"Is this an emergency?" "Which hospital should I go to tonight?" Ask 'here'.

Mild patients should not go to the emergency room. The emergency room is literally a place for 'emergency' patients whose lives are at risk, and if mild patients go there, it can interfere with the treatment of actual emergency patients. It also costs a lot. You must bear the full cost of emergency medical management fees and also pay additional charges, which can easily exceed 50,000 won. However, sometimes it is difficult to determine whether the symptoms are urgent enough to warrant an emergency room visit. If it’s not an emergency room, you may wonder which hospital to go to. In such cases, you can call 119 and request 'medical consultation.'

The 119 Emergency Situation Management Center provides medical consultation services such as first aid guidance, disease counseling, and hospital information 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, anywhere in the country. It was introduced after the Emergency Medical Information Center (1339 Center) was abolished in June 2012. However, according to the '2022 Public Awareness and Satisfaction Survey of Emergency Medical Services' conducted by the National Medical Center's Central Emergency Medical Center last year, it is known that 6 out of 10 citizens are unaware of this service and therefore do not use it.

If you call 119 to request medical consultation, the call is transferred to an emergency situation management counselor and the call is connected. A representative from the Fire Department said, "Paramedics with emergency medical qualifications and emergency situation managers work as counselors," and "They provide disease consultations, guidance on hospitals and pharmacies, and first aid instructions." As of 2023, the most common service was guidance on hospitals and pharmacies, with 740,882 cases, followed by first aid guidance with 418,796 cases, and disease consultations with 291,164 cases. Hospitals verify the caller's symptoms, underlying conditions, and whether the medical institution can provide treatment, then guide to a hospital that can provide the necessary care.