As a sharp increase of disasters, the number of cases with multiple casualties is also increasing. The most important thing in disasters with multiple casualties is to minimize a damage of human life. To this end, the establishment of disaster medical response system is important more than anything.
This study have chosen the disaster medical response system as a research topic. To research this topic, first of all, this study examined the typical disaster response systems in South Korea, and subsequently investigated how the medical responses have been performed in case of occurring multiple casualties.
In terms of the research methodology, this study analyzed recent 3 cases, which had multiple casualties, in terms of every stage defined in the disaster medical response system and derived the implications in each stage.
The implications in each stage are summarized as follows.
First, a rapid propagation of the disaster situations; 1) The situation report center was not systematically organized and an initial response even failed due to a delay in situation report - it is necessary to implement the 「situation control system for multiple casualties」, which can share the disaster situations with relevant government authorities and manage the situations en bloc.
Second, a consolidation of operation of the temporary emergency medical center; 1) No displacement of qualified rescuer in the field response team of the fire stations - it is necessary to review the way to assign the qualified rescuers, 2) Lack of understanding on the disaster response system and underestimation of its importance by the on-site supervisors - the 「response education for multiple casualties」 needs to be prepared and intensified for the on-site supervisors
Third, a consolidation of operation of the on-site emergency medical center; 1) Since an arrival of DMAT to the disaster sire is typically delayed, its operation has not been well managed - it is necessary to alter the command structure on a request for standby of DMAT and a command for DMAT dispatch in order to activate DMAT immediately, 2) Even if a head of a local health center was specified as an operator of the on-site emergency medical center, the functions of local health centers do not meet the level of requirements for dealing with the disaster situation by nature - the operation and responsibility for the on-site emergency medical center should be changed.
Therefore, the objective of this study is to minimize the damages of a human life through efficient medical responses by suggesting the improvement measures of disaster medical response system when occurring multiple casualties in the future.