This study aimed to develop a web-based cost management program for visiting nursing centers (CMP-VNC), using time-driven activity-based costing (TD-ABC), and to analyze effects of the program.

The CMP-VNC was developed using the combined prototyping approach and system developing life cycle method following four stages: need analysis with comprehensive literature reviews and focus group interviews, design and development of program algorithm, evaluation of the developed program validity using experts and users group, and application and effects analysis. The non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used to analyze the effects of the program. The program demonstration was conducted for four weeks with 60 visiting nurses in 35 visiting centers.

The web-based program was developed. It has five interfaces with basic and special functions using TD-ABC, namely, input, visiting nursing activity, visiting nursing activity cost, cost efficiency, and cost calculation report. The experimental group showed significantly higher cost perception and cost confidence than control group.

We found that the CMP-VNC can be an effective tool to increase visiting nurses’ competency of costing and enhance efficiencies of visiting nursing centers.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the paths of influence that a hospital's ethical climate exerts on nurses' organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior, with supervisor trust as the mediating factor, and verify compatibility of the models in hospital nurses.

The sample consisted of 374 nurses recruited from four hospitals in 3 cities in Korea. The measurements included the Ethical Climate Questionnaire, Supervisor Trust Questionnaire, Organizational Commitment Questionnaire and Organizational Citizenship Behavior Questionnaire. Ethical Climate Questionnaire consisted of 6 factors; benevolence, personal morality, company rules and procedures, laws and professional codes, self-interest and efficiency. Data were analysed using SPSS version 18.0 and AMOS version 18.0.

Supervisor trust was explained by benevolence and self-interest (29.8%). Organizational commitment was explained by benevolence, supervisor trust, personal morality, and rules and procedures (40.4%). Organizational citizenship behavior was explained by supervisor trust, laws and codes, and benevolence (21.8%).

Findings indicate that managers need to develop a positive hospital ethical climate in order to improve nurses' trust in supervisors, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior.

Objectives of this study were to investigate the association between efficiency and quality of health care in Long-term Care Hospitals (LTCH) and determine related factors that would enable achievement of both high efficiency and high quality at the same time.

Major data sources were the "2012 Korean Assessment of Propriety by Long-term Care Hospitals" obtained from the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service. Cost variables were supplemented by a National Tax Service accounting document. First, data envelopment analysis was performed by generating efficiency scores for each LTCH. Second, matrix analysis was conducted to ascertain association between efficiency and quality. Lastly, kruskal-wallis and mann-whitney tests were conducted to identify related factors.

First, efficiency and quality of care are not in a relationship of trade-offs; thus, LTCH can be confident that high efficiency-high quality can be achieved. Second, LTCH with a large number of beds, longer tenure of medical personnel, and adequate levels of investment were more likely to have improved quality as well as efficiency.

It is essential to enforce legal standards appropriate to the facilities, reduce turnover of nursing staff, and invest properly in human resources. These consequences will help LTCH to maintain the balance of high efficiency-high quality in the long-run.

The purpose of this study was to propose and test a predictive model that could explain and predict nursing productivity.

A survey using a structured questionnaire was conducted with 360 nurses in Korea. The data were analyzed using SPSS Windows 18.0 and AMOS 19.0 program.

Based on the constructed model, burnout and organizational commitment were found to have direct effects on nurses' turnover intention and nursing productivity. While nursing work environment was found to have indirect effects on nurses' turnover intention and nursing productivity.

This structural equational model is a comprehensive theoretical model that explains the related factors and their relationship with nursing productivity. Comprehensive organizational interventions to improve nursing productivity should focus on improving the nursing work environment. Findings from this study can be used to design appropriate strategies to decrease nurse turnover in Korea. Further studies are needed to prospectively verify these causal relationships with larger samples.

Time-driven activity-based costing was applied to analyze the nursing activity cost and efficiency of a medical unit.

Data were collected at a medical unit of a general hospital. Nursing activities were measured using a nursing activities inventory and classified as 6 domains using Easley-Storfjell Instrument. Descriptive statistics were used to identify general characteristics of the unit, nursing activities and activity time, and stochastic frontier model was adopted to estimate true activity time.

The average efficiency of the medical unit using theoretical resource capacity was 77%, however the efficiency using practical resource capacity was 96%. According to these results, the portion of non-added value time was estimated 23% and 4% each. The sums of total nursing activity costs were estimated 109,860,977 won in traditional activity-based costing and 84,427,126 won in time-driven activity-based costing. The difference in the two cost calculating methods was 25,433,851 won.

These results indicate that the time-driven activity-based costing provides useful and more realistic information about the efficiency of unit operation compared to traditional activity-based costing. So time-driven activity-based costing is recommended as a performance evaluation framework for nursing departments based on cost management.