• Annals of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.291-301
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• 2024

This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the impact of prospective payment systems (PPSs) on cholecystectomy. A comprehensive literature review was conducted, examining studies published until December 2023. The review process focused on identifying research across major databases that reported critical outcomes such as length of stay (LOS), mortality, complications, admissions, readmissions, and costs following PPS for cholecystectomy. The studies were specifically selected for their relevance to the impact of PPS or the transition from fee-for-service (FFS) to PPS. The study analyzed six papers, with three eligible for meta-analysis, to assess the impact of the shift from FFS to PPS in laparoscopic and open cholecystectomy procedures. Our findings indicated no significant changes in LOS and mortality rates following the transition from FFS to PPS. Complication rates varied and were influenced by the diagnosis-related group categorization and surgeon cost profiles under episode-based payment. There was a slight increase in admissions and readmissions, and mixed effects on hospital costs and financial margins, suggesting varied responses to PPS for cholecystectomy procedures. The impact of PPS on cholecystectomy is nuanced and varies across different aspects of healthcare delivery. Our findings indicate a need for adaptable, patient-centered PPS models that balance economic efficiency with high-quality patient care. The study emphasizes the importance of considering specific surgical procedures and patient demographics in healthcare payment reforms.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.214-219
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• 2024

Purpose: The aim of this study is to present the causes and numbers of hospital admissions and deaths at hospital of Korean soldiers including civilian worker during the Korean War. Methods: The War History of Rear Troops of the Korean War (confidential) published in 1955 by the Republic of Korea Army Headquarters was reviewed. Results: During the war, 397,519 patients were admitted to hospitals (wounded in action, 53.9%; wounded on duty, 5.2%; due to disease, 40.9%). Most of the admitted patients were service members (92.4%), while the remaining were non-soldiers (7.6%). Among the 397,519 patients admitted to hospitals, 11,537 patients (2.9%) died. Most of the patients who died were service members (87.9%), and the remaining were non-soldiers (12.1%). The yearly numbers of died on duty did not vary much. The yearly number of deaths from diseases was lower in 1950, but suddenly increased in the next year and continued thereafter. Injuries accounted for more than three-fifths of the causes of death (n=7,444, 60.1%). Respiratory diseases corresponded to almost a quarter (n=2,799, 22.6%; 1,611 pulmonary tuberculoses and 1,188 other respiratory diseases). The most common category of causes of death was wounds (gunshot or stab; n=3,199, 25.8%), followed by wounds from fragments (n=3,173, 25.6%), pulmonary tuberculosis (n=1,611, 13.0%), and other respiratory diseases (n=1,188, 9.6%). Among the common causes of death, percentages of wounds and wound by fragments decreased over time; however, the deaths from respiratory disease increased. Conclusions: These findings reflect several aspects of the public health and social situation during the Korean War.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.67-83
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• 2024

Background : Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has profoundly impacted all aspects of life, from disease prevalence to the utilization of medical services. In Republic of Korea, there exists both a duty and a right for Korean Medicine to treat epidemic diseases. However, no studies have been conducted to examine changes in the utilization of Korean Medicine during the pandemic. This study aims to identify the differences in the utilization of Korean Medicine before and after COVID-19. Method : This study analyzed data from the Health Insurance Statistics of the National Health Insurance Service and the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service from 2016 to 2022. To compare the utilization of Korean Medicine with Western medicine, the analysis was limited to the clinic level. Results : The top 10 most frequently treated conditions in Korean Medicine from 2016 to 2022 remained consistent, primarily involving musculoskeletal diseases, with the exception of functional dyspepsia. Visits to Korean Medicine clinics have declined, while visits to Western Medicine clinics recovered. Despite the overall decline in visits, certain Korean Medicine services increased in frequency, especially in precipitator-simulated acupuncture, indirect moxibustion (moxa burner), pricking cupping (two areas), warming meridian sinew, and complex Chuna therapy (80% as out-of-pocket expenses). Although the relative value units in Korean Medicine services varied, the fees for all services, except for precipitator-simulated acupuncture, increased. Conclusion : These findings indicate that COVID-19 has affected the utilization of Korean Medicine. Further studies are needed to explore the broader impact of epidemics on medical services and to develop policies to address these changes.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.16-39
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• 1993

This study aims to analyze the locational factors which the small firm enterpreneurs in Pusan City mainly consider in deciding location choices for their plants, and then to grasp the differences of the factors in terms of nature of firms, managerial personal characteristics and zoning areas. In order to implement the purpose of the rescarch, data are collected from selected small firm enterpreneurs throughthe questionaire. The main results are summerized as follows. First, it is pointed out that small firm indu-strialists for the regional choice consider crucial rationale as non-economic factor of personal reson with additional consideration of transpor-tation, infrastructure, service, market and labor forces. But in selection of site, they are apt to have high regard on the such factors as infra-structure, service, land and transportation factor. These factors to select the site demonstrate differentiation in terms of character of enter-prises, managerial characteristics and zoning areas. For example, land in the light of indu-strial sector is regarded as an important factor with longer the time of the establishment of firms or more aged or experienced enterpreneurs, wheras infrastructure and service in the heavy and chemical industrial sector are taken up as an important one with shorter the time of establishment of firms or less aged or experienced or higher educational background of enterpren-eurs. In addition, the non-economic factors such as the residential livebility and personal reason are picked up as important factors with smaller the firm or more aged or experienced, lesser educational background of entrepreneurs. Taking into consideration zoning area, infra-structure and service in the industrial area such as the exclusive and semi-industrial areas, land in green belt area, and transportation in the commercial and residential areas are singled out as the most important factors respectively. In addition, the non-economic factors of the resi-dential livability and personal reason in the non-industrial areas are also highly regarded. Second, land is picked up as the most impor-tant one of pulling factors toward the present site while other factors such as infrastructure, service, personal reason are also regarded as the secondary reason for the move-in decision; the pulling factors for the present plant location show somewhat differences in terms of the charcter of the enterprises, managerial chara-cteristics and zoning areas. Policy measures including land, infrastructure under the environmental aspects, service and transportations are, in turn, pointed out as the important ones for pushing factors. Meanwhile, as the important staying factor in the present place, transportation, infrastructure and service under the aspect of the agglomeration benefit, market, personal reason are considered. The pushing and staying factors also shows somewhat distinctive differences in terms of the character of enterprises, managerial chracteristics and zoning area. In the case of zoning area, land is regarded as the most important factor to move out, especially in the non-industrial areas inclu-ding the commerical and residential areas policy measures, infrastructure and service are indicated as important factors to move out. In the mean-time, as the important staying factor, industria-lists in the exclusive and semi-industrial areas point out transportation, infrastructure and service. Whereas the counterparts in the com-mercial area regard transportation and market as important factor, those in the residential area consider the non-economic factors such as personal reason and residential livability. Taking into consideration the result of this analysis, it is identified that the locational chara-cteristics of the intraurban small firm industries are not only associated with the character of enterprises, but also with manager's personal character and the trait of zoning area. Therefore, it seems that the thorough review or examination of enterprises, industrialists' characteristics and zoning areas will have meanin-gful significance in attemption explanation of small firm industries at the intrauban scale in the future. Especially, it appears that the eco-nomic factors such as land, infrastructure, service, transportation, and the non-economic factors such as residential livability and personal reason play together important parts to determine the locational choice of small firm industries along with non-industrial benefit. Thus, such status reveals the obvious implication for the intraurban industrial policy in the future.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.461-480
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• 2008

There are innumerable studies on technology adoption and usage continuance; most examine cognitive factors while affective factors or the feelings of users are left relatively unexplored. Although attitude and user satisfaction are factors commonly considered in Information Systems(IS) research, they represent only some aspects of feelings. In contrast, researchers in diverse fields have begun to note the importance of feelings in understanding and predicting human behavior. Feelings are anticipated to be essential particularly in the context of modern applications, such as mobile internet(M-internet) services, where users are not simply technology users but also service consumers. Drawing on the support of consumer research, social psychology and computer science, this study proposes a balanced cognition-affect model of IS continuance. Prior works in relation to IS research have already considered the emotional factors. The common factors are enjoyment, anxiety, affect and satisfaction. The main difference in our study is that the factors that we used are the primary dimensions of affect according to Circumplex Model of Affect. The horizontal axis of the model represents the pleasure dimension and the vertical represents the arousal dimension. Other emotional factors such as enjoyment and anxiety can be viewed as a combination of these two dimensions, and they can be placed in the vector space formed by these two primary dimensions. Affect has been defined as the enjoyment a person derives from using computers. Satisfaction has different conceptualizations. It has been conceptualized as judgment based on the expectation disconfirmation theory. Thus, while prior works considered the direct and indirect effects of "feeling-related constructs"(enjoyment and anxiety) on usage behavior, our study proposes effects of "feeling-based constructs"(pleasure and arousal). The balanced cognition-affect model is tested in a survey of, M-internet service users. The results establish the validity of the model.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.55
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• pp.205-230
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• 2003

This article examines the continuity and change of Korean welfare regime during 1990s. Democracy, globalization and the financial crisis changed the landscape of Korean society as a whole and provided a catalyst for the change of the Korean welfare regime. In order to show how and what changed in Korean welfare regime, this study concentrates on the transformations of income maintenance programmes and social welfare services. The changed aspects are as follow: (1) The ratio of social expenditure to GDP has increased during 1990s and now stood at ten percent level. (2)Rather than backing up the company welfare, government strove to build and expand income maintenance devices for all citizens. (3) The poverty and inequality reduction effects of income maintenance programs are very weak in early 1990s, but they are gradually getting stronger impact on poverty and inequality. But, there are also continuance. (1) In spite of the relative development of income maintenance programs, social welfare services are still poorly designed as before. (2) The expenditure level of social welfare services shows sharp contrast to income maintenance programs and lagged behind the other OECD countries. (3) The expansion of social service sector employment are also not so salient. In 2002, social service employment is only at close to 2.5 per cent of the total employment. Accordingly, korean welfare regime is now characterized by a model which is to curb poverty and inequality by engaging in direct government provision of income maintenance programs, but refrain from expanding social service by relying on net welfare which encourage the provision of services within the family. A implication of our analysis is that the expansion of social welfare Korea saw after 1997 was not really an regime shift. According to the arguments of Peter Hall, first and second order changes in policy do not automatically lead to third order changes which imply regime shift. Policy changes which occurred during 1990s was not accompanied by a shift in policy paradigms. Family dependency in welfare is not yet changed.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.245-255
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• 2012

Greenberg(1990) suggested that organizational justice research may potentially explain many organizational behavior outcome variables. One such example of nontraditional job behavior is organizational citizenship behavior and service quality, for they are part of the spontaneous and innovative behaviors noted by Katz(1964). Stimulated by conceptualizations of justice in organizations by such theorists as Homans(1961), Admans(1965), and Walster, Berscheid, and Walster(1973), organizational researchers devoted considerable attention in the 1960s and 1970s to testing propositions about the distribution of payment and other work-related rewards derived from equity theory. Although reviews and critiques of equity theories once dominated the pages of organizational journals, more recently it has been the subject of far more attention(Reis, 1986). In one notable recent trend, researchers and theorists have expanded on conceptualizations of procedural and distributive justice by turning attention to the interpersonal aspects of justice, the perceived fairness of the way people are treated by others. With the rapid and uncertain changes of organization, such voluntary behaviors as OCB, service quality, and innovative behavior have become more important for the development and survival of organization. Thus it is very important to keep the organization fair for keeping employees participative in organization. Here it is reviewed the relationship between organizational justice and it's related factors(OCB, service quality and innovative behavior).

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.307-329
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• 2018

This study aims to verify the effect of school library education service on the information literacy ability of high school students in the poor economic environment. For this purpose, we narrowed down to 215 high school first graders with substandard educational conditions, and then implemented information literacy education. The results of the information literacy test were compared, before and after the information literacy service. The preliminary tests of 15 schools including the targeted school were conducted, and we found that the results of the self-evaluation in those 15 schools exceed those with other generally good educational conditions. We considered in all aspects to find out how to overcome the information literacy gap through information literacy programs. Reflecting on the previous research verifying that the difference in educational environment affects the information literacy, we can confirm that the information literacy education service, which is the core service of the school library, can narrow the information literacy gap. We hope that this study will be a basis for the systematic establishment of information literacy education in public education.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.19-28
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• 2016

PURPOSES : Long-life asphalt pavements are used widely in developed countries. In order to be able to devise an effective maintenance strategy for such pavements, in this study, we evaluated the performance of the long-life asphalt pavements constructed along the national highways in South Korea. Further, an economic evaluation of the long-life asphalt pavements was performed based on a life-cycle cost analysis. We aimed to devise a model for evaluating the performance of long-life asphalt pavements using the national highway pavement management system (PMS) database as well as for analyzing the economic feasibility of such pavements, in order to promote their use in South Korea. METHODS : The maintenance history and pavement performance data were obtained from the national highway PMS database. The pavement performances for a total of 292 sections of 10 lanes (5 northbound lanes and 5 eastbound lanes) of national highways were used in this study. Models to predict the performances of hot mix asphalt (HMA) and long-life asphalt pavements under two distinct traffic conditions were developed using a simple regression method. Further, the economic feasibility of long-life asphalt pavements was evaluated using the Korea Pavement Management System (KoPMS). RESULTS : We developed service-life prediction models based on the traffic volume and the equivalent of single-axle load and found that long-life asphalt pavements have service lives 50% longer than those of HMA pavements. Further, the results of the economic analysis showed that long-life asphalt pavements are superior in terms of various economic indexes, including user cost, delay cost, total cost, and user benefits, even though their maintenance cost is higher than that of HMA pavements. A comparison of the economic feasibilities of the various groups showed that group A is superior to HMA pavements in all aspects except in terms of the maintenance criterion (crack 20% or higher) as per the NPV index. However, the long-life asphalt pavements in group B were superior in terms of the maintenance criterion (crack 25% or higher) regardless of the economic feasibility. CONCLUSIONS : The service life of long-life asphalt pavements was found to be approximately 50% longer than that of HMA pavements, regardless of the traffic volume characteristics. The economic feasibility of long-life asphalt pavements was evaluated based on the KoPMS. The results of the economic analysis were the following: long-life asphalt pavements are exceptional in terms of almost all factors, such as user cost, delay cost, total cost, and user benefit; however, the exception is the maintenance cost. Further, the economic feasibility of the long-life asphalt pavements in group B was found to be better than that of the HMA pavements (crack 25% or higher).

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 2010

Management of driver hours of service (HOS) for commercial vehicle operators has been a continual safety challenge. One of the more critical issues to government and motor carriers is fatigue and fatigue-related accidents. To reduce truck drivers’fatigue-related accident risk in other countries, the government issued the HOS regulations. However, korea government does not have any HOS regulations. The objective of this research gives the clues that korea should have the HOS regulation to reduce truck drivers’fatigue-related accident risk. This study examines the HOS regulation over other countries and conducts relative accident risk analysis using the real data from 3 freight companies. The data set includes 231 accident involved drivers and 462 non-accident drivers. Therefore, the size of the total data set is 693 drivers. One of the most important aspects of early studies of safety and HOS was the need to characterize continuous driving by using the notion of "survival". Subsequent research used a data replication scheme and logistic regression to capture the survival effect. This study uses time-dependent logistic regression. The test of significance between parameters indicates that the first three hours are almost the same risk. In the 10th hour of driving, the risk was more than 2.2times that in the baseline first hour. In conclusion, as driving time goes on, the crash risk increases.