Changes to the Korean Disaster Medical Assistance System After Numerous Multi-casualty Incidents in 2014 and 2015

A number of multiple-casualty incidents during 2014 and 2015 brought changes to Korea's disaster medical assistance system. We report these changes here. Reports about these incidents, revisions to laws, and the government's revised medical disaster response guidelines were reviewed. The n...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Disaster medicine and public health preparedness 2017-10, Vol.11 (5), p.526-530
Main Authors: Cha, Myeong-il, Choa, Minhong, Kim, Seunghwan, Cho, Jinseong, Choi, Dai Hai, Cho, Minsu, Kim, Won, Kim, Chu Hyun, Kang, Daehyun, Heo, Yun Jung, Kim, Jung Eon, Yoon, Han Deok, Wang, Soon Joo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aircraft
Brief Reports
Civil Defense - methods
Civil Defense - trends
Disaster management
Disaster Planning - methods
Disaster Planning - trends
Disasters
Emergency medical care
Emergency medical services
Emergency Medical Services - legislation & jurisprudence
Emergency Medical Services - methods
Emergency Medical Services - trends
Emergency preparedness
Fires
Health services
Hospitals
Humans
Mass Casualty Incidents - legislation & jurisprudence
Mass Casualty Incidents - prevention & control
Public health
Republic of Korea
Social networks
Teaching
Teams
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Summary:A number of multiple-casualty incidents during 2014 and 2015 brought changes to Korea's disaster medical assistance system. We report these changes here. Reports about these incidents, revisions to laws, and the government's revised medical disaster response guidelines were reviewed. The number of DMAT (Disaster Medical Assistance Team) staff members was reduced to 4 from 8, and the mobilization method changed. An emergency response manual was created that contains the main content of the DMAT, and there is now a DMAT training program to educate staff. The government created and launched a national 24-hour Disaster Emergency Medical Service Situation Room, and instead of the traditional wireless communications, mobile instant smart phone messaging has been added as a new means of communication. The number of disaster base hospitals has also been doubled. Although there are still limitations that need to be remedied, the changes to the current emergency medical assistance system are expected to improve the system's response capacity. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:526-530).
ISSN:1935-7893
1938-744X
DOI:10.1017/dmp.2016.202