By Kim Tae-jong
Korea’s overall health care has achieved a steady improvement in comparison with other OECD countries with some health care quality indicators topping member countries including in the care of stroke and uterine cancer victims, according to the Health at a Glance 2011 report by the OECD.
The country’s in-hospital fatality rate within 30 days after admission for a stroke, or cerebrovascular accident (CVA) stood at 1.8 percent, the lowest among OECD member countries. The average stood at 9.8 percent.
The report said strokes remain the third most common cause of death and disability in industrialized countries but following advances in technology, survival rates have been on the rise in many countries.
The biennial report under the OECD’s Health Care Quality Indicators Project aims to provide the latest comparable data and trends on different aspects of the performance of health systems in OECD countries. It also provides evidence of large variations across countries in indicators of health status and health risks.
The report also revealed that the screening and survival rates of cancer patients have been increased.
The five-year relative survival rates of uterine and colorectal cancer patients stood at 76.8 percent and 63.7 percent, respectively, which are all higher than the average for OECD members.
But the nation’s care and treatment for chronic diseases such as asthma and diabetes at local clinics received poor scores in the report. Patients with such chronic diseases are not properly treated at local clinics before their symptoms get worse and require hospitalization.
The country’s childhood vaccination programs are well established, the report said, which emphasizes this continues to be one of the most cost-effective health policy interventions.
Vaccination rates for measles and hepatitis B among children aged two recorded 93 percent and 94 percent, respectively. Those figures were at the level of the OECD average, the report said.