No abstract available.
Intestinal Fistula*

The level of copayment increased in order to stabilize the financial condition of the health insurance on 1986. An important question regarding the policy was whether the increase in the level of copayments reduced the utilization of medical services in the poor selectively. In spite of the importance of the research question, no study has been reported. This study was designed to find out changes in nuniU rs of physician visits, to explain charac teristics influencing the difference of utilization before and after the program. Finally the interaction effect between the program and the level of income was examined for the abover question. A total of 10,421 persons from eight institutions was selected as the study sample. Research findings are as follows. 1. The number of physician visits decreased by ten percent as a result of increasing the level of copayment. 2. The decrease was remarkable in some groups such as children, rural area and large family. 3. The most important factor which explained the difference was the number of physician visits before the introduction of the new program.. The more numbers of physian visits during the last year were, the more numbers of physian visits decreased after the program. 4. The interaction term between the program and the level of income was statistically significant in the multiple regression model which explained physician visits and its coefficient was negative. It means that an increase in copayment did not reduced the number of physician visits in the poor, selectively. 5. It can be concluded that imposing adequate copayment reduces the use of medical services as well as medical costs without serious damage in access especially for the poor pule.
Child ; Humans ; Insurance, Health

No abstract available.
Neurothekeoma*

No abstract available.
Voice*

Autogenous bone-patellar tendon-bone is popular ligament substitute used in anterior cruciate liga- ment(ACL) reconstructions. Fracture of the patella is a rare but serious complication unique to this type of reconstruction. We report 4 cases of patellar fracture after autogenous bone-patellar tendon-bone ACL reconstruction.
Autografts* ; Ligaments ; Patella

PURPOSE: The Purposes of this study are to identify the circulating etiologic viruses of acute lower respiratory tract infection in children and to understand the relation with clinical diagnosis. METHODS: We obtained a total of 418 nasopharyngeal aspirates from children admitted for their acute lower respiratory tract infections at three tertiary hospitals in Seoul from September 2008 to March 2009. We performed multiplex RT-PCR to identify 14 etiologic viruses and analyzed their emerging patterns and clinical features. RESULTS: Average age of patients was 16.4 months old and the ratio of male to female was 1.36. Viruses were detected in 56.2% of a total of 418 samples. Respiratory syncytial virus (35%) was the most frequently detected and followed by human rhinovirus (22%), human bocavirus, adenovirus, human metapneumovirus, parainfluenza virus, influenza virus and human coronavirus. Co-infection reached 21.9% of positive patients. CONCLUSION: When we manage the patients with acute lower respiratory infectious diseases, we should remind the role of various viral pathogens, which might be circulating by seasons and by local areas.
Adenoviruses, Human ; Child ; Coinfection ; Communicable Diseases ; Coronavirus ; Female ; Human bocavirus ; Humans ; Male ; Metapneumovirus ; Orthomyxoviridae ; Paramyxoviridae Infections ; Respiratory Syncytial Viruses ; Respiratory System ; Respiratory Tract Infections ; Rhinovirus ; Seasons ; Tertiary Care Centers ; Viruses

Financial stability is the foremost prerequisite for the continuous growth and development of hospitals. The present study aimed at developing a deterministic model using the factors which affect the hospitals profitability and at discovering which factor affected the hospital profitability. The study conducted questionnaire surveys on all general hospitals, with the exception of special hospitals, with over eighty hospital beds. Of the 274 subject hospitals, 136 of them, consituting 49.6% of the whole, were used in the study. The results are as follow. 1. In the deterministic model, outpatient revenue was affected more by the number of physician visits than by outpatient service intensity. Inpatient revenue was found to be affected more by the number of discharged patients than by inpatient service intensity. However, the increase rate of the service intensity not only contributed in stepping up the operating margin by 4~8% in outpatient and 3~6% in inpatient, but it was statistically significant. 2. Among the factors which determined the operating cost within the deterministic model, the number of patients had a greater impact on the operating cost than the resource consumption per patient. 3. The resource consumption per patient were proved to have the greatest effect on the profitability within the probabilistic model. The management cost per adjusted patient, in particular, was proven to have a statistically significant effect on the profitability in all hospitals.
Growth and Development ; Hospitals, General ; Hospitals, Special ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Models, Statistical ; Outpatients ; Surveys and Questionnaires

The IS(Information System) strategic planning must be based on objectives and strategic planning of the organization. The IS strategic planning for a hospital is not different from other organizations. Perhaps it can be more important than other types of organizations. Hospitals possess unique characteristics which hinder implementation of the IS. Therefore when the objectives and the focus of IS are clear, the resources can be allocated effectively and integrated IS can be applied. This study will suggest general objectives and strategic planning of the hospital. Thereby we will propose the strategic planning and development planning model of IS for hospitals. Suppose that the objectives of a hospital are the quality service and effective costs reduction. To achieve these objectives we will propose the strategies such as procurement of qualified physician and personnel, maximization of productivity, maintenance of good services and comfortable environments, and redesign of business process. Thus strategic planning of IS for hospital organizations is established as the follows: 1. The objectives of the IS for a hospital are to monitor the outcome of medical services and hospital performance, and to deliver the doctor's order in order to provide the quality services to patients. Therefore the IS design strategy for the hospital should be planned to achieve these objectives. To establish these goals all hospital data should be computerized and the IS should be able to monitor the performance of the hospital. Direct dat input environment is essential for the system. 2. The direction of master plan of the IS for a hospital is the integrated system. The methods of approach for the integrated system is selected to cover the all primary data from medical services rather than functional units. 3. The objectives of development of medical service information system, first phase of master plan, include : on-line input and delivery system of all doctor's orders, inquiry about all test in any time at any places in the hospital, automated scheduling of nursing work at nurse station, hospital billing, and ancillary services. 4. In order to achieve the goal, CSFs(critical success factors) to be resolved are : doctors must enter their own orders, the employee consents to replace the manual paper work with IS, the system is maintained with rapid response even though peak time, many functions must be constructed in the short period. 5. Therefore development strategic planning of IS is suggested to maximize user's convenience, specially, for doctors, to apply several data servers with independent functions, and to introduce client-server system, and to use the commercial DBMS.
Commerce ; Efficiency ; Hospital Information Systems* ; Humans ; Information Systems ; Nursing ; Nursing Stations ; Social Change* ; Social Planning

In January 1988, district medical insurance plan was executed on a national scale in Korea. We conducted an evaluation of the impact of execution of district medical insurance plan on number of hospital patients: number of outpatients; and occupancy rate. This study was carried out by Box-Jenkins time series analysis. We tested the statistical significance with intervention component added to ARIMA model. Results of our time series analysis showed that district medical insurance plan had a significant effect on the number of outpatients and occupancy rate. Due to this plan the number of outpatients had increased by 925 patients every month which is equivalent to 8.3 percents of average monthly insurance outpatients in 1987, and occupancy rate had also increased by 0.12 which is equivalent to 16 percents of that in 1987.
Humans ; Insurance* ; Korea ; Moclobemide ; Outpatients

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) has increased dramatically during the last decade, especially in Asian population. The control of hyperglycemia is very important for diabetes patients. Prevention of T2DM should be a major public health goal because of its substantial effect on heath. Treatment of high-risk individuals with impaired fasting glucose and impaired glucose tolerance to prevent T2DM has important medical, economic, social, and human implications. Identifying risk factors affecting transition diabetes is thus very important. Having defined a patient population at high-risk for developing diabetes, the intensive intervention of diet, physical activity, lifestyle modification, and drug therapy (metformin) can substantially affect the delay and prevention of T2DM. Tight glucose control has the potential to reduce the incidence and prevalence of T2DM.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Diet ; Fasting ; Glucose ; Humans ; Hyperglycemia ; Incidence ; Life Style ; Motor Activity ; Prevalence ; Public Health ; Risk Factors