertiary hospital was 72.4%. Based on the number of beds in each hospital group, the highest profit gain was 75.0% in the over 1001 beds group, and 71.4% in the 501-1000 beds group. Also, among the higher grade number of beds in hospital group, per 100 beds group, the 41-50 beds group exhibited 88.6% surplus. (5) According to the surplus difference based on the analysis of health care utilization, a group with over 31 patients in bed turnover rate, a group with over 96% in bed occupancy rate and group with over 9% in emergency cases to outpatient visits exhibited the highest profit gains. In addition, a group with over 301 patients in daily outpatient visits per 100 beds and group with 11-12 days average length of stay exhibited the highest profit gains. These results are statistically significant(p<0.05, p<0.01). (6) According to a stepwise regression analysis, the variables measuring the bed turnover rate, number of licensed beds, and number of outpatient visits per specialist explain 34.1% of the variation in operating profits. In terms of net profits, the new outpatient visits, the bed turnover rates and the number of general bed variables explain 30.6%. These results are statistically significant(p<0.01).

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.28-40
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• 1998

Background : Many patients have been frequently complaining that they have to spend couples of hours in hospital on visiting outpatient clinic. Among several steps, two major time consuming steps were waiting to see a doctor and/or waiting at pharmacy to get medicine. Therefore not only to provide the proper guidance for medication or counseling on health affairs but also to make waiting time short is very important for the better hospital services. The aim of this study is to validate several time-saving processes to reduce waiting time at outpatient pharmacy and its efficacy. Methods : We surveyed the time interval actually taken to receive medicine after issuing prescription by doctors, and analyzed the data on the bases of relevant or possible causative factors. Then following processes were given to reduce waiting time and resurveyed and compared both data to validate efficacy of those processes : 1. No work-off on Monday and Tuesday 2. Work hour shift to start 30 minutes earlier 3. Changeable work shift between outpatient pharmacy and ward pharmacy according to work load 4. Use of pre-made medicines prescribed more frequently by certain doctors at certain time 5. Cooperation with doctors to use set prescriptions. Results : Before the process, mean waiting time at pharmacy was 29.2 minutes and most time consuming period was from noon to 1 PM, 3 to 4 PM, 1 to 2 PM in order of frequency. Only 37.7 % of patients could get the medicine within 20 minutes. Three times of surveys after process showed mean waiting time at pharmacy were 18.1 minutes, 19.0 minutes, and 17.6 minutes, respectively. And 72.7 %, 81.3%, and 82.2% of patients could get the medicine within 20 minutes. Conclusion : The mean waiting time was markedly reduced with above mentioned processes which applied intradepartmently event hough with little cooperation from other department. Consequently, the complaints of patients were decreased with increasing the satisfaction degree. In conclusion, those suggestions were recommanded to improve the degree of satisfaction of patients.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.351-357
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• 2019

This study was conducted to evaluate outpatient experiences of a general hospital and help identify the medical service status experienced by the patients in the overall process of outpatient care, and analyze the major factors influencing patient experience and perception. A total of 100 patients having more than 2 outpatient clinic visits at a university hospital from May 14, 2018 to May 28, 2018, were selected to participate in the survey, comprising 60.0% females and 40.0% males. Considering age, majority belonged to the >60 years old age group (53.0%) as compared to <59 years (47.0%). "Hospital is close by" was the highest motivation to visit the hospital (42.0%), followed by "Medical staff is skilled" (36.0%), "Recommended by another hospital" (7.0%), and "Recommended by people" being the lowest (1.0%). Taken together, the results of this study can be used as basic data to identify the issues for providing better patient-centric medical services, and to formulate plans for creating medical services that meet the patient needs and differentiated medical services.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.562-570
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors influencing the quality of sleep in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy in the outpatient settings. The data were collected from 203 patients with breast cancer receiving chemotherapy in the outpatient settings at one tertiary hospital in B City. Stress, fatigue and depression were negatively correlated with quality of sleep (r=-.369, p=.001; r=-.565, p=.001; r=-.526, p=.001, respectively). Fatigue(${\beta}=-.387$, p<.001) was one of the biggest impact factors on quality of sleep which explained 31.6% of the variance of the sleep quality, followed by the experience of sleep disturbances prior to the diagnosis of breast cancer(${\beta}=-.178$, p<.002) and depression(${\beta}=-.231$, p<.004). In total, all of the antecedent variables explained significantly 37.4% of the variance of the sleep quality. Thus, in order to improve the quality of sleep, integrative nursing interventions need to be developed to reduce fatigue and depression among them, including an proactive system to screen out the patients with the experience of sleep disturbances prior to the diagnosis with breast cancer and to provide adequate pharmacological and/or non-pharmacological sleep interventions prior to the chemotherapy.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.111-119
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• 2019

Purpose : The aim of this study was to investigate patterns of medical use among juveniles and adolescents, including for chronic disease, in Korea. The study sought to do the following: (a) investigate the extent to which chronic diseases account for medical expenditures, (b) investigate and the socio-demographic characteristics associated with medical use, and (c) identify the differences in medical use between juveniles and adolescents. Methods : We used data from the 2015 Korean Health Panel and selected 12 variables. The socio-demographic characteristics investigated included, growth period (juvenile, adolescents), gender, family income, national basic livelihood act status, disability registration, and degree of disability. There were five medical factors that were considered: emergency room use, hospitalization use, hospital outpatient use, chronic disease, and medical expenditure. Data were analyzed using stepwise multiple and logistic regression. Results : The prevalence of chronic disability in juveniles and adolescents was 31.1 % and 1 %, respectively. The factors affecting medical expenditures included hospitalization use, hospital outpatient use, family income, disability, gender, chronic disease, and emergency room use ($R^2=.160$, p<.05). For national basic livelihood act recipients, the probability of having chronic disease was about 1.6 times higher (OR=1.597, 95 % CI=1.092-2.335, p=.016), compared with non-national basic livelihood act recipients. People with disabilities were 6.6 times more likely than those without disabilities to suffer from chronic disease (OR =6.571, 95 % CI=2.776-15.556, p<.001). Hospital outpatient user was 2.3 times higher than non-user (OR=2.260, 95 % CI=1.702-3.001, p<.001). Juveniles had a 1.7 times and 6.2 times higher likelihood of emergency rooms user (OR=1.654, 95 % CI=1.270-2.155, p<.001), and hospital outpatient user than adolescents (OR=6.208, 95 % CI=4.443-8.676, p<.001). Conclusion : The findings of this study suggest that health care services for juveniles is needed to manage chronic diseases that have an effect on medical expenditures.

• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.224-225
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• 2002

• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1993.10a
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• pp.129-130
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• 1993

• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.71.1-71.1
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• 2004

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.594-601
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• 2009

Purpose: The goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of life style characteristics on the prevalence risk of metabolic syndrome (MS). Methods: A total of 581 adults were recruited from a cardiovascular outpatient clinic. A newly developed comprehensive life style evaluation tool for MS patients was used, and patient data related to the MS diagnosis were reviewed from the hospital records. Results: The overall prevalence of MS was 53.2%, and the mean of MS score was 2.6 for patients at a cardiovascular outpatient clinic (78% of the patients had hypertension). Dietary habits among the life style characteristics had significant influence on the prevalence risk of MS and MS scores. And also interestingly, the classification and regression tree (CART) model suggested that the high prevalence risk groups for MS were older adults (61.5$\leq$age<79.4), and adults between 48.5 and 61.5 yr of age with bad dietary habits. Conclusion: This study indicates that nurses should focus on dietary habits of patients (especially patients classified as high prevalence risk for MS) for improvement and prevention of MS prevalence risk.