Population over 65 accounted for 10.3% of the whole population in Korea as of July of 2008(Statistics of the Aged, Statistics Korea), and Korea has already become an aging society(more than 7%) since 2010. It is expected that Korea will become an aged...
Population over 65 accounted for 10.3% of the whole population in Korea as of July of 2008(Statistics of the Aged, Statistics Korea), and Korea has already become an aging society(more than 7%) since 2010. It is expected that Korea will become an aged society(more than 14%) in ten years(2018) and an super-aged society(more than 20%) in 2026.
Population over 65 in Gwangju, 112,550 persons, accounted for 7.8% of the whole population in the city(1,445,067 persons) as of December, 2008(Statistics of the Aged, Honam Regional Statistics Office), and thus Gwangju was found to be an aging society. The rate of the aged in Gwangju is lower than that of the whole country, 10.3%, yet relatively high compared to those of other cities.
Gwangju is expected to become an aged society in 2021 with 14.4% of senior citizens, and an super-aged society in 2028 with 20.4% of senior citizens while Jeonnam is estimated to turn to an super-aged society in 2010 with 20.1% seniors.
In the aging society, acute diseases and the morbid rate were reduced owing to the improvement in the quality of life and medical technologies while the prevalence rate of chronic degenerative diseases among the elderly over 65 was found to be 86.7%, and senior citizens accounted for approximately 50.8% of the whole domiciliary welfare targets. This situation has been deemed as a problem in the aged health care field, and it is urgent to develop proper policies to deal with it.
Along with increased geriatric welfare facilities, 'geriatric hospitals' made their first appearance in the early 90's to deal with the social needs. Medical facilities, which have different characteristics from ordinary general hospitals, for specially treating the elderly are needed. Geriatric hospitals and care hospitals aim at providing care and rehabilitation treatment for those who cannot go home right after acute care or geriatric patients who are in need of long-term treatment, and thus they should be differentiated from ordinary general hospitals in terms of facilities.
Particularly in terms of geriatric medical care, programs and facilities suitable for characteristics of seniors have not been properly developed even though the proportion of seniors among in-patients has constantly been grown bigger and the state of diseases among the elderly is unique and different.
As for now, almost every single aged medical service is operated mainly by ordinary hospitals. Aged medical welfare facility systems which are commonly used for treating diseases of seniors are not divided into geriatric hospitals and care facilities, and are operated by ordinary hospitals in the same way where other patients are managed. Therefore, the characteristic of aged medical care, which means the prolonged morbidity among seniors compared to younger people suffering from the same disease, has not been considered, and thus seniors have paid high expenses and medical services have not been properly executed. On the ground, not only the effectiveness of aged disease care has been reduced, but also wrong spending of medical expenses has been caused.
The present study needed to research and survey care hospitals including a local geriatric hospital in a systematic way as aged population would be more increased in the future and more local aged medical care welfare facilities were needed in Gwangju. On the ground, the research object of the present thesis was restricted to care hospitals which were currently operated in Gwangju to define assessment standards for reasonable facilities and personnel.
The present thesis is meaningful in differentiating care hospitals and ordinary ones in terms of personnel and facility·equipment standards based on the characteristics of a care hospital, and, by doing so, preparing plans to support the improvement of facilities and personnel of care hospitals.