J Korean Acad Community Health Nurs.  2016 Sep;27(3):272-283. 10.12799/jkachn.2016.27.3.272.

Effects of Visiting Nursing Services in Long-term Care Insurance on Utilization of Health Care

• Lee S
• Kwak C

• KMID: 2355002
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.12799/jkachn.2016.27.3.272

Abstract

PURPOSE
This is a comparative study using secondary data from the Korean national long term care (LTC) insurance.
METHODS
Visiting nursing (VN) service users (n=666) and non-users (n=4,375) were extracted and compared in terms of medical expenditures, length of hospitalization, and annual number of ambulatory care visits to investigate effects of VN services in LTC.
RESULTS
Total health care expenditures were compared between the two groups and it was found that VN service users spent about $ 1700 than non-users for their medical costs between 2009 and 2011. The average length of in-hospital stay for VN service users was 19.4 days shorter than that of non-users. However, using VN services did not significantly influence the annual number of ambulatory care visits.
CONCLUSION
The study has found that VN services are effective ways of providing community-based LTC services. We recommend LTC policy makers to further utilize VN services to deliver cost effective health care services.

Keyword

Long term care insurance; Nursing service; Medical care cost; Inpatient; Outpatient

MeSH Terms

Administrative Personnel
Ambulatory Care
Delivery of Health Care*
Health Care Costs
Health Expenditures
Hospitalization
Humans
Inpatients
Insurance
Insurance, Long-Term Care*
Long-Term Care*
Nursing Services*
Nursing*
Outpatients