Background : The expansion and strengthening of primary care is approved as the only method to revise the ineffective health care system in Korea. In such a system, we intended to analyze the functional and regional distribution of specialists by investigating and classifying the hospitals where residents
Fwho completed their training in a university hospital located in Seoul for seven years are working and
f by acquiring the distribution of the subjects who are practicing as primary care physicians by year,
specialties and location
f Methods : We selected 384 specialists, all of whom were trained as residents at a university hospital
located in Seoul from 1987 to 1993. The hospitals they worked at were classified as primary, secondary
´ f r and tertiary care hospitals according to the classification in the health care administration. The location
ti
of primary care hospitals among them was plotted on two maps; one of Seoul, the other of Korea.
Results : The number of females in the subjects was 68(17.7%) and that of males 316(82.3%). The
y number of practitioners was 156(40.6%) and that of specialists working at the secondary care hospitals
4iw was 55(14.3%), and 147 specialists were working at the tertiary care hospitals(38.3%). With regard to
the percentage of practitioners, dermatologic specialists presented with 60%, and relatively high group
t, included obstetrics & gynecology(59.2%), family medicine (54.5%), plastic surgery(52.6%), otolaryngology
,or (520%), pediatrics (51.7 % ), and orthopedics(4&6%). In tertiary care hospitals, chest surgery showed 72.7 % as highest. Radiologic oncology presented with 66.7% and anatomical pathology with 66.7%. As to the location of primary care hospitals, 41.0% were in Seoul and 3&5% in Kyungkido. And the rest of the 20. 5% were located in other areas of Korea.
al Conclusions : Considering the results of the study that showa great number of specialists are actually
practicing as primary care physicians after their specialists´ training, the present training system of spe-
JO cialists needs to be revised and controlled in structure. (J Korean Acad Fam Med 1999;20 :3W94)
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