급증하는 노인병원의 현황과 대책

Abstract

Many health care hospitals for the elderly ("Geriatric care hospital") are being founded as a result the rapid increase in the elderly population in Korea. As the population in Korea ages, there is move toward a mass geriatric society with a corresponding increase in the number of and geriatric care hospitals beds. Accordingly, the government's health care policy, social ethics and medical care services must change in order to adapt to the aging society. In general, when the cost and quality grows hand in hand and quality improvements are needed to meet expectations, unnecessary expenses can be reduced. The government can be expected to take on the role to firmly secure this balance. In addition, medical institutions must be aware that an investment based solely on profit can have deleterious outcomes. In conclusion, geriatric care hospital should not be evaluated only by its expansion in size or need, but should be judged on the consistent improvement in the quality of medical services they provide. The government, a group of hospital administrators or a social-welfare groups cannot solve this task alone. The government must offer legal, institutional and financial support, while people of all fields must find some common ground in geriatric care. Moreover, the development of an appropriate and efficient supervising system for geriatric care, and greater efforts of the geriatric hospitals themselves are needed to improve medical care.