Disaster preparedness for earthquakes in hemodialysis units in Gyeongju and Pohang, South Korea

Yoo, Kyung Don; Kim, Hyo Jin; Kim, Yunmi; Park, Jae Yoon; Shin, Sung Joon; Han, Seung Hyeok; Kim, Dong Ki; Lim, Chun Soo; Kim, Yon Su

Apart from these private organization efforts, there were also government-level efforts after the Kobe earthquake of 1995. The Japanese National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) was also introduced at the national level. Dr. Homma from the Emergency and Disaster Medicine Department, Tottori University, Japan, introduced the design of the NDMS in detail [10] . The NDMS is mainly comprised of four components: 1) disaster base hospital (DBH), 2) emergency medical information system (EMIS) using internet networking, 3) disaster medical assistance team (DMAT) based on DBH, and 4) national aeromedical evacuation (AE) in concordance with Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF). The NDMS was first put into practice for the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) in 2011 (Table 1 ) [10, 12] . To be designated a DBH, the following criteria must be satisfied [10] : 1) able to receive patients suffering serious injuries in the surrounding area; 2) possible to transport patients via helicopters and other airplanes from the surrounding disaster area; 3) a DMAT must be available; 4) surge capacity (ability to treat twice as many inpatients and five times as many outpatients) should be available; 5) seismic building design is required; 6) possession of its own generator, which should be able to handle more than 60% of the hospital power requirement and have enough fuel for 3 days; 7) it should have its own water tank and an underground water well; and 8) a helicopter landing pad should be available. The DMAT is limited to about five people for ease of movement. Normally, the DMAT work in the DBH and are put into disaster situations. As of April 2016, 712 hospitals are designated DBHs [13] .