Based on emergency dispatch data of Incheon International Airport Fire Brigade for a certain period of time, this study aims to find out problems and improvement plans through analyzing emergency patients at Incheon International Airport. Moreover, it...
Based on emergency dispatch data of Incheon International Airport Fire Brigade for a certain period of time, this study aims to find out problems and improvement plans through analyzing emergency patients at Incheon International Airport. Moreover, it is expected that the study is empirically used henceforth to establish policies for the development of the airport medical service area. Of the 9,587 emergency dispatch details at the Incheon International Airport Fire Brigade from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2019, on the basis of 8,730 computerized emergency dispatch details of the National Emergency Medical Center Integrated Emergency Medical Information Intranet, excluding 84 missing data, the total number of subjects was 8,646. The occurrence frequency of emergency patients per year, patients information, emergency activities information, disease information, and transfer information were expressed as a frequency count and percentages. To determine the relationship among the location of patient occurrence, severity classification, severe emergency, transportation method, etc, frequency, percentage, cross-analysis, and chi-square tests were used. The purpose of this study is to identify the current status of emergency patients at Incheon International Airport and use it as a basic data for establishing policies for future development of the airport medical service sector. The number of passengers at Incheon International Airport has grown by an average of 9.22% annually since its opening, along with a steady increase in the frequency of emergency patients, resulting in an average annual increase of 12.16%. Although the main symptoms which emergency patients suffer from are 90.40% of non-emergency cases such as abdominal pain, dizziness, laceration and abrasions, the four major emergency diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cardiac arrest, cerebrovascular disease, and severe trauma have also steadily increased, confirming an average annual increase of 13.51%. According to the study, the emergency patient transfer time in the secure area was delayed than that in the general area, confirming that the characteristics of airport operations under the Aviation Security Act were related to the delay in the emergency patient transfer time. Furthermore, the transfer time was delayed in emergency and severe emergency diseases and the rate of transfer between medical institutions was high, indicating the vulnerability of access to emergency medical services at Incheon International Airport, which expanded through reclamation of Yeongjong-do. The results of this study will be used as an empirical basic data for improving emergency medical service management at airports, deploying advanced emergency medical resources in Yeongjong-do as well as supporting policies.