OBJECTIVES: To review the drug prescription pattern of antiulcerative agents for elderly inpatients. METHODS: The study population comprised inpatients of community hospitals who were members of the Korean Elderly Pharmacoepidemiologic Cohort (KEPEC), aged 65 years or over, beneficiaries of the Korea Medical Insurance Corporation (KMIC) and residing in Busan city in 1993. The drug prescription information was collected from the claims data of hospitals where the cohort members received medical care between January 1993 and December 1994. The information included personal identification, age, gender, diagnosis, drug dosage, date of hospital admission and name of medical institutions where the study subjects received drug prescriptions. The data analysis produced outcomes in terms of distribution of antiulcerative agents by class and by medical institution and trend of relative prescription. Analysis was also performed in terms of combined prescriptions of antiulceratives and drugs that could induce risk from drug interaction with antiulceratives. RESULTS: The number of patients prescribed antiulcerative agents was 1,059 (64.9%) male and 1,724 (65.5%) female among the total inpatients. An antacid and composite agent was the most frequently prescribed antiulcerative agent (70.8%), followed by H2 antagonist (16.0%). Among the potential drugs that could induce risk from drug interaction with the antiulcerative agents, diazepam was the most frequently prescribed. The proportion of diazepam co-prescription was 22.5% of the total cimetidine prescriptions and 14.5% of the total omeprazole prescriptions. CONCLUSIONS: Antiulcerative drugs were frequently prescribed in the elderly inpatients. The adverse drug reaction could possibly be due to drug interaction. The study results could be used as fundamental data for further drug utilization review of antiulcerative agents.
Aged* ; Busan ; Cimetidine ; Cohort Studies ; Diagnosis ; Diazepam ; Drug Interactions ; Drug Prescriptions ; Drug Utilization Review* ; Drug Utilization* ; Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions ; Female ; Hospitals, Community ; Humans ; Inpatients* ; Insurance ; Korea ; Male ; Omeprazole ; Prescriptions ; Statistics as Topic

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Respiratory viruses (RVs) are considered to be important respiratory pathogens in adult patients, and the multiplex reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test is used frequently in adult patients with respiratory infections. However, clinical data regarding utilization of the multiplex RT-PCR test for RVs are lacking. METHODS: We investigated the utilization of the multiplex RT-PCR test for RVs at Chung-Ang University Hospital in Seoul, Korea, between January 2012 and April 2013. RESULTS: During the study period, the multiplex RT-PCR test was performed for 291 adult patients. The test frequency was 4.9% of rapid influenza antigen detection tests and 0.8% of respiratory bacterial culture studies. A turnaround time of < 48 hours was observed in 25.9% of positive tests. Most of the tests were performed for admitted patients (97.9%) with a community-acquired infection (84.2%) during the flu season (82.5%). RVs were detected in 81 of 291 cases (27.8%). The RV positivity rates for community- and hospital-acquired infections did not differ (28.6% vs. 23.9%, p = 0.52). Of 166 patients with pneumonia, 44 (26.5%) had a viral infection. Among the patients with RV-associated pneumonia, an RV other than influenza was detected in 20 patients (45.4%). CONCLUSIONS: The multiplex RT-PCR test for RVs was infrequently performed at a tertiary care center, and the test results were often reported late. The test was most often performed for admitted adult patients with community-acquired infections during the flu season. The utilization of multiplex RT-PCR testing for RVs in current clinical practice should be improved.
Adult ; Aged ; Community-Acquired Infections/*diagnosis/virology ; DNA, Viral/*genetics ; Female ; Hospitals, University ; Humans ; Influenza, Human/*diagnosis/virology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction/*utilization ; Pneumonia, Viral/*diagnosis/virology ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Republic of Korea ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction/*utilization ; *Tertiary Care Centers

PURPOSE: This study aimed to understand why mothers do not utilize the prenatal care and delivery services at their local hospital supported by the government program, the Supporting Program for Obstetric Care Underserved Area (SPOU). METHODS: We conducted a focus group interview by recruiting four mothers who delivered in the hospital in their community (a rural underserved obstetric care area) and another four mothers who delivered in the hospital outside of the community. RESULTS: From the finding, the mothers were not satisfied with the quality of services that the community hospital provided, in terms of professionalism of the obstetric care team, and the outdated medical device and facilities. Also, the mothers believed that the hospital in the metropolitan city is better for their health as well as that of their babies. The mothers who delivered in the outside community hospital considered geographical closeness less than they did the quality of obstetric care. The mothers who delivered in the community hospital gave the reason why they chose the hospital, which was convenience and emergency preparedness due to its geographical closeness. However, they were not satisfied with the quality of services provided by the community hospital like the other mothers who delivered in the hospital outside of the community. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, in order to successfully deliver the SPOU program, the Korean government should make an effort in increasing the quality of maternity service provided in the community hospital and improving the physical factors of a community hospital such as outdated medical equipment and facilities.
Delivery, Obstetric/statistics & numerical data ; Emergency Treatment ; Female ; Focus Groups ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Hospitals, Community/*utilization ; Humans ; *Medically Underserved Area ; Mothers/psychology ; Patient Acceptance of Health Care/*psychology/statistics & numerical data ; Patient Satisfaction ; Pregnant Women/psychology ; Prenatal Care/*utilization ; Qualitative Research ; Quality Improvement ; Quality of Health Care ; Republic of Korea ; Trust