Regional Disparities in Emergency Care based on Medical Resource and Transfer Rate

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze disparity in emergency care based on data of the National Emergency Medical Center.The first half of 2018 statistics report on the National Emergency Department Information System(NEDIS) and the 2018 status report on patients with severe emergency diseases in 153 emergency medical centers were investigated. Mann-Whitney U test (one-tailed; ?=.05) was conducted to identify difference between 8 metropolitan cities and 8 rural(suburban) areas on the number of emergency medical squads per 100000 people.The number of emergency medical centers, the number of patients with severe emergency diseases, the time of arrival at the emergency medical centers, and the transfer rate of the patients with severe emergency diseases in the emergency medical centers. In service area per emergency medical squad, the rural(suburban) areas had an average of 1842.41km² with a statistically significant difference(p=.001). In transfer rate, the rural(suburban) areas had an average of 5.26% with a statistically significant difference(p=.010). In primary transfer rate, the rural(suburban) areas had an average of 7.20% with a statistically significant difference(p<.001). Although service population per emergency medical squad in the rural(suburban) areas was less than half of that in the metropolitan cities, the area was nine times larger.The primary transfer rate in the rural(suburban) areas was high. This transfer of emergency patient without definitive treatment or surgery must have been negatively affected.