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Nearly a third of visits involved lower-acuity patients
South Korea’s 182 higher-level emergency medical institutions recorded 4,320,784 patient visits in 2024, according to a report released by the National Emergency Medical Center on the 15th. The center compiles treatment data through the National Emergency Department Information System, or NEDIS.
Under the five-level Korean Triage and Acuity Scale, known as KTAS, 81,293 cases were classified as Level 1, meaning patients faced life-threatening conditions requiring resuscitation. Another 416,027 were Level 2 urgent cases, while 2,437,987 were Level 3 emergency cases.
Level 4 cases, covering less urgent or mild emergencies, totaled 1,092,582, and Level 5 nonemergency cases totaled 181,090. Together, the two lowest-acuity categories accounted for about 30% of visits.
Illness drove most emergency room visits
Illness accounted for 3,271,453 visits, or about 76% of the total. Nonillness cases totaled 935,044, including 867,882 unintentional injuries and 28,983 cases involving self-harm or suicide.
Ambulances operated through South Korea’s 119 emergency number brought 971,274 patients to emergency rooms, representing about 22.5% of visits. Other ambulances accounted for 150,575 arrivals, medical institution ambulances for 26,774 and air transport for 3,137.
Just over 2 million emergency room stays lasted less than two hours, the largest time category. Another 1,395,367 lasted two to four hours, while 414,644 lasted four to six hours.
There were 29,737 deaths after patients arrived at emergency rooms. The report also counted 35,781 heart attack patients, 30,713 patients with hemorrhagic strokes and 90,172 with ischemic strokes. Severe trauma cases totaled 81,437.
Overall emergency room use fell
South Korea had 530 emergency medical institutions and facilities at the end of 2024, with 2,802 emergency medicine specialists, or 5.5 per 100,000 people.
Across all emergency medical institutions — not only higher-level centers — emergency room use fell to 7,844,739 visits in 2024 from 9,642,461 in 2023, a decline of 18.6%. The share of mild and nonemergency cases dropped from 46.9% to 37.2%, while the share of moderate or more serious cases rose from 53.1% to 62.7%.
The report said the decline in lower-acuity visits was influenced by government requests that patients with mild conditions avoid emergency rooms during collective action by resident doctors, which created gaps in medical services.
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