PURPOSE: This study aims to identify the ADL and IADL of bed-ridden elderly. Also it is used to show fuctional status, and to investigate the content and the level of nursing services provided. METHOD: The subjects were 191 elderly who received visiting nurse service through public health centers in the Seoul Metopolitan and Chungnam Province. Data collection was conducted by public health center nurses during four months in 2000. Result: As for daily living activities, 100% of subjects had at least one difficulty in ADL and IADL. Among them, only 0.5% had moderate disabilities and 99.5% had severe disabilities by HFS, 27.9% were in a semi bed-ridden state and 72.1% were completely bed-ridden by JABC. The major service provided was a visiting nurse service which was preferable to the social welfare service. In the visiting nurse service, there was no significant difference according to the elderlys' functional status. In addition there was no standadization about the qualification of the visiting nurse, and single entry point for the nursing service. CONCLUSION: The researchers urgently suggest that a community based comprehensive service model has to be developed to respond to the needs of the elderly in Korea.