Current Status and Reasons for the Location Change of Primary Medical Institutions in Korea

Ha, Beom Man; Shin, Soon Ae; Lee, Jin Seok; Kim, Chang Yup; Kim, Yong Ik

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
To understand the current status of the opening, closing and relocation of primary medical institutes in Korea and identify the underlying decision factors.
METHODS
Sources of analyzed data included the medical institutional master file at the National Health Insurance Corporation (1998, 2000) and Regional Statistic Annual Bulletins. To investigate changes including the opening, closing and relocation, a total of primary medicalinstitutions (16,757 in 1998, 19,267 in 2000) were analysed.
RESULTS
Between 1998 and 2000, there was a 15.0% (2,510) increase in the number of primary medical institutions and the rate of increase in the rural area was higher than the urban area, and higher for specialty clinics than primary practice. However, these findings did not suggestany improvement in the maldistribution of primary medical institutions. During the time period studied, newly opened and closed primary medical institutions numbered 4,085 and 1,573, respectively. Additionally, institutions thatrelocated numbered 2,729, or 16.3%of all primary medical institutions in operation in 1998. These openings and closings were more frequent among young doctors. As a result of our analysis on the underlying regional factors forrelocation, the factors that were statistically significant were local per capita tax burden and the number of schools per ten thousand persons. In the case of institutional factors, movements were significantly associated with gender and the location of primary medical institutions.
CONCLUSIONS
In order to establish effective long-term intervention for primary medical institutions, further study and monitoring of primary medical institutions and the dentification of factors influencing opening location and relocation is necessary.