Establishment of Healthcare Delivery System through Improvement of Health Insurance System / 보건행정학회지

Establishing a healthcare delivery system is key to building a cost-effective healthcare system that can prevent the waste of healthcare resources and increase efficiency. Recently, the rapid increase in the national medical expenditures due to the aging of the population and the increase in chronic diseases has raised the question about the sustainability of the healthcare system including the health insurance system. This is why we need to reform the medical delivery system, including the function setting of medical institutions. Accordingly, gradual and practical efforts based on the recognition of reality are needed for solving the problems and improving the medical delivery system. The first effort is to secure policy measures to establish functions and roles of medical institutions which are the basis of the healthcare delivery system, and a systematic medical use system for appropriate medical use. This approach can be achieved through a reasonable health insurance schemes. Without reasonable reform efforts, it will be difficult for Korea's health care system to develop into a system that can provide cost-effective and high-quality medical services that the people want.

Current Issues of Healthcare Research and Development in Korea / 보건행정학회지

There has been much efforts to facilitate healthcare innovation and many desirable outcomes were produced in Korea. However, some structural deficiencies were found. They are misalignment of research and development (R&D) subjects with healthcare system, lack of flexibility of current healthcare system to accommodate the radically innovative products, and lack of cooperation among innovation agent. Some suggestions to correct these deficiencies are discussed. The suggestions are as follows: relating Korean healthcare R&D to healthcare system, enhancement of institutional flexibility to allow innovative application of new technology, improvement of the R&D process, and reexamination of the role of academic medical centers.

Role of Public Health Systems in the Present Health Scenario: Key Challenges.

The health scenario in our country is rapidly changing, both in terms of the public health challenges that we face as well as our response to these challenges. As India becomes more and more developed and we have greater means at our disposal, our response to our health challenges must refl ect our changing health and socio-economic status. India faces enormous challenges in the area of women’s and children’s health. India is one of the few countries that have recorded substantial decline in maternal mortality. India is still far from achieving the target set in the millennium development goals. Despite several growth-orientated policies adopted by the government, the widening economic, regional, and gender disparities are posing challenges for the health sector. About 75% of health infrastructure, medical manpower, and other health resources are concentrated in urban areas where 27% of the populations live. To reduce this double burden of diseases, public health has to focus on health promotion, and disease prevention and control, while taking into consideration the social determinant of health. The focus of public health is to bring about change at the policy level not only for preventing disease but also for the health promotion through organized action at societal level.

Overview of healthcare system in North Korea

In this study, we analyzed the healthcare system of North Korea using Kleczkowski's model which categorizes national healthcare infrastructure into five components: health resources, organization, healthcare delivery system, economic support, and management. It was found that the healthcare system in North Korea, which provides clinical medicine, Koryo medicine and preventive medicine, is constituted of a physician system of independent geographic sectors and centralized delivery system while maintaining free universal health coverage. These systems are all managed by the government and the People's Committee Party. However, North Korea has been confronted with severe economic difficulties since the 1990s, such that we question whether the healthcare system has been able to function properly despite of the lack of resources in general throughout the country.

Analysis and thoughts on building a connty-wide medical service delivery system in Shaanxi province / 中华医院管理杂志

Based on an analysis of the health reform made in Fugu and Zichang counties of Shaanxi province,the authors stated the characteristics and innovations made at the county public hospitals,county-township integration,and primary healthcare equity for peasants.The discussions covered problems found in the reform,and came up with policy recommendations on positioning of both public hospitals and the government,aiming at theoretically supporting decision makers of other county hospitals in the country.

A proposal for the disruptive innovation of healthcare delivery system in Korea

In March 2011, after a series of discussions, the Korean government released a basic plan for functional reestablishment of medical institutions. However, the policy has ended up reestablishing the functions and roles of medical institutions without considering the advance of medical technologies and the emergence of new forms of providers. The advances of the medical knowledge and technologies enable the provision of lower-cost, higher-quality, more accessible healthcare services. Therefore, the reestablishment of medical institutions' functions needs to be done on the basis of medical technology advancement. In this article, policy suggestions and managerial implications for healthcare service providers are discussed based on disruptive innovation. It is expected to contribute to the discussions on the healthcare delivery system of Korea.

Internet Healthcare Delivery System

The healthcare laws and healthcare system, which includes healthcare delivery system and network hospital and attending hospital system etc., have much influence on the application of Internet. Whereas government-driven healthcare delivery system had little desirable effects including increased efficiency in patient care and balanced development of various types of medical service facilities, the private hospital network was successful with the help of information interchange. The network hospital is a kind of private hospital network for patient delivery preparing for the current healthcare management issues such as the separation of pharmacy and clinic and expansion of DRG. Network hospitals has been used the internet to transfer the information of patients. Internet is not the main success factor of the network, but the it may not be successful without Internet. The attending hospital system is in it's early stage in Korea. As the number of participating physician increases, the need of information interchange will be increased. The future of the internet healthcare delivery system would be composed of web application and databases, ASP, team approach to assist physicians. The major obstacle of the system is the technical level of information system in medium and small sized hospitals. The governmental financial assistance is needed in that hospitals. The most important issue is the standardization of information. The participation of KMA in standardization is needed.