Korean J Geriatr Gerontol.  2015 Dec;16(2):69-77. 10.15656/kjcg.2015.16.2.69.

Research on Frequent Usages of Local Medical Service in Elderly Population with Chronic Diseases

• Kim TJ
• Park SB
• Lee JW
• Choi JK
• Choi YE
• Lee SH
• Cho KH

• KMID: 2566516
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.15656/kjcg.2015.16.2.69

Abstract

Background
This research is to understand characteristics, patterns, and styles of the patients who use medical services frequently by analyzing medical service usage records of local medical service users.
Methods
Residents of Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do Province who visited hospitals/clinics 150 days and more a year from November 2013 to October 2014 were defined as frequent medical service users. The reasons and patterns of their visits were identified by conducting a multi-dimensional analysis on their National Health Insurance Services medical records.
Results
Average visit days of the subjects were 201.4 that was more than 16 times larger, and their per-patient medical expenses were 11 times higher than that of normal population. Musculoskeletal diseases were the most common diseases on the subjects' medical claims, and most of the treatments they received were physical therapies and accompanied treatments for pain management. Average number of medical service facilities visited were 10.5 (median value) and 61.3% of subjects had experienced visiting three or more medical service facilities in a day. The correlation coefficient of the number of the facilities visited and the number of claims for physical therapies was -3.8, and the correlation coefficient between the claims for other managements was 3.1.
Conclusion
This study revealed most of medical needs of the subjects lay in chronic pains and musculoskeletal diseases. The group of subjects who visit fewer medical service facilities tend to receive physical therapies more frequently, while the group of subjects with other type of medical demands tend to visit more numerous medical service facilities.

Keyword

Multimorbidity; Medical overuse; Chronic disease; Musculoskeletal disease; Physical therapy