Abstract
In this paper, we investigate the design of a two-tiered emergency medical service (EMS) system. The objective remains in determining the location and the capacity of modular ambulance stations that minimize the EMS system’s cost while respecting a pre-specified response time. A novel approach considering advanced information on ambulance trip and accounting for ambulance busy fractions is proposed. This approach is compared to its counterpart traditional approach that does not consider ambulance trip. Two mixed integer linear programs are developed. Experimentation of the two models was conducted on a real life case study. The obtained results pointed out the usefulness and superiority of the proposed approach. A cost saving of 3% is achieved in addition to the reduction in ambulance round-trip time.
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Notes
Demand Analysis and Tactical Deployment of Ambulance Services in the National Ambulance Service—Southern Region, Report for the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council and the National Ambulance Service, Feidhmeannacht na Seirbhise Slainte-Health service executive, July 2010.
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Hammami, S., Jebali, A. Designing modular capacitated emergency medical service using information on ambulance trip. Oper Res Int J 21, 1723–1742 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12351-019-00458-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12351-019-00458-4
Keywords
- Two-tiered EMS
- Location allocation problem
- Ambulance trip information
- Modular capacity
- Busy fraction
- Mixed integer linear programming