Emergency medical services system-History | The National Emergency Medical Center

Emergency medical services system

Concept History Constituents Related organizations Foreign EMSS

Historical background of EMSS

It is not too much to say that the EMSS began with an effort to provide on-site treatment and transport patients on the battlefield where lots of casualties occur.
Napoleon’s medical adviser Dominique-Jean Larrey introduced combat medics and emergency wagons on the battlefield to provide emergency treatment to wounded soldiers, and more recently, wounded soldiers were transported via helicopter or airplane during the Vietnam War. As such, the EMSS has been continuously developed in terms of organization, manpower, equipment, and operation.

Napoleonic Wars

Dominique-Jean Larrey

Crimean War

Florence Nightingale

American Civil War

Introduction of the concepts of Napoleon’s surgeon

First World War

Introduction of fracture fixing surgery

Spanish War

Blood transfusion at the scene

Second World War

On-site shock treatment, air transport

Korean War

Kidney physiology, transporting patients using helicopter

Vietnam War

ARDS electric generation, transporting patients using aircraft

EMSS trends in Korea

The USA and European countries have operated separate organizations for emergency patients with national support since the 1960s. Korea began transporting emergency patients in the 1980s as a public service. Following various accidents in the 1990s, Korea felt a dire need for an organizational system for the effective execution of emergency medical services. The Emergency Medical Service Act, promulgated in 1994, served as a starting point for the construction of a modern EMSS in Korea, and by the 2000s, the EMSS in Korea had become as advanced as those in advanced countries.

2002

Amendment of Emergency Medical Service Act

2000

08.: Expansion of EMSS nationwide
07.: Fire stations in full charge of patient transport task Changed name from Emergency Patient Information Center to Emergency Medical Information Center and moved from the Korean National Red Cross to local emergency medical services centers. The National Medical Center is designated as the National Emergency Medical Center

1997

01.: Changed the Emergency Patient Information Center’s registration number (129->1339)

1996

02.: Held the First Emergency Medical Specialist Qualifying Examination and produced 51 medical specialists.

1995

11.: Held the first Emergency Medical Technician Qualifying Examination and produced 347 first-level technicians and 363 second-level technicians
01.01.: Opened Emergency Rescue Division in college to cultivate first-level emergency medical technicians

1994

12.31.: Enforcement of the Emergency Medical Service Act and Ordinance Recognized as professional emergency medicine course
01.07.: Enactment of the Emergency Medical Service Act (Presidential Decree No. 14496)

1993

06.: Proclamation of Emergency Medical Service Act (Legislation No. 4730)

1991

07.: Proclamation of Emergency Medical Service Operation and Management Regulations (Health Department’s decree)

1989

: Cultivation of emergency medical technicians and preparation of standard for ambulances

1982

: Foundation of the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine, establishment of Emergency Medicine Division and began specialist training, began National Medical Insurance

1979

: Operation of Night Emergency Patient Report Center under the supervision of the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine

1978

: Began the medical insurance system

1993~1995

Establishment of social consensus on the importance of an EMS following various fatal accidents

Train overturned at Gupo Station (93), Aircraft headed for Mokpo crashed (93), sinking of ferry (Seohae Ferry, 93), collapse of Seongsu Bridge (94), Fire on Chungjuho cruise ship (94), gas explosion in Ahyeon-dong (94), gas explosion in Daegu subway (95), collapse of Sampoong Department Store (95), etc.