Korea is in a unique condition to observe whether patients, when equal access to the levels of health care facilities is guaranteed by the support of the national health insurance, choose the appropriate levels of health care facilities. This study was performed to investigate the primary care patients’ preference for hospitals over clinics under no restriction for their choice. We used the 2011 National Inpatient Sample database of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service in Korea. A primary care patient was defined as a patient who visited as an outpatient in health care facilities with one of the 52 minor conditions defined by the Korean government. We found that approximately 15% of outpatient visits of the patients who were eligible for primary care in Korea happened in hospitals. In terms of cost, the outpatient visits in hospitals accounted for about 29% of total cost of outpatient visits. This arbitrary access to hospitals can lead to an inefficient use of health care resources. In order to ensure that health care facilities are stratified in terms of access as well as size and function, interventions to distribute patients to the appropriate level of care are required.

Background: Ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC) hospitalization is a widely accepted measure of the access to primary care. However, given its discretionary characteristics, the ACSC hospitalization can be a measure reflecting the influence of hospital bed supply. In Korea, where the quality of primary care and oversupply of hospital beds are coexistent concerns, ACSC hospitalization can be used to examine the impact of both factors. This study was performed to investigate the ACSC hospitalization rate as a measure of the hospital bed supply as well as access to primary care. Methods: Data were obtained from the National Health Insurance Database for 2015. We calculated the age-sex standardized hospitalization rates for ACSC in the total population and crude rates of ACSC hospitalization for three different age groups in 252 districts in Korea. We calculated the variation statistics of ACSC hospitalization rates, and we estimated a linear regression model to investigate the factors for ACSC hospitalization. Results: There was a very high geographic variation in ACSC hospitalization rates. Higher density of primary care physicians was associated with a decreased ACSC hospitalization rate while a higher density of hospital beds in small to medium sized hospitals was associated with an increased rate. The deprivation index score had a strongly positive association with the ACSC hospitalization rates. Conclusion: ACSC hospitalization, while being a negative index of primary care access, can also be a measure indicating the impact of the hospital bed supply, and it is still a valid measure of the disparity of health care, the original motivation for this topic.

BackgroundWhile trust in physicians has been rigorously investigated regarding its concept, measurement, and factors, the studies have mainly focused on the attributes of the physicians. This approach can lead to a limited understanding of trust in physicians as trust is based on the relationship, an interaction of both parties: patients and physicians. This study aimed to investigate the factors for trust in physicians among the Koreans by focusing on patients’ traits which are related to their subjective perceptions.MethodsA web-based survey was conducted between August and September 2016 among 1000 Korean adults aged 18 to 59 years. Survey participants were selected by a proportionate quota sampling based on age, sex and place of residence. The t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were performed to examine the difference in trust in physicians among the different groups in each variable of patient characteristics. An ordinal logistic regression model was employed to examine the association between trust in physicians and patient attributes.ResultsNegative health-related traits, such as stress and low self-rated health, were likely to lower trust in physicians, and women were less likely to trust physicians. The negative attitudes toward the current health care system were strongly associated with low trust in physicians. Meanwhile, recent experience of hospitalization or outpatient visit was positively associated with trust in physicians, and experience of not being able to use health facilities showed no significant association. These results suggest that trust in physicians is more likely to be lowered by negative perception than by the objective conditions or experience.ConclusionIn investigating the factors for trust in physicians, the patients’ predispositions, which make them less likely to trust physicians, should be considered. The attributes of the patients in Korea, which could negatively affect trust in physicians, need to be investigated in consideration of the recent changes in patient-physician relationships and the medical environment in Korea.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12875-018-0875-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Objectives:We aimed to evaluate the effect of geographic units of analysis on measuring geographic variation in medical services utilization. For this purpose, we compared geographic variations in the rates of eight major procedures in administrative units (districts) and new areal units organized based on the actual health care use of the population in Korea.Methods:To compare geographic variation in geographic units of analysis, we calculated the age–sex standardized rates of eight major procedures (coronary artery bypass graft surgery, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, surgery after hip fracture, knee-replacement surgery, caesarean section, hysterectomy, computed tomography scan, and magnetic resonance imaging scan) from the National Health Insurance database in Korea for the 2013 period. Using the coefficient of variation, the extremal quotient, and the systematic component of variation, we measured geographic variation for these eight procedures in districts and new areal units.Results:Compared with districts, new areal units showed a reduction in geographic variation. Extremal quotients and inter-decile ratios for the eight procedures were lower in new areal units. While the coefficient of variation was lower for most procedures in new areal units, the pattern of change of the systematic component of variation between districts and new areal units differed among procedures.Conclusions:Geographic variation in medical service utilization could vary according to the geographic unit of analysis. To determine how geographic characteristics such as population size and number of geographic units affect geographic variation, further studies are needed.

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