PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the hospital utilization of cancer patients in Inchon and to assess the feasibility of Inchon Cancer Registry (ICR). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used two data sources from Korean Central Cancer Registry (KCCR) and Korean Medical Insurance (KMI) for analysis. RESULTS: KCCR data analysis showed that 50.8% of cancer patients visited hospitals in Seoul, 46% visited hospitals in Inchon, and 2.6% in other areas at first visit. The analysis of KMI data showed that 43% of cancer patients visited hospital in Seoul, 38.5% visited hospitals in Inchon, and 18.5% in other areas at first visit. From these results, we found many cancer patients visited hospitals located in Seoul. We estimated that 52.1% would be missed when we performed cancer registry project in Inchon area alone from the KCCR data analysis. On the other hand, 60% would be missed from the KMI data. However, if we used registration data at the nation-wide level and actively registered cancer patient data in Inchan, expected unregistration rates would be 5%. CONCLUSION: Even though registration rate to KCCR was relatively low (74%) in Inhon and many patients were treated in other area, we are convinced that almast all cancer patients would be registered because most cancer patients visited at least one of the cancer registry hospitals at the nation-wide level. Therefore, if ICR used KCCR and encouraged the hospitals in Inchon to actively participate in cancer registration, the population-based cancer registration in Inchon would be possible.
Information Storage and Retrieval ; Hand ; Humans ; Incheon* ; Insurance ; Seoul ; Statistics as Topic

The purpose of this study was to survey the organizational situation of medical record department(MRD) in hospitals to identify the factors influencing the production ol disease statistics in Korea. 134 hospitals answered for the structured questionnaires mailed to the 218 hospitals. This studs results are as follows. 1 ) There were three types in organizational situation of MRD: independent department (70.1%) a unit in other department (26.1 %) .and in the rest 3.7%. there were no MRD or unit. 2) The differences of work performed in MR ~) or on it in the second referral level hospitals and the third referral level hospitals were statistically significant in incomplete medical record management(p<0.05) DRG coding supplying research data, quality improvement activity. cancer registration(p<0.01) and transeription of medical record( p<0.0l). 3) 66.4% of the target hospitals were performing the recheeking of disease classification data after reponsible physicians completed the incomplete record 4) statistically significant variables which affect works performed in MRD are organizational situation of MRD(<0.001) and the number of medical record professionals. 41.3% of variation of works performed in MRD was explained by variation of organizational situation and the number of medical record professionals.
Classification ; Clinical Coding ; Diagnosis-Related Groups ; Korea ; Medical Records* ; Postal Service ; Quality Improvement ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Referral and Consultation ; Data Accuracy

It is necessary to have accurate statistical data of disease for planning and evaluating public health policy as well as assessing population health index. The national health insurance data is the only data to assess incidence of diseases nation-wide. However, inaccuracy of the data pose serious limitations of use of the data. The Medical Record Departments of individual health facilities have used discharge summary information for hospital management and clinical research, but a nation-wide integrated database of diseases has not been setup and utilized. We applied previously developed Korean Uniform Hospital Discharge Data Sets to collect discha rge summary data from health care facilities and establish integrated database. We also made the question and answer column about disease of the database in the internet. We collected patient discharge data from a tertiary-care hospital for one year using the electronic discharge summary data collection system, except for health care costs. The internet querying system provided optional selection of columns or rows, individual and/or disease groups and surgical procedures. To make query easy, the system provided various functions like querying codes of diseases and/or surgical operations, reviewing questions, downloading results via excel files, help functions of query. The establishment of disease database and the interactive system through internet is in its inception, further studies may be necessary to make it a user friendly and accurate system. There is a need of an accurate assessment of current population-based health status and future trends in Korea. It is hoped that this study may trigger to establish national accurate database for enhancing studies of health policy making, clinical research and vital health statistics by expanding data collections to the se condary- care and primary- care institutions.
Incidence

The Korean Central Cancer Registry Program analyses data on the incidence and characteristics of cancer gathered from training hospitals across the nation in order to prepare coherent and accurate summary. The program has had these data computer processed through CANCER (version 1.5), a computer program for registry, since 1996. In 2002, we conducted a survey of the registered hospitals on the status of utilization for this cancer registry related-computer program and on the additional requirements to the existing variables. The results showed that the number of hospitals using the CANCER program has slightly outnumbered the hospitals using their own computer system for hospital information. That is because the number of cancer registry cases of the large-scale hospitals such as general hospitals, which comprises the majority of registered hospitals, is so many that they are able to sort out cancer registry data from their own system. They also reported a middle level of satisfaction with the program utilization. Among the least satisfactory items were the program's lack of portability to different situations and the necessity for double input of the same registry field. The field most requested by the surveyed hospitals for addition to the program was one on metastatic site. This study should lead to follow-up measures such as the development of a variety of algorithms to enhance the accuracy of the data by further reducing the errors in processing the data, and the recommendation of standards which are likely to enhance data adaptability. The result will be utilized as a basic reference for building a systematic and effective database on the national cancer registry.
Computer Systems ; Hospitals, General ; Incidence ; Korea*

The purpose of this study is to identify standardized items from Hospital Discharge Abstract and Analysis data by using UHDDS(Uniform Hospital Discharge Data Sets in USA) and to ascertain the computerization in tertiary hospitals. The data were collected by questionnaire survey, responded 38 hospitals(86.4%) out of 44 tertiary hospitals, and the conclusions are as follows. 1. As for the general characteristics of patient; hospital registration number, patient name, sex and social identification number were reported to 0.92%. 2. As for admission and discharge aspects; admission date was showed 0.92, type of admission and insurance were 0.87%, discharge date 0.92%, the code of primary condition, other diagnoses and primary procedure were 0.89%, disposition of discharge was 0.61%. 3. As for the other characteristics; attending physician license number and name of operating physician were showed 0.87%, birth weight of newborn 0.74%, nationality 0.44%. 4. As for the order communicating system, computerization for the medical record management was showed 57.9%, administration of outpatient 53.6%, administration of inpatient 44.7%, administration of emergency care 28.9%. Judging from the study, the development of Korean Uniform Hospital Discharge Data Sets using Discharge Abstract and Analysis System is applicable to the national wide collection of statistics on the diseases for the discharged patients.
Birth Weight ; Computer Systems ; Dataset ; Diagnosis ; Emergency Medical Services ; Ethnic Groups ; Feasibility Studies* ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Inpatients ; Insurance ; Licensure ; Medical Records ; Outpatients ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Social Identification ; Tertiary Care Centers ; Tertiary Healthcare*