• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.90-95
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• 2004

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare the toxicologic characteristics of two groups of patients with acute intoxication for two different time periods and to make recommendations based on the results of this study. Methods: We reviewed retrospectively the medical records of patients with acute intoxication in our emergency center from June 1997 to May 1998 (group A) and from June 2000 to May 2003 (group B), and we evaluated differences in the epidemiologic and the toxicologic characteristics between the two groups. Results: The ratios of the number of patients with acute intoxication to the total numbers of patients who visited our emergency department were $0.49\%$ and $0.52\%$ for groups A and B, respectively. In both groups many poisoned patients visited our emergency center from 4:00 pm to midnight. The interval between the time of intoxication and arrival at the hospital was significantly shorter in group B. The number of patients transferred to our emergency center was larger in group B. Attempted suicide was the major cause of acute intoxication in both groups. Major toxic substances in both groups were centrally active drugs and insecticides. The number of comatose and mechanically ventilated patients was larger in group B. However, there was no statistically significant difference in the mortality rates. Conclusion: Emergency physicians who manage intoxicated patients should recognize regional characteristics and differences in the toxicologic characteristics of poisoning. In addition, the establishment of a poisoning control center in the regional emergency center is necessary to integrate data control and to enhance specialized management of intoxicated patients.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.1-22
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• 2023

Purposes: The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the factors that affect patients reusing non-face-to-face treatments at tertiary general hospitals. Methodology: We retrospectively analyzed a patient's reuse of non-face-to-face treatment from February 1, 2020, to December 31, 2021, at a tertiary general hospital in Seoul within one year of the first non-face-to-face treatment. A frequency analysis was conducted to identify the study subjects' demographic characteristics, treatment type characteristics, disease characteristics, and hospital use type characteristics. Also, across-analysis was conducted to verify the difference in non-face-to-face treatment reuse according to the characteristics a multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify the factors affecting the reuse of non-face-to-face treatment by non-face-to-face treatment patients. Findings: The results of this study can be interpreted as indicating that the following groups are more likely tore use the non-face-to-face treatment: women, children, the elderly, Patients living far from the hospital, psychiatric patients, pediatric patients, medical benefits recipients, chronic patients, patients with mobility difficulties, and patients with high loyalty to hospitals. Practical Implications: When developing a non-face-to-face treatment system in the future, based on the results of this study, it is possible to target patients who prefer non-face-to-face treatment. And this study will be research material for vitalizing non-face-to-face treatment. In addition, the activation of the non-face-to-face treatment system will be an effective means for improving the quality of medical services and generating profits in hospitals in the future.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.352-359
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• 2018

Background: The purpose of this study is to propose an analysis of trends and characteristics of high-cost patients who take over 40% of total national health insurance medical expenses. Methods: It has been analyzed the tendency of high-cost patients by open data based on the medical history information of 1 million people among national health insurance subscriber from 2002 to 2015. To conduct detailed study of characteristics of high-cost patients, multiple regression has been performed by sex, age, residence, main provider, and admission status based on the top 5% group. Results: The amount of medical expenses and the number of high-cost patients have gradually increased in decades. The number of high-cost patients for Korean won (KRW) 5,000,000 category has increased by 7.6 times, KRW 10,000,000 category has increased by 14.1 times in comparing of year 2002 and 2015. Top 5% medical expenses have increased by 4.6 times. In consideration of the characteristics of patients, the incidence of high medical expenses has been higher in female patients than male ones, the older patients than in the younger. Patients residence in Gyeonsang or Jeonla province have had a high incidence of medical expenses than other area. The disease including dementia, cerebral infarction, and cerebrovascular disease for high-cost patients has been also increased. Conclusion: The major increase factor for high medical expenses is the aging of population. The elderly population receiving inpatient care residing in the province that increases high medical costs have to management. There is an urgent need to develop a mechanism for predicting and managing the cost of high-cost medical expenses for patients who have a heavy financial burden.

• The Korean Journal of Rehabilitation Nursing
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 2008

Purpose: This study was implemented to investigate perceived illness intrusiveness in stroke patients by the characteristics of primary caregivers. Method: Retrospective cross-sectional survey design was used. The subjects were 225 stroke patients and their primary caregivers. Demographic variables, relationship variables, burden, depression and support were measured as primary caregivers' characteristics. Data were analyzed with SPSS win 14+. T-test, ANOVA and correlation test were used depending on variables. Result: Demographic variables such as age, gender, relation with patients, and living status were not related significantly with illness intrusiveness. But primary caregivers' burden, depression and support were related significantly with perceived illness intrusiveness of stroke patients. That is, burden, depression and quantitative support of primary caregivers were significantly positively correlated with perceived illness intrusiveness of stroke patients. On the other hand, qualitative support was negatively correlated with perceived illness intrusiveness. Conclusion: Primary caregivers' characteristics such as burden, depression and support were found to be correlated with stroke patients perception such as illness intrusiveness. So, it is recommended that nursing intervention targeting burden, depression and support of primary caregivers must be developed to reduce illness intrusiveness of stroke patients.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.39-50
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• 2016

Background: This study examined patient and hospital factors related to long-stay admissions in long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) among older people in Korea. Methods: We analyzed health insurance claims data, entitlement data, and institutional administrative data from the National Health Insurance Service databases between 2010 and 2012. At the patient level, we compared characteristics of patients staying in LTCHs for over 180 days (the long-stay group) with those staying in LTCHs for less than 90 days during a calendar year. At the hospital level, we examined the general characteristics and staffing levels of the top 10% of hospitals with the highest proportion of patients whose length of stay (LOS) was 180+ days (the hospitals with long-stay patients) and compared them with the top 10% of hospitals with the highest proportions of patients whose LOS was less than 90 days (hospitals with shorter-stay patients). Results: The long-stay group accounted for about 40% of all LTCH patients. People in the group were more likely to be women, aged 80+, living alone, and experiencing more than two health conditions. Compared to the hospitals with shorter-stay patients, those with long-stay patients were more likely to be occupied by patients with behavior problems and/or impaired cognition, owned by corporate or local governments, have more beds and a longer period of operation, and deliver services with lower staffing levels. Conclusion: This study found long-stay older people in LTCHs and those in LTCHs with high proportions of long-stay older patients had several distinct characteristics compared to their counterparts designated in this study. Patient and hospital characteristics need to be considered in policies aiming to resolve long-stay admissions problems in LTCHs.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.75-88
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of anterior, posterior, and lateral pelvic tilt exercise upon the gait characteristics of patients with hemiplegia including their gait velocity, cadence, stride length, step length of the non affected side, step length of the affected side, foot angle of the non affected side, foot angle of the affected side, base of support, and so on. The subject of this study was 24 men and women patients with hemiplegia. The patients, the subject of this study, were classified into 12 patients of treatment group applying pelvic tilt exercise using visual feedback and 12 patients of control group applying general pelvic tilt exercise, and then analyzed their gait before and after exercise. Temporal distance gait analysis (Boening, 1977) was used to analyze their gait, and ink foot-print was applied as on of measurement methods. To find out meaningful difference between control group and treatment group, this study carried out independent sample t-test for each item by utilizing SPSS/Win 10.0, compared changes in control group's and treatment group's gait characteristics before and after exercise as percentage, and applied paired t-test to conduct before-after test in same group. Statistical significance level was ${\alpha}$ < 0.05. The results of this study were as follows. As a result of independent sample t-test for control group's and treatment group's gait characteristics after exercise, it was not statistically significant so there was no meaningful difference between two groups. However, it was statistically significant in the change rate(%) of gait characteristics, and treatment group's patients with hemiplegia had been highly changed in gait characteristics in comparison with control group. From the above-mentioned results, could find that pelvic tilt exercise using visual feedback for patients with hemiplegia was effective to improve their gait ability and it could increase the ability in comparison with general pelvic tilt exercise. In the future, studies on the effect of pelvic tilt exercise using visual feedback shall be continued based on more quantitative methods.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.122-133
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• 2022

Background: This study was designed to statistically analyze the data of patients who had Bell's palsy (BP) who visited a Korean Medicine hospital in the last 3 years to determine the tendency or characteristics of their visit. Methods: This study retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 816 patients. Based on the data collected through medical records demographics, condition/disease, and therapeutic characteristics of the patients were analyzed using IBM SPSS Version 23.0. Results: Patients in their teens or younger, and 50s or older had a higher frequency of inpatient treatment, and 20s to 40s had a higher rate of outpatient treatment. The proportion of men who received steroid combination treatment was higher than women. The number of patients with BP, and the total treatment period of the patients has decreased every year. The total treatment period was shorter in the steroid group than the Korean medicine alone group. Inpatients were more likely to receive steroid combination therapy than outpatients. The proportion of patients who received steroid combination therapy was higher than patients with recurrence of BP. Patients with hypertension or diabetes had a higher rate of hospitalization and received more treatments than patients without the condition/disease. Conclusion: Visit characteristics and treatment methods preferred by patients with BP were identified. This research may help to establish a treatment model for BP in Korean Medicine institutions in the future.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.102-112
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• 2010

Objective : This study was aimed to obtain epidemiological information of cancer patients treated with Oriental medicine. Methods :The medical records of 899 cancer patients treated at the East-West Cancer Center of Dunsan Oriental Hospital from January to December 2008 were analyzed. Careful investigations were done by categorizing these patients by their sex, origin, stage, treatment duration, conventional treatment type, etc. Results : 61.7% of the patients had stage IV tumor. 53.1% of patients visited Oriental hospital for combination treatment with conventional medicine. In the tumor origin, lung cancer showed the largest proportion (21.6%). Of the two genders, lung cancer was the most frequent cause (31%) in male patients, and breast cancer in females (21.2%). In inpatients, thyroid cancer resulted in the highest percentage (24.0%). Lung, colon, stomach cancer patients were mostly in stage III or IV. Thyroid cancer patients were mostly in stage I. Conclusions : This study presented the characteristics of cancer patients treated by Oriental medicine. Based on this study, further advanced study of Oriental medical cancer treatments is needed.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.115-124
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• 2004

The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship among personality characteristics, hope and quality of life(QOL) of breast cancer patients. The subjects of the study were the 113 breast cancer patients treated at 3 university hospitals in Daegu and Busan from June 1 to Sep. 30, 2003. Personality characteristics was measured by using Personality Inventory(NEO-PI), hope measured by using Nowotny's Hope Scale, and QOL by using a questionnaire developed by Ro(1988). Data were analyzed with SPSS program by frequency, range, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficients. The findings of this survey indicate 1) The mean personality characteristics item score was 2.64, hope was 2.78, and QOL was 3.19. It appeared that there was a slightly negative tendency about personality characteristics, hope and QOL of breast cancer patients. 2) There was a significant difference between personality characteristics, hope and QOL according to demographic factor. 3) There was a positive correlation between personality characteristics and hope(r=.49), hope and QOL(r=.377). Among subitem of hope and QOL especially confident, possibility of future, active participation, inner motivation and self esteem were positively correlated with personality characteristics especially extroversion, openness and conscientiousness. 4) There was a negative correlation between neuroticism and relation with neighbor(r=-.452), neuroticism and relation with family(r=-.344). It was found that personality characteristics, hope and QOL were essential concept for qualitive care of breast cancer patients and there were negative correlation with neuroticism toward relation with neighbor and relation with family. This study suggests that there would be further study to find out the importance and relationship among personality characteristics, hope and QOL of breast cancer patients.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.665-674
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• 2012

Objectives : This study purposed to identify factors related to dental service quality perceived by dental clinic patients, and for this purpose. Methods : The data conducted a questionnaire survey of 362 patients who had visited a dental clinic in Daejeon twice or more in August 2010 and aged over 20 during the period from the 1st to 31st of August 2010 and obtained results as follows. Results : The patients' general characteristics, perceived dental service quality was higher in older ones, married ones, high school or lower school graduates, civil servants, self-employed ones, and housewives, and the differences were statistically significant. according to the patients' dental clinic use characteristics, perceived dental service quality was higher when the stay in dental clinic was short, and the difference was statistically significant. Conclusions : Perceived dental service quality was related to the patients' general characteristics and dental clinic use characteristics. therefore, dentists and dental hygienists should make efforts to be more patient-oriented and to create pleasant dental care environment.