Positive correlation between regional emergency medical resources and mortality in severely injured patients: results from the Korean National Hospital Discharge In-depth Survey

Abstract

Objectives: In South Korea, injury is a public health problem due to its high incidence and high mortality. To improve emergency medical systems, the government announced plans to increase the emergency medical resources for each region. This study investigated the association between regional emergency medical resources and mortality during hospitalization in severely injured inpatients. Methods: To analyse mortality for severely injured inpatients, we used the Korean National Hospital Discharge In-depth Survey data, consisting of 18,621 hospitalizations from [2005][2006][2007][2008][2009][2010][2011][2012]. Generalized estimating equations were analysed to examine the association between mortality during hospitalization and both individual and regional variables. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that regional emergency medical resources are associated with a lower risk of mortality during hospitalization in severely injured patients. Thus, health care policymakers need to determine the proper distribution of emergency medical resources for each region and the function of emergency departments to provide a superior quality of emergency medical services to patients. Conclusions : D'après les constatations de l'étude, la disponibilité des ressources médicales d'urgence en région est associée à une diminution du risque de mortalité en cours d'hospitalisation chez les blessés graves. Aussi les décideurs de politiques en matière de soins de santé doivent-ils déterminer une distribution appropriée des ressources médicales d'urgence dans chaque région et tenir compte de la fonction des SU afin d'offrir aux patients des services médicaux d'urgence de qualité.

Trends in traumatic brain injury–related emergency department visits in Korea: a report from the National Emergency Department Information System (NEDIS) 2018–2022

“…its, in addition to severity, the high patient volume may also have influenced the length of ED stay [13].…”