Strategies for reestablishing the role of Public Health Care Posts in Korea

This study aims to identify the current public health care posts status, analyze the surrounding environment, and suggest the future role of public health care posts. To redefine the function of the public health care posts, the public health care posts were classified into four types. The classification was based on the existence of a medical facility in the region, the arrival time to medical institutions in case of emergency, and the frequency of emergencies. As the result of this study, 3.1% of the total public health care posts were required to strengthen the function of the clinic medical care and 9.5% of the public health care posts should maintain the current medical care function. 54.9% of the public health care posts should strengthen the health promotion function and 32.5% of the public health care posts should be transferred to health promotion role. Most public health care posts need to expand their role from medical care to health promotion, so institutional support should be provided.