• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.107-119
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• 2001

There has been pointed out that a great portion of hospitalized patients stay in hospitals longer than necessary, often even after the completion of necessary care. This causes that hospital resources are not used efficiently. In order to identify underlying forces in postponing inpatients' discharge, this study aimed to investigate reasons for long-term stay of patients admitted in general hospitals. A total of 135 patients, who were staying at 7 general hospitals in Inchon and Kyonggi-Do for more than 60 days, were surveyed with a self-administered questionnaire between April 3 and April 10, 2000. Medical reasons including incompleteness of necessary care, difficulty in receiving outpatient-based care, and being under physical therapy were the most significant factors associated with long-term stay, followed by the lack of familial resources to take care of patients after discharge. Financial problems such as inability to pay for hospital bills were not significant factors influencing long-term stay. Regression analyses were conducted for medical reasons, familial resources, and financial problems, respectively. It was shown that receiving physical therapy and the number of admission in the past were significant predictors for medical reasons. The lack of familial resources as a reason for long-term stay had a positive relationship with the degree of need for aid in daily living. It may be recommended for the hospitals to cope with administrative problems due to the patients' long-term stay, considering the reasons of it, and their characteristics. And also, institutional efforts like vitalizing the home care service systems by hospitals as the continuing care after discharge should be needed.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.121-132
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• 2003

This study has been performed to explore main reasons for staying in paid elderly residential care facilities among the residents. In this study, five males and seven females aged 65 to 82 were asked about main reasons for staying in the facilities. The answers of the qualitative interview were drawn as follows; first, some residents had suddenly decided to move into the facility due to critical life events such as bereavement, serious illness, or supporting problems. Second, some residents had taken a long period of considerations on whether staying home or in the facilities, because their health and family supports gradually diminished over the long life span. On the other hand, a few of them voluntarily chose to stay at the facilities, because they recognized supervised group activities, nutritionally well-planned meals, and health care as major inconveniences. In this study, suggestions were made as follows: first, guiding and settlement programs should be developed for the residents of the sudden events, particularly at early stage of admission. Second, intensive nursing care units should be in separation from healthy independent groups, so that the residents are relieved from stressful contacts with extremely ill patients in the residential area.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.183-196
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• 2003

Purpose: This study sought to identify factors associated with dental hygienists' decisions to leave one dental office and commence practice in another. In addition to, the reasons dental hygienists stay in the profession were investigated. Demographic descriptors, including education level, marital status and age, and employment setting were also examined. Methods: Currently practicing dental hygienists in Korea were surveyed from March to May 2003. Data were collected through a questionnaire. The survey collected information concerning the 461 respondents' personal characteristics and reasons associated with changing positions and staying. Data were analyzed using frequency distributions, independent t-tests and chi-square analyses. All statistical analyses were conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists(SPSS v.10, Chicago, Illinois). Results: The primary reasons for taking up another employment were found to be better offer, inadequate salary and personal conflict with dentist. Secondary reasons stated for changing their job revealed additional factors including inadequate salary, better offer, and lack of benefits. The primary influence in deciding to remaining in the practice of dental hygiene was self-development. Family responsibility, safe environment and professional collaboration were also important factors in deciding to remain in workforce. Conclusion: The position changes of dental hygienists are primarily influenced by better offer. Inadequate salary and conflict with dentist were also important factors in deciding to change employment positions. The findings suggest that dental hygienists who remain in the workforce are positively influenced mainly by self-development. Employers of dental hygienists should be aware of these factors in employing process. If more hygienists could remain longer in their positions, the manpower situation would be affected positively.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.25-33
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• 2021

Objectives: Many conditions of the oral and maxillofacial region require hospitalization and in-patient care. The average length of stay (LOS) of these patients varies and is usually affected by multiple confounding variables. However, even with an increasing number of hospital admissions, published evidence on the factors that affect the LOS of oral and maxillofacial patients is lacking. Therefore, this study assessed the LOS of in-patients at the oral and maxillofacial surgery department of a government-funded, multi-specialty hospital in Malaysia, based on their reasons for admission and other factors. Materials and Methods: Our samples were collected retrospectively over a 5-year period and included patients with maxillofacial infections, post-trauma stabilization, facial bone fracture surgery, benign and malignant lesion surgery, dentoalveolar surgery, and other maxillofacial surgeries as reasons for admission. Factors potentially affecting LOS were also recorded, and their significance was determined using multiple logistic regression analyses. A P-value of less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: A total of 1,380 patients were included in this study. Most (84.5%) of our in-patients were of Malay ethnicity, and males outnumbered females in our sample by 502 subjects. The median LOS of our in-patients was 3 days. Sex, ethnicity, age, reason for admission, and American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA) classification were factors that significantly affected LOS. Conclusion: The median LOS reported in this study was 3 days. LOS was significantly affected by sex, ethnicity, age, reason of admission and ASA classification.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.17-24
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• 2009

The purpose of this research is to find the reasons of overcrowding in the emergency department of an hospital, then to shorten the total stay time of patients. The fact that main causes of the overcrowding exist in the process of the emergency department was discovered by analysis of the data. In order to improve these process, simulation model was developed by ARENA 7.0. Staff's service time, staff's organization, process ratio, and patient's waiting time were estimated in the simulation model in consideration of the decision of the patient's course of action. Several scenarios such as the simplification of the process, the setup of dedicated pathology lab, and mixed method were suggested and evaluated. Total stay time of the patients would be reduced up to 28.45%.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.116-133
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• 2002

Background : It is very common in Korea to take care of non-acute patients in an acute setting, due to the lack of long-term facilities. Long term hospitalization increase medical expenses and decreases the bed utilization, which can affect the urgent and emergent admissions, and eventually jeopardize the hospital financially. In this study, strategies for effective transfers to the lower levels of care, and to decrease the length of stay were presented by surveying and analyzing the patient's knowledge of the transfer needs, and the willingness to transfer those whose hospital length of stay was more than 30days. Method : The survey is subject to a group of 251 patients who have been hospitalized over 30 days in a general hospital in Seoul. Excluding those that were in the Intensive Care Unit and psychiatric ward, 214 in-patients were used as participants. They were surveyed from April 9, 2002 to April 17, 2002. One hundred and thirty seven out of 214 were responded which made the response rate 64%. Data were analyzed by SAS and SPSS. Result : Multi-variable Logistic Regression Analysis showed a significant effect in medical expenses, knowledge of referral system and the information of the receiving hospital. The financial burden in medical expenses made the patient 10.7 times more willing to be transferred, knowledge of the referral system made them 5 times more willing to be transferred, and the information of receiving hospital makes 6.5 times more willing to be transferred. Reasons for willing to be transferred to a lower level of care were the phase of physical therapy, the distance from home, the attending physician's advice and being unable to be treated as an out patient. Reasons for refusing to be transferred were the following. The attending physician's competency, not being ready to be discharged, not trusting the receiving hospital's competency due to the lack of information, or never hearing about the referring system by the attending physician. Conclusion : Based on this, strategies for the effective transfer to the lower levels of care were suggested. It is desirable for the attending physician to be actively involved by making an effort to explain the transfer need, and referring to the Healthcare Coordinating Center, which can help the patient make the right decision. Nationwide networking for the referral system is the another key factor that may need to be suggested as an alternative to decrease the medical expenses. Collaborating with the Home Health Agency for the early discharge planning and the Social Service Department for financial aid are also needed. It is recommended that the hospital should expedite the transfer process by prioritizing the cost and the information as medical expenses, knowledge of referring system and the information of the receiving hospital, are the most important factors to the willingness to transfer to a lower level of care.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.621-630
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• 2011

This research examines the push and pull factors of temple stay in Korean national parks. 152 participants of temple stay in Woljeongsa and Guryongsa in national parks in Gangwon-do area completed a survey to access their reasons for participating in temple stay(push factors) and to evaluate how well the visiting experience performed on a selected set of attributes(push factors). Demographics of respondents were similar to the visitor characteristics of Korean national parks. The result of factor analysis identified 6 push factor domains of 'self actualization', 'health enhancement', 'nature assimilation', 'relationship elevation', 'religious experience', and 'leisure experience'. 6 pull factor domains were 'recuperative quality', 'quality of a temple stay program', 'attributes of a temple', 'user convenience', 'tourism experience' and 'accessibility and transportation'. Satisfaction level of temple stay in a national park was very high of 4.71 in a 5 Likert scale. Gangwon- Do was most preferred with the percentage of 89.2 as a suitable area for temple stay in a national park. Findings of multi-dimensional tourism motivations of temple stay in a national park that encompass nature tourism, cultural tourism and religious tourism is expected to provide useful information for the future development of a more competitive temple stay program and a marketing strategy. However, more defined successive research work is required to generalize findings of wellness oriented push and pull factors of temple stay based on nature in national parks.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.91-96
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• 1992

Eight hundred college students in Seoul area were surveyed for consumer behaviors and opinions about fast food restaurants at library, student center and class room from August 26 to 30, 1991. The result of this study showed that 70% of college students preferred to eat hamberger or chicken and 49% of them visited to fast food restaurants 1-3 times per month. The reasons given by students for patronizing fast food restaurants were the following, from most to least frequence: 'convenient', 'pleasant atmosphere', 'nice place to stay with friends', 'taste of food', 'speed of service', 'to be able to stay as long as I want', 'hygiene', 'variety of food price', 'nutritious food'. Majority of college students(71%) selected their food by preference, but 22% of them done by price. They were least satisfied with price and quantity of fast food. Therefore, it is important to develop domestic brand fast food restaurants to lower the price of fast food.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.221-233
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• 2013

This study aims to develop the severity-adjusted length of stay(LOS) model for acute stroke patients using data from the hospital discharge survey and propose management of length of stay(LOS) for acute stroke patients and using for Hospital management. The dataset was taken from 23,134 database of the hospital discharge survey from 2004 to 2009. The severity-adjusted LOS model for the acute stroke patients was developed by data mining analysis. From decision making tree model, the main reasons for LOS of acute stroke patients were acute stroke type. The difference between severity-adjusted LOS from the decision making tree model and real LOS was compared and it was confirmed that insurance type and bed number of hospital, location of hospital were statistically associated with LOS. And to conclude, hospitals should manage the LOS of acute stroke patients applying it into the medical information system.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.5A
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• pp.881-885
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• 2006

Rain-wind induced cable vibration can cause serious problems in cable-stayed bridges. Externally attached dampers have been used to provide an effective means to suppress the vibration of relatively short stay-cables. For very long stay-cables, however, such damper systems are rendered ineffective, as the dampers need to be attached near the end of cables for aesthetic reasons. This paper investigates a new control system to mitigate the cable vibration. The proposed control system which consists of a laminated rubber bearing and an internal damper may be installed inside of the cable anchorage. A simple analytical model of the cable-damper system is developed first based on the taut string representation of the cable. The response of a cable with the proposed control system is obtained and then compared to those of the cable with and without an external passive damper. The proposed stay-cable vibration control system is shown to perform better than the optimal passive viscous damper, thereby demonstrating its applicability in large cable-stayed bridges for mitigation of rain-wind induced vibration of stay-cables.