Experiences of disaster medical assistance activities in a fire accident at the Ramada Encore Hotel, Cheonan

ABSTRACT

Objective@#This study examined the disaster medical assistance activities at the fire accident scenes at the Ramada Encore Hotel, Cheonan, on January 14, 2019. @*Methods@#This study reviewed the disaster response timelines and patients’medical records retrospectively during the disaster medical assistance activities. The results of field and hospital triage of patients and the medical records of patients who visited the emergency department on the day of the fire accident were analyzed. @*Results@#The disaster medical assistance team arrived at the fire scene 59 minutes after the first emergency medical services (EMS, 119) call. Forty-nine patients were enrolled in this study. Four patients were classified as the ‘Emergency’ group; 44 patients were in the ‘Non-emergency’ group, and one patient was triaged as dead on arrival. Thirty-four out of 49 patients finally visited the nearest hospital. Twenty patients were transported by the EMS who were triaged as 12 patients to ‘minimal (green)’, four patients to ‘delayed (yellow)’, three patients ‘immediate (red)’, and one patient to ‘expectant (black).’ @*Conclusion@#Several mismatches could be observed between disaster preparedness and the real scene activities performed by multi-agencies disaster medical assistance activities in this study. A reassessment of disaster planning and the proper training program for disaster medical assistance activities should be needed.