Key to success of emergency patient transport pilot in Gwangju, South and North Jeolla: region-specific transfer systems

A three-month government pilot program aimed at eliminating so-called "ER runarounds" — cases where ambulances are turned away from emergency rooms — has wrapped up in Gwangju, South Jeolla Province and North Jeolla Province with a self-assessed verdict of success. Officials credited the results largely to transfer systems tailored to each region's specific conditions.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Fire Agency announced Sunday the outcomes of the "Emergency Patient Transport System Innovation Pilot Project," which ran from March through May across the three metropolitan and provincial governments.

The two agencies jointly launched the pilot to address delays in emergency room transfers by making more efficient use of limited emergency medical resources.

The pilot revised transfer guidelines to reflect regional characteristics and ensure they could function in practice through cooperation among relevant agencies.

In Gwangju, a "Final Landing Team" — a committee for determining transfer hospitals for critically ill patients — was established to allow on-call physicians at six emergency medical institutions, paramedic units and the regional dispatch center to share information on transfer delays in real time. The committee handled a total of 27 delayed transfer cases through inter-agency coordination.

In North Jeolla Province, the "119 Smart Paramedic System" was actively used to enable rapid sharing of patient information and admission inquiries between paramedic units and emergency medical institutions. The time paramedics spent selecting a hospital using the system fell by 3 minutes and 15 seconds — a 27.3 percent reduction — compared with the same period last year, bringing the average down to 8 minutes and 40 seconds.

South Jeolla Province strengthened coordination with medical institutions in Gwangju and increased use of the regional dispatch center's support request function, overcoming the limitations of its relatively sparse medical resources.

The program prioritized regional conditions and designated the regional dispatch center as a shared safety net for cases where hospital selection stalled.

Among cases received by regional dispatch centers, the average monthly number of hospital-selection support requests stood at five in 2025, but rose to an average of 41 per month during the pilot period.

Paramedic units also supported 45 inter-facility patient transfers, waiting at emergency room entrances after delivering patients until medical staff could take over — a practice officials said contributed to faster hospital-to-hospital movement and reduced burden on patients.

No ER rejection cases occurred during the pilot period, and key indicators related to the timely and appropriate transport of emergency patients showed improvement, officials said.

Concerns raised by some about the forced designation of priority-admission hospitals did not materialize during the pilot.

The government plans to use the pilot's findings to revise transfer guidelines across all cities and provinces, taking into account each region's characteristics, with on-the-ground implementation targeted for September.

"I am grateful for the dedication of the medical staff and paramedics in Gwangju and the Jeolla region, who took the initiative to find solutions locally and approached their work with a sense of mission," Health and Welfare Minister Jeong Eun-kyeong said. "This pilot has allowed us to envision the full completion of a policy package covering every stage of emergency care — so that no matter where in Korea you live, you can receive definitive treatment within the golden hour."