Background: As the global trends towards population aging and healthcare are changing, the global healthcare industry is facing new changes. The Korean government has also made efforts to pioneer the global medical market and to expand the opportunities for employment of healthcare workers by overseas healthcare business support project. As a result, the number of overseas expansion of Korean medical institutions and healthcare workers has increased, but at the same time several issues regarding overseas expansion have also been highlighted. In particular, the preliminary studies on the problems related to overseas dispatch and overseas employment of healthcare workers tried to tackle the issues by analyzing qualitative contents such as literature review and overseas expansion case study, but they failed to provide concrete measures and specific solutions according to the results.
Therefore, in this study conducted a scientific research on the factors necessary for overseas expansion of healthcare workers to provide basic data on policy decision and human resource management strategy of overseas expansion of health care workers, which is the key point of overseas expansion project.
Methods: In this study, the researcher selected practical subjects including healthcare workers and administrative staff based on the experience of overseas expansion. In addition, in-depth interviews on the expert panel (primary interview and secondary interview) was conducted as a qualitative research method, and a questionnaire survey and statistical analysis was conducted on healthcare workers, administrative staff, overseas expansion policy managers and officials from related companies who are the main axis of actual overseas expansion, as a quantitative research method which was used in sequence.
First, two in-depth interviews on overseas expansion expert panel was conducted as a qualitative research method and the validity of the results was verified with Delphi Method. Then final questionnaire was derived from the experiential knowledge of the expert panel and data were collected from the selected question specimen in order to scientifically analyze what is needed for overseas expansion of healthcare workers at individual level and government or medical institution level.
To achieve this, the researcher used Impulse Range-Performance Analysis (IRPA) and Impact Asymmetry Analysis (IAA) techniques introduced by Mikulić and Prebežac(2008) to derive the relative importance and priorities of the items required for overseas expansion at individual level and government or medical institution level.
Results: As a quantitative analysis method through reliability and validity verification of the items, 7 necessary factors at individual level(21 attributes) and 8 necessary factors at government or medical institute level(24 attributes) were derived. Then Impulse Range-Performance Analysis (IRPA) and Impact Asymmetry Analysis (IAA) was applied to perform analysis.
First, using Impulse Range-Performance Analysis (IRPA), the researcher obtained the relative position of each property and then applied the analysis method of the existing IPA technique to derive the improvement points according to the importance of the categorized properties. Then the researcher used Impact Asymmetry Analysis (IAA) combined with IRIA which suggested the relative position of each property to prioritize the properties by attribute asymmetry range. Finally, key determinants of overseas expansion of health care workers were derived utilizing the relative position of each property from Impulse Range-Performance Analysis (IRPA) and the order of priority from Impact Asymmetry Analysis (IAA). As a result, four factors at individual level (PF07, PF12, PF13, F17) and five factors at government or medical institution leve(GF0l, GF03, GF12, GF16, GF21) were the factors that are essential for the decision of overseas expansion of healthcare workers.
Conclusion: The purpose of this study is to find out what healthcare workers need in case of overseas expansion in terms of individual level and government or medical institution level, and to derive the key determinants according to the priorities of the properties for mid to long term revitalization of overseas expansion. In this study, to derive the items required for overseas expansion of healthcare workers the researcher tried to question actual healthcare workers and officials related to overseas expansion by combining qualitative and quantitative research methods. In addition, it is expected that the government or medical institutions can utilize it as a basic data for the strategy of managing the overseas expansion of human resource, as it is the first study to investigate the key items for overseas expansion of healthcare workers at both individual level and government or medical institution level.