With the increase in economic disparity, the number of older people in Japan who refrain from receiving healthcare services due to financial hardship has reportedly increased in recent years. The aim of this study was to examine various factors that lead to difficulties for social work professionals in assisting older people, examine the difficulties in using existing key protective programs, and identify opportunities for policy improvement. A content analysis was conducted using free-text survey responses in the related project, about cases in which social work professionals had difficulty providing assistance and about challenges related to programs and policies. Respondents to the index questionnaire survey were social workers from hospitals and three types of institutions (community comprehensive support centers, social welfare councils, and local governments) in six prefectures in the Kansai region of Japan. Factors causing difficulties in providing support were divided into three categories: factors about the service users, factors about the service providers, and factors related to the key protective programs and policies. In addition, access to the policies, the content of the policies, improvement of the support environment, and promotion of cooperation among service providers were specified as potential areas for improvement in using the policies. The classification of the factors causing support difficulties and the areas for improvement in using the protective programs and policies identified in this study may help professionals who support difficult cases.

In order to clarify the characteristics of information management of business administration corresponding to hospital type, multiple comparisons were made based on the results of a questionnaire survey of hospital management medical corporations.

As a result, general-type hospitals were more involved in the staffing structure, information systems, and divisional units, for example management planning department. The care mix was characterized in two directions: general and convalescent care. In particular, general-type hospitals and care mixes close to general-type hospitals have increased in importance and frequency of use for information that requires multiple data aggregation and analysis. On the other hand, in convalescent and psychiatric hospitals, the importance and frequency of use of the information decreased for the less frequent items of medical service provision.

Overall, the importance and use of information was higher in the areas of legal compliance based on hospital type and the need for regular external reporting.

These results suggest that there are organizational and human resource skills, information systems, and information importance and frequency of use that correspond to hospital typologies in information management of business administration.