Center introduction

We will provide high-quality EMS and always be with you.

Emergency medical services are basic public health and medical care services of high public interest provided to guarantee people’s right to life.

Due to changes in lifestyle and illness structure, the number of emergency patients has constantly been on the rise, while people’s demands and expectations for professional and high-quality EMS are being raised in accordance with changes in economic standards and lifestyle.

The National Emergency Medical Center (NEMC), founded on July 31, 2001, has been serving as the central EMS control tower to secure every citizen’s right to receive emergency medical services regardless of sex, age, race, religion, social status, or economic condition.

The NEMC is promoting an advanced 21st-century EMS business so that people can use EMS more promptly and conveniently through the improvement of the quality of field and hospital EMS, enhancement of mutual connections, and expansion of various informatization businesses combined with up-to-date IT technology. The NEMC is also putting efforts into improving the quality of EMS by reinforcing the facilities, manpower, equipment, etc. in the ER.

With the continuous efforts for constructing an EMSS, the preventable mortality rate of injury patients has been on the decrease, from 50.4% in 1998 to 39.6% in 2004 and 35.2% in 2010. Such results are proof of the improvement of the standard of EMS quality.

The NEMC expanded the Emergency Medical Information Center in 2014 to four teams and one office, and to 16 regions, including Seoul. With the establishment and enforcement of the “2013-2017 Emergency Medical Service Basic Plan” by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the NEMC reorganized the system into a local center system with five teams and 16 places in 2013 and is now preparing to leap forward to a higher level.

The NEMC will provide an index with which the long-term vision and strategies for Korea’s EMSS can be drawn. The NEMC will always be with you and provide better quality EMS by suggesting a direction for the development and growth of EMS.