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KMID : 1235020090030010031
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Health Service Management Review
2009 Volume.3 No. 1 p.31 ~ p.39
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Regional Variation in the supply of palliative care beds in Korea
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Hwang Eun-Joo
Kang Jin-A
Kim Hyo-Young
Choi Jin-Young
Shin Dong-Wook
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Abstract
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Objective Under the second term 10 year national cancer control plan is that the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Family Affairs has been supporting hospice and palliative care for the terminal cancer patients and their families since 2005. Even though the number of care beds has doubled, it is not known whether there is a significant disparity in the access of palliative care across the regions. Methods : Palliative care beds sufficiency rates for 9 different regions were calculated by dividing the number of palliative care beds by the number of people in that area. 50 beds per 1,000,000 population was regarded as meeting the requirements, indicating 100% sufficiency rate. The inter-quartile range was used as an indicator for the magnitude of regional variations in palliative care beds supply. Results There was significant regional variation across the 9 different regions, with the range of 0% to 99.9% as of 2009. Since implementation of a support program in 2005, the median sufficiency rate has increased from 7.6% to 20.0%, however, inter-quartile range also has increased from 16.1% to 21.9%, this indicates increasing regional variations in palliative care beds supply. Conclusion : Inequality in access to hospice and palliative care is an important public health issue in terms of both meeting palliative care needs of terminal cancer patients and their families, and the efficient use of healthcare resources. Public health policies to ensure the equitable access to hospice and palliative care in every region are needed.
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KEYWORD
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Regional variation, hospice and palliative care, palliative care bed, sufficiency rate
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