• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.118-130
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• 2016

The objectives of this study were to analyze the operational characteristics and to explore the substantiality plan of inpatient diets for foreigners in hospitals. Questionnaires were mail-delivered to 128 hospitals, and a total of 62 questionnaires were usable with a response rate of 48.4 percent. Statistical data analysis was completed using SPSS Win 11.0 for descriptive analysis, independent t-test, and ${\chi}^2$ test. Results can be summarized as follows. The average number of inpatient meals for foreigners in the last 6 months were 405 and 53 for general therapeutic diets and special therapeutic diets, respectively. The rates of hospitals with an exclusive department and exclusive staff for foreign inpatients were 48.4% and 53.2%, respectively. Major nationalities of foreign inpatients were China (37.5%) and Russia (31.3%), and their major medical departments were internal medicine (43.9%) and surgery (39.0%). The number of hospitals that provided inpatient diet only for foreigners was 42 (72.4%) and influencing factors were number of permitted beds (P<0.05), an exclusive department (P<0.001), and exclusive staff (P<0.01). The main type of menu was USA European style (61.1%), and the price of inpatient meals for foreigners was mostly \10,000~\25,000 (62.0%). As 75.9% of hospitals did not possess dietary slip manuals for foreigners, the case of preparing inpatient meals for foreigners in the form of a general therapeutic diet partially-modified according to disease was the majority (55.4%). Dietitians felt the need for nutrition management guidelines and dietary slip manuals (47.3%) as a substantiality plan of inpatient diets for foreigners. There is a need for exclusive foodservice standards for foreign inpatients in the changing medical environment.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.506-514
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• 2015

During the progression of this study, we visited 17 medical institutions. These medical institutions underwent inspection for facility eligibility of national inpatient isolation units to care for patients. Seventeen consultation meetings were held to gather expert opinions, and conferences were held with the medical institutions and local levels of government. Based on these facts, we established a field application model of the criteria of safety-management and conducted a study on this method in order to create more scientific and systematic safety-management criteria including criteria regarding facilities maintenance and methods of equipment inspection. According to an analysis on the 17 medical institutions examined, facility eligibility of 17 national inpatient isolation units was found to be 78.3% on average. Through analysis of the present domestic and foreign conditions of medical institutions, we proposed improvements for when remodeling becomes necessary and established criteria for safety-management in national inpatient isolation units for the care of patients in accordance with the domestic healthcare system.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.34-41
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• 2015

Objective: This study is to evaluate the awareness, needs, and barriers in patient counseling for hospitalized foreign patients. As the number of foreign population increases in Korea, demands on quality of Korean health services are rapidly increasing. Previously most of the studies have focused on the availability and utilization of healthcare service, and prevalence of disease for foreigners, however, no study has been conducted on quality of direct-patient care such as patient counseling. Method: In the present study, a survey was conducted on a total of 161 participants between March 7 and May 7 in 2014. The study subjects were consisted with 103 foreign patients who had experienced inpatient care within 1 year and 58 hospital pharmacists who work in the hospital with foreign inpatients. Results: Firstly, the hospital pharmacists were highly aware of the necessity of counseling for foreign inpatients. Secondly, the largest portion of barrier to patient counseling service was accounted a lack of foreign language skills. Lastly, the monitoring of efficacy, potential adverse reactions and discharge follow-up were emphasized. Conclusion: Effective communication skills would be essential to improve pharmaceutical care services to foreign inpatients.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.225-235
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• 2013

This study purposed to analyze the productivity of regional medical capacity in attracting medical tourist between 2009 and 2011. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) and Malmquist productivity index (MPI) were applied to test the productivity and changes in study periods. The DEA model included a number of doctors, nurses, and beds as input factors, and a number of inpatient and outpatient, and hospital income as output factors. The result of the study were as follow. Jeju had efficiency value of 1 for three years. Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Daejeon, Ulsan, Gyeonggi, Gangwon, Jeonnam, Gyeongbuk, and Gyeongnam showed an increasing trend of efficiency value over three years. Seoul had the efficiency value, 1, in 2011. But, Incheon, Gwangju showed decreasing efficiency score during the study period. MPI showed overall productivity decrease during the period. Further studies will be needed by collecting more time-series data.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.185-196
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• 2017

Backgrounds: Inpatient Classification System for Korean Medicine (KDRG-KM) was developed and has been applied for monitoring the costs of KM hospitals. Yet severity of patients' condition is not applied in the KDRG-KM. Objectives: This study aimed to develop the severity classification methods for KDRG-KM and assessed the explanation powers of severity adjusted KDRG-KM. Methods: Clinical experts panel was organized based on the recommendations from 12 clinical societies of Korean Medicine. Two expert panel workshops were held to develop the severity classification options, and the Delphi survey was performed to measure CCL(Complexity and Comorbidity Level) scores. Explanation powers were calculated using the inpatient EDI claim data issued by hospitals and clinics in 2012. Results: Two options for severity classification were deduced based on the severity classification principle in the domestic and foreign DRG systems. The option one is to classify severity groups using CCL and PCCL(Patient Clinical Complexity Level) scores, and the option two is to form a severity group with patients who belonged principal diagnosis-secondary diagnosis combinations which prolonged length of stay. All two options enhanced explanation powers less than 1%. For third option, patients who received certain treatments for severe conditions were grouped into severity group. The treatment expense of the severity group was significantly higher than that of other patients groups. Conclusions: Applying the severity classifications using principal diagnosis and secondary diagnoses can advance the KDRG-KM for genuine KM hospitalization. More practically, including patients with procedures for severe conditions in a severity group needs to be considered.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.415-426
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• 2016

With a rapidly increasing number of foreign patients in Korea, it is necessary to manage and enhance the quality of nursing care for foreign inpatients through the promotion of studies on practical nursing care experience. This study is a qualitative study conducted to understand and describe the care experiences of nurses responsible for non-English speaking foreign inpatients. There were 10 nurses with a clinical career of more than two years included in this study for analysis. Data were collected through in-depth individual interviews and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Five themes emerged from the analysis. 'Aware of cultural differences', 'establish trusting relationships through all my heart', 'additional nursing task', 'empathy for genuine nursing', 'sorriness and relieved'. The results of this study provided the understanding on the experiences of nurses, who do not speak English, but still responsible for providing care to foreign inpatients. Despite the language barrier, cultural differences, and work overload, nurses caring for foreign patients struggled with authenticity in nursing. On the other hand, as there was a lack of system resources, such as manuals and training materials in various languages other than English, institutions should put forth greater effort and resources to be prepared to care for foreign inpatients.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.68-76
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• 2021

Foodborne outbreaks frequently occur worldwide and result in huge economic losses. It is the therefore important to estimate the costs associated with foodborne diseases to minimize the economic damage. At the same time, it is difficult to accurately estimate the economic loss from foodborne disease due to a wide variety of cost components. In Korea, there are a limited number of analytical studies attempting to estimate such costs. In this study we investigated the components of economic cost used in foreign countries to better estimate the cost of foodborne disease in Korea. Seven recent studies investigated the cost components used to estimate the cost of foodborne disease in humans. This study categorized the economic loss into four types of cost: direct costs, indirect costs, food business costs, and government administration costs. The healthcare costs most often included were medical (outpatient) and hospital costs (inpatient). However, these cost components should be selected according to the systems and budgets of medical services by country. For non-healthcare costs, several other studies considered transportation costs to the hospital as an exception to the cost of inpatient care. So, further discussion is needed on whether to consider inpatient care costs. Among the indirect costs, premature mortality, lost productivity, lost leisure time, and lost quality of life/pain, grief and suffering costs were considered, but the opportunity costs for hospital visits were not considered in any of the above studies. As with healthcare costs, government administration costs should also be considered appropriate cost components due to the difference in government budget systems, for example. Our findings will provide fundamental information for economic analysis associated with foodborne diseases to improve food safety policy in Korea.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.2293-2303
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• 2013

Objective: This study aims to determine whether national patient safety indicators (PSIs) can be calculated. Methods: Using PSI criteria from Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) Health Technical Papers 19 based on the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), PSIs were identified in the Korean National Hospital Discharge In-depth Injury Survey (KNHDIIS) database for 875,622 inpatient admissions between 2004 and 2008. Logistic regression was used to estimate factors of variations for PSIs. Results: From 2004 to 2008, 3,084 PSI events of 8 PSIs occurred for over 80 thousands discharges. Rates per 1,000 events for decubitus ulcer (PSI3, 4.88), foreign body left during procedure (PSI5, 0.05), postoperative sepsis (PSI13, 1.32), birth trauma-injury to neonate (PSI17, 7.92) and obstetric trauma-vaginal delivery (PSI18, 32.81) are all identified between ranges from maximum to minimum of OECD rates, respectively. However, rates per 1,000 events for selected infections due to medical care (PSI7, 0.22), postoperative pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis (PSI12, 0.90) and accidental puncture or laceration (PSI15, 0.71) are below the minimum of OECD range. 7 PSIs except PSI 18 showed statistically significant relationship with number of secondary diagnoses. When adjusting patient characteristics, there are statistically significant different rates according to bed size or location of hospitals. Conclusion: This is the first empirical study to identify nationally number of adverse events and PSIs using administrative database. While many factors influencing these results such as quality of data, clinical data and so on are remain, the results indicate opportunities for estimate national statistics for patient safety. Furthermore outcome research such as mortality related to adverse events is needed based on results of this study.