Health ministry to pilot quality certification for private ambulance services

South Korea's health ministry said Tuesday it will launch a pilot certification program for private ambulance operators, issuing a certification mark to companies that meet legal standards and score at least 60 points on service quality.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Emergency Medical Center's central emergency medical center will accept applications from Oct. 21 to 30. The program goes beyond checking whether operators comply with existing legal requirements, aiming to assess the overall quality of transport services and encourage companies to improve on their own.

The certification review begins with an eligibility check, followed by a document review and an on-site inspection. In the mandatory category, reviewers confirm compliance with legal standards covering personnel, facilities, capital, equipment and records. The quality category evaluates five areas: operations, personnel, equipment, infection control and record-keeping, including training for transport staff, equipment management and ambulance disinfection. Separate monitoring indicators will be used as basic data for future improvements to the system and will not affect certification decisions.

To be certified, an operator must meet every requirement in the mandatory category and score at least 60 points in the quality category, with at least 40 percent of the allotted points on each individual indicator. Certified companies receive a certificate and a certification mark valid for two years from the certification date.

Operators that received a private emergency patient transport license before Jan. 1, 2023, and have continued to operate are eligible to apply, provided they meet requirements on administrative penalties and transport records set out in the notice. Nonprofit corporations under relevant laws may also apply if they meet the same conditions.

Applicants must fill out a form in the review guidelines posted on the Ambulance Information & Records system, or AiR, and submit it by email. Final results are scheduled to be announced in December.

"Emergency patient transport services are an important pillar of the emergency medical system, and it is important to create an environment where the public can use them with confidence," said Lee Jung-kyu, the ministry's public health policy director. Based on the pilot's review results, the government will establish an institutional foundation for improving the quality of transport services, he said.

Choi Dae-hae, head of the central emergency medical center, said the center will run the pilot faithfully and reflect feedback from the field so that the certification system can take root, adding that it will support operators in improving service quality on their own.