Development of the emergency medical services system

In this paper, authors reviewed the development of an Emergency Medical Services(EMS) system in Korea and modularized this process for the development of EMS in middle and low income countries. EMS system is highly public area and governments have a lot responsibility for EMS system because it is simultaneously based on medical knowledge, public health system and community safety. In Korea, the evolution of the EMS system has not been a slow process. A number of medical and social forces converged after the economic development in 1980s. To meet the demands of public, Korean government began in earnest to establish the modern EMS system. In this study, the development process of EMS was reviewed as four phases historically; basic infrastructure phase(1990~2000), quantitative growth phase(2001~2005), qualitative growth phase (2006~2010) and advanced system phase (2010~present). On the other aspect, the development was reviewed as three components systemically; prehospital EMS system, hospital EMS system and health care governance and system development.(The rest omitted)

Government Publications Registration Number 11-1051000-000453-01