Effects of Health Disorder Signals on Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Urination Disorders: Focusing on Door-to-Door Salespeople and Women Who have Experienced Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome / 한국직업건강간호학회지

Purpose@#This study investigated the effects of Health Disorder Signals on irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and urination disorders, and the relationship between IBS and urination disorders. @*Methods@#A questionnaire survey was conducted on those who experienced symptoms among door-to-door salesmen and women who visited S Hospital in Busan, and irritable bowel syndrome and gastrointestinal symptoms were surveyed based on the Roman Standard II. @*Results@#The study results showed that the IBS Health Disorder Signal had a significant positive (+) effect on the IBS. It was also found that the Health Disorder Signal of urination disorders showed a certain pattern of urination disorders on the back of the hand. IBS was also found to have a significant positive (+) effect on urination disorders (Health Disorder Signals of urination disorders, urination disorders). @*Conclusion@#First, this study is Korea's first attempt at understanding Health Disorder Signals, and it is of great help in conducting a wide range of studies on such Health Disorder Signals in the future. Second, it is a surprising result confirming that bowel disease can have a direct effect on urination disorders.

Controlling Legal Risk for Effective Hospital Management

PURPOSE: To analyze the types of medical malpractice, medical errors, and medical disputes in a university hospital for the proposal of countermeasures that maximize the efficiency of hospital management, medical departments, and healthcare providers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study retrospectively reviewed and analyzed 55 closed civil lawsuits among 64 medical lawsuit cases carried out in Pusan National University Hospital from January 2000 to April 2013 using medical records, petitions, briefs, and data from the Medical Dispute Mediation Committee. RESULTS: Of 55 civil lawsuits, men were the main plaintiffs in 31 cases (56.4%). The average period from medical malpractice to malpractice proceeding was 16.5 months (range, 1 month to 6.4 years), and the average period from malpractice proceeding to the disposition of a lawsuit was 21.7 months (range, 1 month to 4 years and 11 months). CONCLUSIONS: Hospitals can effectively manage their legal risks by implementing a systematic medical system, eliminating risk factors in administrative service, educating all hospital employees on preventative strategies, and improving customer service. Furthermore, efforts should be made to establish standard coping strategies to manage medical disputes and malpractice lawsuits, operate alternative dispute resolution methods including the Medical Dispute Mediation Committee, create a compliance support center, deploy a specialized workforce including improved legal services for employees, and specialize the management-level tasks of the hospital.

Differences in Patients' Awareness of Doctors' Communication Styles, Patients' Satisfaction, and Patients' Compliance among Patient Social Styles / 한국의학교육

PURPOSE: It has been well known that doctor-patient communication is a key to the better doctor-patient relationship. However, in Korea, there has not been much researches on the causal factors influencing the doctor-patient communication as well as on patient satisfaction and compliance. This study attempts to investigate the relationships between patient social styles and doctors' communication styles as well as patient outcomes. METHODS: Patient subjects were recruited from two mid-size local hospitals. The questionnaires consist of social styles, patient-perceived doctors' communication, and patient satisfaction/compliance measures. One hundred ninety useable data were analyzed. RESULTS: For those highly satisfied patients, patients with analytic style showed the highest percentage of viewing their doctors as highly empathic. On the other hand, for those patients with high compliance, expressive style patients showed the highest rates of regarding their doctors as highly affective. And amiable style patients are most likely to view their doctors as highly cognitive. For analytic style patients, cognitive empathy had positive effects on patient satisfaction. For amiable style patients, doctors' cognitive empathy had positive influence on patient compliance. For expressive style patients, doctors' affective empathic communication had positive effects on both patient satisfaction/compliance while cognitive had positive effects only on patient compliance. CONCLUSION: The results show that the different social styles of patients might influence on the fact how the patients perceive their doctors' communication as well as how much they are satisfied and compliant. Thus, when we as an medical educators need to realize the importance of this mechanism and bring this learning into classrooms.