An Analysis on the Prehospital Care of 119 Emergency Medical Service squads in Gyeonggi Area and Improvement Methods - Focusing on Prehospital Care -

경기도지역 119안전센터의 구급활동 현황과 개선방안 - 현장 응급처치 내역을 중심으로 -

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to analyze the prehospital care report prepared by EMS squads of 119 center in Gyeonggi area and to identify the status of prehospital care activities, problems and improvement possibilities of the emergency care. Method : Five hundred copies of prehospital care report prepared by EMS squads in thirty-eight 119 centers under 18 fire stations in Gyeonggi area from March to April in 2008 were randomly chosen for the analysis. Data abstracted according to the purpose of the study were input and the analysis of prehospital care activities were performed using SPSS-WIN(ver. 16) statistics package. Results : 1. Total 500 cases of prehospital emergency care activities were reviewed. By sex, females were 219 (43.8%) and males were 281 (56.2%). The places of reporting were home (57.8%). According to the type of emergency, 281 cases (56.2%) were caused by disease and 291 (43.8%) were from other causes such as traffic accidents or incidental injuries. 2 The average time needed for the 119 EMS squad to arrive at the scene after being reported was 7.29 minutes. The time used at the scene for the emergency care was 7.3 minutes in average and the time to arrive at the hospital was 25.4 minutes in average. 3. In patient evaluation, in 68% of the cases more than two vital signs were measured at one time and emergency patients were 31%, and non-emergency patients were 69%. 4. In one EMS activity, average 2.15 cases of emergency care were provided to a patient. The cases where two kinds of emergency care were given were 14.4%, which is the most frequent cases. When reviewing the details of the emergency cares given to the patient including multiple cares, trivial cards (taking it easy and giving comfort) were the most frequent one as 40.6% and the medical direction of the doctor was given in only one case out of 500 cases. 5. In patient evaluation and emergency care, vital signs were provided to emergency patients at significantly higher rate comparing to the non-emergency patients. The number of emergency care performance was significantly higher in emergency cases. In emergency dispatch, the cases that EMT (1st class) was on board was 86.2%. When comparing the cases when the 1st class EMT was on board and otherwise, the cases with the presence of 1st class EMT showed more vital signs were detected but there was no significant difference in the number of emergency cares provided. Conclusion : It seemed that the on-scene emergency care did not satisfy the expectations. So it is necessary to enforce the cooperation between the elements, the qualifications of the 119 EMS squads and to improve the prehospital working environment in order to provide the better medical service at any time.