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KMID : 0904520040160010063
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Health and Medical Sociology
2004 Volume.16 No. 1 p.63 ~ p.87
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A Study on the Health Utilization and Perception of Rural Residents about Health Center County Hospital(HCCH)
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Park Jae-San
Moon Jae-Woo
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Abstract
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Asymmetric distribution of health care resources in South Korea has been one of the most important concerns in health care. Especially, the shortage of health care resources in rural areas is the top priority for health policymakers to handle. Relevant to this, it is essential to define and optimize the role and function of public health care organizations. Important questions raised are equitable accessibility, availability and efficient delivery of health care services.
There are 17 Health Center County Hospitals(HCCHs) amongst public health care organizations. Unlike Health Centers (HCs), which are unable to provide inpatient care beds, HCCHs provide these services.
Nowadays the gradually decreasing number of rural community inpatients has been a challenge to HCCHs. They need to seek changes in their role and function consecutively.
This study aims for two objectives. One is to set the appropriate direction of health center county hospitals and the other is to find out strategies for efficient management to improve community people’s health in the near future.
Data were collected by the method of self-administrative questionnaires developed by the researcher. The sample cases are 1,207 communities’ residents in J county.
This study shows firstly, the major disease in communities’ residents is chronic degenerative disease, i.e. arthritis, high blood pressure and diabetes mellitus. Secondly, the utilization rate of HCCHs is low and that of the inpatient care services is the lowest. And lastly, communities’ residents want HCCHs to be reorganized for the provision of physical therapy(82.6%), emergency care(88.8%) and oriental care services(81.4%) as health care service function as well as inoculations(87.1%), health activities for the elderly(83.6%), and home health care(75.8%) as health activity function.
In conclusion, the inefficient bed management policy and the poor performance of health activities of HCCHs have been major problems because HCCHs have implemented the inpatient care service function and original health activity function dichotomously.
Thus it is desirable, from a strategic perspective, to decrease the current number of beds down to the minimum size necessary and reinforce emergency service and health promotion activities. Concurrently, the reallocation of health personnel from inpatient medical care to health activities, which is sought by community residents, could be a way to increase efficiency in health care resource allocation. In respective of managerial efficiency, these are the sensible steps to take in order to improve the functions of HCCHs at present.
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KEYWORD
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Health Center County Hospital(HCCH), rural residents, optimal function and role, efficiency
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