Biography
Professor, Faculty of Sociology and Social work at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo. I am the author of “Decision making at the Law for the Welfare of the Aged in Japan” and “The History of the Social welfare for the elderly in Japan”(Both books are Japanese). My main study fields are social policy for the aged、education of social work practice, care of the dementia person and history of care for the elderly in Japan.
Okamoto, T.
Paper
Expansion and Utilization of the Emergency Medical Information Kit for 10 years
The Emergency Medical Information Kit (EMIK) which started in Minato-ku, Tokyo in May 2008 expanded nationwide in 10 years. This EMIK was created based on current emergency medical treatment system in Japan.
The introduction of this kit has two major objectives for policy. One is elimination of anxiety when people call an ambulance. This point was a policy that was able to get a good reputation for residents at a low cost. This kit can be about 300 yen (about $3) per piece.
The second is that when an emergency service staff rushes to the patient’s house, it can quickly learn about the patient’s illness. Japanese emergency service staff is prohibited from touching the patient’s belongings and the items inside the house. Therefore, in order to know the condition of the patient, it is necessary to ask the patient or family. However, in the state of calling for an ambulance, both the patient and family are often unable to answer correctly with anxiety and surprise. However, by looking at the record of this EMIK, the emergency service staff can know the patient’s illness and it will be possible to respond promptly.
The EMIK contains individual medical and medication information, copies of hospital consultation cards, etc. and stores them in a refrigerator. If you call an ambulance with a sudden illness, if this kit is available, the staff of ambulance can quickly judge the situation of the patient and transport it to the appropriate medical institution.
This kit is good reputation by emergency personnel and emergency life-saving doctors, but it is unknown how many people used this kit. Moreover, although it is introduced in municipalities nationwide, it is not clear how much the basic municipality introduces. Therefore, I report the results of the survey conducted by local governments throughout the country. Here, as a preliminary survey, I will look at the situation of the municipality that I am clarifying on this website that this kit is adopted.
On areas where this kit is not introduced by municipalities, neighborhood associations, elderly clubs, NPOs, etc. are introducing. Target persons who distribute the kit in that case are all members of the neighborhood and all members of the elderly club, etc. It was revealed that it was not evident much about the extent to which this kit was utilized and how many people saved their lives by having this kit.