J Korean Soc Emerg Med.  2002 Jun;13(2):181-186.

The Impact of Doctors' Strike on Medical Care in the Emergency Department

• Lee SW
• Yang YM
• Ha YR
• Chung SP
• Yoo IS
• Kim SW

Abstract

PURPOSE: To evaluate the quality of the emergency medical care during doctors' strike at a hospital in Korea.
METHODS
During a period of 7 consecutive days, from 20th to 26th June 2000, the training physicians in Korea were on strike against medical reform and the emergency medical care was provided by medical staffs without training physicians. We drew out convenient samples by systematic allocation method and reviewed the medical records. We evaluated the patients' severities, the number of diagnostic tests and therapeutic procedures, the admission rates, and the lengths of stay at emergency department(ED) in the strike period(SP) compared to control period(NSP) from 20th to 26th June, 1999.
RESULTS
The two groups(SP: 191 vs NSP: 202 patients) showed significant differences in the proportion of emergent patients(17.3 vs 32.7%), ED length of stay(1.98 vs 4.47 hours), the number of diagnostic tests(1.47 vs 3.92), the injection rates(17.3 vs 35.1%), and the adverse event rates(4.5 vs 6.5%).
CONCLUSION
This study suggested that the ED administration by medical staffs without training physicians improves medical quality of emergency care.

Keyword

Emergency medical service; Medical staff; Strike; Employee

MeSH Terms

Diagnostic Tests, Routine
Emergencies*
Emergency Medical Services
Emergency Service, Hospital*
Humans
Korea
Medical Records
Medical Staff
Strikes, Employee*