Cancer remains one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide and poses a major threat to public health. Cancer incidence and death rates have increased in most countries since 1990. Therefore, the importance of systematic measures within the public health system, such as special hospitals for cancer patients, has been emphasized. Korea has established a 10-year plan to treat cancer patients and has implemented national cancer control policies (the 10-Year Plan for National Cancer Control) over the past 20 years, and these policies have resulted in dramatic breakthroughs in cancer survival. However, by focusing on the visible outcomes of cancer control, these policies have not shown adequate results in terms of building an integrated support system to improve the quality of life of cancer survivors or terminal cancer patients. In the future, the government should strive to build a comprehensive cancer management system that incorporates multipurpose integrated support measures, such as multidisciplinary, palliative, and hospice care.
Cancer Care Facilities ; Hospice Care ; Hospitals, Special ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea* ; Mortality ; Palliative Care ; Public Health ; Quality of Life ; Survivors

Koreans had an ill feeling against the only public isolation hospital, and their ill feeling was a cause the movement for establishing a private isolation hospital. The bad seating capacity and the nearness to downtown of public isolation hospital, and some violence caused in the course of taking a patient to the public isolation hospital were concrete causes of the movement for establishing a private isolation hospital. The three purposes of the movement for establishing a private isolation hospital are as follows. First, for the purpose of removing the national ill feeling, Koreans had to establish the isolation hospital by themselves. Second, for the purpose of curing the patients, doctors needed to use Oriental medicine together. Third, for the purpose of doing away with the anxiety of infection, the isolation hospital had to be located in a distant place from downtown. The movement for establishing a private isolation hospital didn't succeed. It only ended up establishing a contagious ward in Severance hospital. Because whenever an isolation hospital was planned to be constructed somehere, the residents worrying about the infection opposed to the construction, and enough money didn't be gathered. Abve all, rich pro-Japanese men didn't contribute enough money. The middle and lower classes contributed almost all of the money. The movement for estabishing a private isolation hospital was the extension of anti-Japanese national feeling that sprung from the March 1st movement. In view of strenghtening Korean ability, the movement for establishing a private isolation hospital had a common cause with the Shilryokyangsong movement in the early 1920s.
Cholera/*history ; Colonialism/*history ; Communicable Diseases/*history ; English Abstract ; History of Medicine, 20th Cent. ; Hospitals, Public/*history ; Hospitals, Special/*history ; Human ; Japan ; Korea ; Patient Isolation/*history ; Politics

Following the development of social economy, the acceleration of aging problem, and the changes in disease spectrum, the incidence of various chronic wound diseases increased significantly, and it has become one of the most frequently encountered diseases that affect the people's health. The contradiction between the increase of medical need of wound diseases and the insufficiency of the medical service in our country is becoming increasingly conspicuous. Wound healing department, as a new cross subject that has emerged as the times require, needs to be perfected in its diagnostic and treatment strategies and methods. At present time, how to explore the new theory and pathologic mechanism of various chronic wounds, in order to establish the clinical guidelines in diagnosis and treatment that conform to national conditions of our country, and to establish efficient clinical pathway and medical-seeking model have become serious challenges to the establishment of wound healing department in our country. Thus, it is imperative for us to enhance the connotation of establishment of wound healing department. For this purpose, this article mainly elaborates on three aspects, including "enriching traditional diagnostic system with new theory and new technology", "improving treatment effect by ameliorating traditional methods and absorbing new technology from relating subspecialty", "establishing a new medical-seeking model by applying digital technology and vertically integrating medical resources".
China ; Hospitals, Special ; Wound Healing

This study has attempted to collect actual spot's opinions and analyze importance-performance of indicators for the evaluation of hospital nutrition department. The results of this research were as follows: first, the average score of self-estimated performance was 3.75 based on a 5-point scale. The degrees of importance of hospital foodservice and nutrition department management were in the range of 3.71~4.85 out of 5.0 and the mean importance degree score was 4.37. Second, the verage score of self-estimated performance in each category was significantly higher in the case of general special hospital compared to general hospital. Especially average performance score of nutrition management in the general special hospital was higher than that of general hospital (P<0.001). The average performance score of the hospital with more beds was significantly higher than that with less beds. Contract managed hospital's score was significantly higher than that of self-operated hospital in two categories, "facilities management" and "nutrition management" (P<0.05, P<0.01). In foodservice and nutrition management of task-separated hospitals, the average performance scores were significantly higher than those of not-separated hospitals (P<0.01, P<0.001). Third, according to the importance-performance analysis of recognition about indicators for the hospital nutrition department's operations evaluation, 'foodservice facilities management' and 'foodservice sanitation management' were in 'doing great', 'nutritional management' and 'operational management' were in 'low priority', and 'other foodservice management' was in 'overdone'. In conclusion, there's a need for institutional specific standards of sanitation for Korean hospital foodservice.
Contracts ; Hospitals, General ; Hospitals, Special ; Sanitation

It is important to establish some comprehensive wound healing centers in order to treat those complicated chronic skin wounds. In this paper, I would like to summarize our practices in some hospitals dealing with the construction of wound healing centers and give my suggestions for their future development.
Hospitals, Special ; Humans ; Reconstructive Surgical Procedures ; Skin ; injuries ; Wound Healing

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to investigate the characteristics of anterior semicircular canal benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective chart review of 1,150 patients who were diagnosed with BPPV at an ENT special hospital. We investigated a number of canalith repositioning procedure (CRP), canal switch and a history of recurrence or head trauma. RESULTS: Anterior semicircular canal BPPV was observed in 41 (3.5%) patients. The average number of CRPs in patients with anterior semicircular canal BPPV was 2.19, which was higher than 1.60 in those with posterior semicircular canal BPPV (p<0.0001). Canal conversion from anterior to posterior semicircular canal was found in 5 (12.1%) patients during treatment. The average number of CRPs in conversion cases was 4, which was higher than 1.94 in non-conversion cases (p=0.001). CONCLUSION: More CRPs were necessary for the treatment of anterior semicircular canal BPPV than posterior semicircular canal BPPV. Canal switch could be considered as a factor to prevent a successful treatment.
Head ; Hospitals, Special ; Humans ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Semicircular Canals ; Vertigo

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

BACKGROUND: Oral food challenge (OFC) tests are conducted in both specialized institutions and general hospitals. We aimed to compare the severity of the conditions of the patients between these 2 types of institutions in order to consider the role of such institutions in society. OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the results of OFC tests for hen's egg, cow's milk, and wheat that were conducted in a specialized institution (Aichi Children's Health and Medical Center [ACHMC], n = 835) and in 4 general hospitals (n = 327) in Aichi prefecture, Japan. METHODS: The symptoms provoked were scored using the total score (TS) of the Anaphylaxis Scoring Aichi scoring system in combination with the total ingested protein dose (Pro) before the appearance of allergic symptoms. RESULTS: The total ingested dose of the challenge-positive patients in ACHMC was significantly less than that in the general hospitals (p < 0.01). The median TS of the provoked symptoms in ACHMC and the general hospitals did not differ to a statistically significant extent in the hen's egg or cow's milk challenges; however, the median TS in ACHMC was significantly lower than that in the general hospitals for the wheat challenge (p = 0.02). The median TS/Pro values in ACHMC were almost identical to the upper 25% of the TS/Pro values in the general hospitals, suggesting that the specialized institution usually managed more severe patients. CONCLUSION: The specialized institution performed OFC tests at a lower threshold dose, but provoked similar TSs to the general hospitals. This evaluation may help in optimizing the distribution of patients to general hospitals and specialized institutions.
Anaphylaxis ; Child Health ; Hospitals, General ; Hospitals, Special ; Humans ; Japan ; Milk ; Ovum ; Severity of Illness Index ; Triticum

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the current state of foodservice and clinical nutrition management in a hospital-based nutrition department. Nutritional guidelines and survey reports of hospital evaluation programs from 2004 to 2009 were analyzed. In total, 275 hospitals in the first period and 288 hospitals in the second period were evaluated. The division of knife and chopping board use decreased from 97.2% in 2005 to 89.7% in 2008, the maintenance of a proper freezer temperature (below -18degrees C) increased from 82.1% in 2004 to 97.7% in 2007 (88.9% to 97.4% from large hospitals and 69.8% to 86.5% from small/medium hospitals in 2005 and 2008, respectively). In tube-feeding management, the performance rate of material cold storage and the offer rate of tube-feeding were 65.9% and 94.2% in 2007, respectively. The cold storage of material, proper use within 24 hours after opening or production, and the use of an appropriate label were 47.3%, 71.2% and 67.2% in 2009, respectively. The rate of a management system for undernourished patients was 86.0% in 2007 (56.4% for large hospitals, 18.9% for small/medium hospitals) and 14.3% in 2009. In standards of nutrition support management, the performance rates of constructing a nutrition support team, the nutrition support team activity, and organizing multidisciplinary team were 66.7%, 43.6%, and 64.1% respectively, in 2004. For large hospitals, those rates were 61.1%, 36.1%, and 58.3%, in 2005, 93.0%, 62.8%, and 91.9% in 2007, and 69.2%, 43.6%, and 69.2% in 2008, respectively. The results of this study suggest standards on sanitary foodservice preparation, production, and tube-feeding production need to correspond with HACCP regulations for small/meidium hospitals in standards of a healthcare accreditation system. It will be necessary to understand the operating conditions of nutrition departments in convalescent hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, and geriatrics hospitals. As the application of accreditation is required from 2013, standards will need to be improved and continuously updated for healthcare accreditation.
Accreditation ; Delivery of Health Care ; Geriatrics ; Hospitals, Convalescent ; Hospitals, Psychiatric ; Humans ; Social Control, Formal

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the relation between violence experiences and the professional quality of life for hospital nurses. METHODS: The participants for this study were 212 nurses in one general and three special hospitals located in the metropolitan area of Seoul, South Korea. Data gathered through October and November 2013 were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi2 test. RESULTS: Nurses experienced verbal violence, physical threats and physical violence more frequently from patients and their families rather than from doctors or peer nurses. Nurse's compassion satisfaction was low when nurses experienced violence from peer nurses. Burnout was high when nurses experienced violence from doctors, peer nurses, patients and their families. Secondary traumatic stress was affected by violence from patients and their families. The professional quality of life of nurses was associated with violence from doctors, peer nurses, patients and their families. Of the nurses, 69.3% answered that formation of a positive organizational culture would be the most effective measure for prevention of violence in hospitals. CONCLUSION: The formation of positive organizational culture, development of violence intervention policies and education are crucial to improve the professional quality of hospital nurses' life.
Education ; Empathy ; Hospitals, Special ; Humans ; Korea ; Organizational Culture ; Quality of Life* ; Seoul ; Violence*