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A survey of the medical practitioners' offices in Korea 2011

Article information

J Korean Med Assoc. 2012;55(4):390-403
Publication date (electronic) : 2012 April 13
doi : https://doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2012.55.4.390
Geum Ja Im, PhD1, Jin Woo Choi, CPA1, Sun Mi Lim, PhD1, Kyung Hwa Seo, MBA1, Yoon Hyung Park, MD1,2
1Research Institute of Healthcare Policy, Korean Medical Association, Seoul, Korea.
2Department of Preventive Medicine, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Cheonan, Korea.
Corresponding author: Yoon Hyung Park, parky@sch.ac.kr
Received 2012 February 21; Accepted 2012 March 05.

Abstract

Because of various current problems and issues which are low health insurance medical fee of National Health Insurance Corporation, extreme competition with very large general hospitals, new supply of more than of 3,000 new doctors, many medical practitioner's offices who are suffering management difficulties are increasing. In order to investigate their current overall management situations, we made this study through statistical extraction procedures with the sample population of the medical practitioners which are registered in Korean Medical Association and subsequently we made the study with 1,031 selected cases. The average number of patients is 53.6 patients per day. 44.4% of the medical practitioners' offices are working at night and legal holidays and 8.5% are working at Sunday. Average working hours is 50.1 hours per week, which greatly exceeds 40 hours per week that is regulated in the Labor Standards Act. According to the management performance analysis of those medical clinics through profit and loss statements, average total annual sales revenue in 2010 fiscal year was 444,167,867 KRW, the expenses were 314,217,081 KRW and the earnings before taxes was 129,940,786 KRW. The average net profit (earnings before taxes) of the director of the medical practitioners' offices was 122,337,868 KRW per year and 10,194,822 KRW per month. According to the study results, we have found that we need to increase doctor's bill for outpatient, and establishment and its improvement of medical service delivery systems and classification standards of medical services for first and succeeding outpatients. Considering overall results of the study, readjustment of outpatients' treatment fees and reestablishment of more efficient medical service delivery systems which require the first medical service is to be provided properly should be realized in order to improve the management performance of the medical practitioners' offices.

Keywords: Health insurance medical fee; Financial state of the medical practitioners' office; Physicians' income

References

1. Park YH, Im GJ, Min HY, Choi JW. Report of the medical practitioner's offices in Korea 2010. Seoul: Research Institute for Healthcare Policy;
2. Im GJ, Choi JW. Business analysis of the practitioners' offices in Korea 2009. Seoul: Research Institute for Healthcare Policy;
3. Park YH, Im GJ, Min HY, Choi JW. Report of the medical practitioner's offices in Korea 2010. Seoul: Research Institute for Healthcare Policy;
4. Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service. Current status of the opening, closing of clinics in Korea (2011) [Internet] 2012. cited 2012 Mar 19. Seoul: Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service; Available from: http://www.hira.or.kr/dummy.do?pgmid=HIRAA020045010000&cmsurl=/cms/information/05/03/01/1210719_13603.html&subject=%ec%9a%94%ec%96%91%ea%b8%b0%ea%b4%80+%ea%b0%9c%ed%8f%90%ec%97%85+%ed%98%84%ed%99%a9%282011%eb%85%84%29.

Article information Continued

Copyright © 2012 Korean Medical Association

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Figure 1

Figure 1

Motives opening of clinics (n=1,023).

Figure 2

Figure 2

Daily average number of inpatients (n=155).

Figure 3

Figure 3

Clinic hours.

Figure 4

Figure 4

Reasons to work at nights and holidays.

Figure 5

Figure 5

Daily average number of outpatients per doctor.

Figure 6

Figure 6

Total amount of expenses for opening clinic per subject.

Figure 7

Figure 7

Deptartment for operation expenses per subject (n=370).

Figure 8

Figure 8

Profits improvement plans.

Figure 9

Figure 9

Expense reduction plans.

Figure 10

Figure 10

Reason of a fee reduction.

Figure 11

Figure 11

Important factors for success of the medical practitioners' office (n=1,031).

Figure 12

Figure 12

Management improvement plans of the medical practitioners' office (Likert 5-point scale is used to measure). 1. Increase outpatient medical service charges (to be considered relatively). 2. Reestablishment of medical service delivery systems. 3. Improve the classification standards for first and succeeding outpatients. 4. Improve outpatient charge decrease system. 5. Expansion of non-medical revenue making business, like patients convenience facilities etc. 6. Expansion of public health services.

Table 1

Characteristics of respondents (n=1,031)

Table 1

Table 2

Average work forces (excluding director and doctors of the medical practitioners' offices) (unit: n)

Table 2

Table 3

Daily average number of outpatients per clinic

Table 3

Table 4

Comparison analysis of 2010 sales per subject (unit: 10,000 KRW)

Table 4

Table 5

Operation performance per subject in 2010 (unit: KRW)

Table 5

Table 6

The perception of the medical practitioners' office (n=1,031)

Table 6

Table 7

Reduction of a fee for consultation

Table 7

Table 8

Opinions about applying the regulations for overtime charges, based on the Labor Standards Act

Table 8