• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.191-204
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• 2007

This study analyzes use and operation of silver ambulance with 110 patients who had used silver ambulance in Gwangju and Jeonnam regions from June of 2006 to June of 2007 and 53 paramedics who are involved directly in ambulance operation and the results of this analysis are as follows. 1. Users' health conditions, 69.1% of users answered as bad and 67.3% suffered from chronic diseases over 3 months and it was found that they used silver ambulance due to their bad health conditions. 2. Cronbach's alpha was 0.630 and family function index was generally reliable and solution was high as 1.60, but total points were low as 7.11 and it was considered that they had family troubles. 3. On the question of ambulance use, 44.5% answered they used it because it is free, 53.6% used it for appointed medical examination and treatment and 18.1% used it for emergency. 4. Degrees of satisfaction with ambulance and paramedics were 95.4% and 76.4% respectively and 80.0% of ambulance users answered ambulance arrived quickly within 15 min. 5. Correlation($x^2 $) between family or relative's residence and frequency of visits was 86.367 and its significance probability was 0.00 and it was found that it was significant in the level of 0.1%, but correlation($x^2 $) between visitors other than family or relatives and frequency of visits was 14.768 and its significance probability was 0.25 and it was found that it was not significant in the level of 5%. 6. Correlation($x^2 $) between transfer operation speed and mobilization time was found that it was not significant in the level of 5%. Correlation($x^2 $) between their own health condition purpose of ambulance use was 13.802 an 5.696 and its significance probability was 0.93 and it was found that it was not significant in the level of 1%, and it was considered because paramedics carried patients with safe operation.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.111-121
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare visual blood loss estimation and subjective emergency according to clothing color. Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study which involved the use of mock bleeding patients wearing different colors tops. Results: Differences in visual estimates according to clothing color were significant in both paramedic students (F=6.69, p=.002) and the general department students (F=20.92, p=.000). When looking specifically at the accuracy of visual estimates, the paramedic students group tended to underestimate (50% white, 62.5% black, 32.5% yellow) the actual blood volume in all experimental conditions. On the other hand, the general department group tended to overestimation (45% white, 40% black, 67.5% yellow). The subjective emergency was also found to differ between paramedic students (F=13.58, p=.000) and general department students (F=9.67, p=.000). Conclusion: Paramedics treating bleeding patients at pre-hospital stages need to pay attention to blood loss estimations depending on clothing color, a factor not to be neglected or underestimated.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.58-62
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• 2015

When an emergency generator is running, it supplies the power for critical loads. Generator protection requires the consideration of many abnormal conditions that may occur with generators include overvoltages and ground faults. Modern day power systems create harmonics within the electrical network that can have an impact upon the associated protective system. This paper focuses on the analysing of the cause and development of a solution for the malfunction of induction disc type overcurrent ground relay by generation of harmonics during emergency generator operation.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.35-45
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• 2011

When disasters happen specially in islands, we have a lot of problems of 'managing many workers and heavy equipments because of bad weather', 'being hard to offer, transport and install container-houses as temporary housing', 'being hard to store and use again after disassembling', too. More serious problems come from bad conditions that more and more people leave the islands and only old people live there, moreover, islands get easy to be isolated by inclement weather. So the purpose of this research is to develop and design emergency housing for sufferers which is light, efficient to be stored, easy to transport and build in disasters by resolving such problems, after rethinking the concept of temporary housing. Also, this research intends to suggest the concept of 'emergency housing'. The process of this research includes selection of architectural materials, experiments, constructional simulation, design and building test.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.91-100
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• 2016

In this research, emergency vehicle dispatching problems faced with in the wake of massive natural disasters are considered. Here, the emergency vehicle dispatching problems can be regarded as a single machine stochastic scheduling problems, where the processing times are independently and identically distributed random variables, are considered. The objective of minimizing the expected number of tardy jobs, with distinct job due dates that are independently and arbitrarily distributed random variables, is dealt with. For these problems, optimal static-list policies can be found by solving corresponding assignment problems. However, for the special cases where due dates are exponentially distributed random variables, using a proposed dynamic programming approach is found to be relatively faster than solving the corresponding assignment problems. This so-called Pivot Dynamic Programming approach exploits necessary optimality conditions derived for ordering the jobs partially.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Emergency Medicine
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.529-550
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• 2018

Objective: This study investigated the most common errors on death certificates written by resident trainees of the emergency department and evaluated the effects of education on how to write a death certificate. Methods: A casebook of 31 deaths was prepared based on actual death cases in the emergency room in 2016. Ten residents completed 31 death certificates for the death casebook without any prior notice and then received education on 'How to write the death certificate.' They completed the death certificates again for the same casebook after receiving the education and the number of errors on all death certificates was again determined and divided into major and minor errors. The average number of error types was compared before and after the education. Results: Major errors occurred in 55% of all death certificates, but decreased to 32% after education. Minor errors decreased from 81% before education to 54% after education. The most common major error was 'unacceptable cause of death' (mean${\pm}$standard deviation [SD], $10.2{\pm}8.2$), and the most common minor error was 'absence of time interval' (mean${\pm}$SD, $24.0{\pm}7.7$), followed by 'absence of other significant conditions' (mean${\pm}$SD, $14.6{\pm}6.1$) before education. Conclusion: Education on 'how to write a death certificate' can help reduce errors on death certificates and improve the quality of death certificates.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.163-174
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• 2007

Purpose : This study analyzes prehospital care report of emergency service at prehospital stage, examines characteristics of activities of 119 paramedics and its users and aims to provide help for improving emergency system in future. Methods : Data collected were 119 prehospital care report and hospital records with 7,160 patients to emergency room by 119 ambulance from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2006 and percentage and frequency of the data were obtained. Results : 1) Use of emergency room by 119 ambulance was increased in summer and autumn such as August(9.1%), September(11.2%) and October(13.5%) and it was more frequently used on Monday(17.3%), Saturday(17.2%) and Friday(16.1%) by telephone(98.6%). 2) Using emergency room was most in over sixties(51.8%), men(64.2%), community residents (78.3%), by report of family(50.3%) and at '09:01~12:00'(16.5%). 3) Symptoms of emergency room users included headache, chest pain, stomachache, lumbago and others as 40.6% and places where patients were found were at home(60.1%) due to chronic internal diseases at 49.2%. 4) Most of non-emergency patients(80.2%) arriving at hospital had normal pupil condition (88.4%) and clear consciousness(71.2%) and most of them left hospital after having first-aid treatment. 5) Physiological symptom tests evaluated by paramedics at prehospital stage included blood pressure(56.6%), pulse(22.9%), breathing(13.0%) and temperature(9.2%), and there was no SPo2 case. 6) Classification of severity by paramedics showed difference as emergency patients(18.0%) by paramedics and those(24.9%) by hospital. 7) First-aid treatments by paramedics at prehospital stage were promoting comfort(28.9%), hemostasis(7.7%), fixing cervical vertebrae(4.0%) and ensuring vein route(3.1%). 8) Selectors of medical agency were patients or guardians(86.2%) and emergency medical technicians(73.6%). Conclusion : To sum up the above research, it was found that percentage of using 119 ambulance by non-emergency patients was higher and paramedics performed basic first-aid treatment rather than professional first-aid treatment due to several conditions such as legal problems, range of allowance, etc. Therefore, it is considered that method to reduce frequency of ambulance by non-emergency patients and approaches to alleviate limitations of allowance of paramdeics to make them perform effective first-aid treatment at prehospital stage should be sought in the dimension of individual, organization and government.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.6-15
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• 2010

Purpose: Trauma is one of the leading causes of death, especially among young people. Life-threatening conditions are very common in multiple-traumatized patients due to concurrent multi-organ injuries. Treating such severely injured patients is time critical. However, in Korea, the transfer of severely injured patients is not uncommon due to the lack of a mature trauma care system. In developed countries, the preventable trauma death rate is very low, but the rate is still very high in Korea. This study's objective was to demonstrate the current serious state in which severely injured patients have to be transferred from a Regional Emergency Medical Center even though it actually serves as a trauma center. Methods: Ajou University Medical Center is a tertiary hospital that serves as a trauma center in Gyeonggido. The medical records at Ajou University Medical Center for a 1-year period from January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2008, were retrospectively reviewed. A severely injured patient was defined as a patient who showed more than 15 point on the ISS (injury severity score) scale. We investigated the clinical characteristics of such patients and the causes of transfer. Results: Out of 81,718 patients who visited the Regional Emergency Medical Center, 19,731 (24.1%) were injured patients. Among them, 108 severely-injured patients were transferred from one Regional Emergency Medical Center to other hospitals. The male-to-female ratio was about 3.5:1, and the mean ISS was 23.08. The most common mechanism of injury was traffic accidents (41.7%). A major cause of transfer was the shortage of intensive care units (44.4%); another was for emergent operation (27.8%). Most of the hospitals that received the severely-injured patients were secondary hospitals (86.1%). Conclusion: Although the Regional Emergency Medical Center played a role as a trauma center, actually, severely-injured patients had to be transferred to other hospitals for several reasons. Most reasons were related with the deficiencies in the trauma care system. If a mature trauma care system is well-organized, the numbers of transfer of severely injured patients will be reduced significantly.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.301-313
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• 2010

Objectives: The purpose of this research is to provide foundational data for reeducation concerning prehospital emergency care in order to improve the performance of emergency medical technicians (EMTs) working at 119 fire safety centers. Methods: Data were collected using a mail-in questionnaire developed by researchers from 288 subjects, who were EMTs working at 119 fire safety centers and local units in the Gwangju Metropolitan City and South Jeolla Province, from March 1, 2009 to April 31, 2009. Results: The mean score for EMTs' knowledge on drug intoxication was7.04 out of a total of 10 points. The mean score for EMT's attitude of emergency treatment performance on drug intoxication was 2.96 out of a total of 4 points. The level of EMT's knowledge is relatively high regarding prehospital care for drug intoxication. The EMT's attitude of performances demonstrated an understanding of the patients' conditions. However EMTs did not actively explain the prognosis and medical conditions for their patients. Conclusions: This research will contribute to making plans for reeducating emergency crew working at 119 fire centers so that can they have a more active attitude towards prehospital emergency medical care.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.14-19
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• 2011

Purpose: Most paraquat poisonings are easily diagnosed by history taking on physical examination, however, some are failed to be diagnosed initially if the poisoning was veiled. The purpose of this study was to explore the clinical characteristics of veiled paraquat poisoning. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients whose discharge diagnosis was paraquat poisoning in one university teaching hospital between 1 Jan, 2001 and 31 Dec, 2010. Veiled paraquat poisoning was determined when there was a positive urine paraquat kit in patients who did not mention paraquat poisoning in an initial physical examination or had unknown cause of pulmonary fibrosis, acute renal failure, or multi-organ failure. Results: Of the 117 patients with paraquat poisoning during the study period, 6 patients (5.1%) had veiled paraquat poisoning. The clinical characteristics were 1) proteinuria - 6 (100%), 2) increased creatinine - 4 (66.7%), 3) green skin stains - 2 (33.3%), 4) mucosal ulcer - 3 (50%). Blood chemistry results were variable. Conclusion: We should suspect veiled paraquat poisoning for patients who have proteinuria, increased creatinine, green skin stain, mucosal ulcer and vomiting, or if they have rapidly progressing acute renal failure or multi-organ failure with unknown cause, even if patients didn't mention about paraquat poisoning upon the initial physical examination. In cases with the above clinical conditions, a thorough repeated physical examination including history taking and use of urine paraquat kits should be performed.