Korean J Fam Pract 2020; 10(1): 23-31  https://doi.org/10.21215/kjfp.2020.10.1.23
A Study on the Factors Affecting Physician Participation in Emergency Situations
Hyung-Kyu Oh, Ji-Young Seo, Dae-Kyun Kim, Min-Seok Seo*
Department of Family Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Incheon St. Mary’s hospital, Incheon, Korea
Min-Seok Seo
Tel: +82-32-280-6204, Fax: +82-32-280-5556
E-mail: seo0139@naver.com
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5551-4891
Received: July 7, 2019; Revised: November 29, 2019; Accepted: December 4, 2019; Published online: February 20, 2020.
© The Korean Academy of Family Medicine. All rights reserved.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background: This study was conducted on the experiences, limitations, and factors necessary for increasing participation in emergency care outside a medical institution for physicians working in a tertiary hospital.
Methods: This study was conducted by analyzing data from 150 physicians working in a tertiary hospital. The physicians’ intent to participate in emergencies outside the medical institution was measured as frequencies and percentages, and chi-square test was performed. Multi-logistic regression was used to determine factors affecting the physicians’ willingness to participate emergencies outside the medical institution.
Results: Out of 103 respondents, 52 (50.5%) said that they do not want to participate in future emergency situations. Among them, 38 (73.1%) said that legal burden associated with medical accidents dissuaded them from intervening in future emergencies. Also, 33 (63.5%) said that ‘a firm guarantee of exemption from legal responsibility’ was needed to convince them to participate in emergency patient care. There were no meaningful results in the analysis of factors affecting future participation in emergency care.
Conclusion: It was found that the reason they do not participate in emergency care is because they feel that they bear the risk of legal liability. We suggest that providing more legal immunity could be a way to encourage doctors to step up in emergency situations. At the same time, it is recommended that a more suitable environment be provided for physicians in such situations, so that they can be able to fulfill their ethical duties in emergency medical care.
Keywords: Medical Accident; Emergency Patient; Emergency Medical Care; Law on Emergency Medical Care
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