Ambulance Service for Hospital Selection: Optimization With Discrete-Event Simulation Application for Yozgat Province of Turkey

Abstract

This study aims to develop a new approach in the ambulance service to refer the patient not to the nearest hospital but to a suitable hospital that responds better to his/her illness. Due to the lack of staff and equipment in a hospital, patients are often very likely to be transferred to another hospital. A case study was performed with a discrete-event simulation method for an improved ambulance service flowchart in this research. The case study was conducted in Yozgat province of Turkey, including two hospitals (city and university), one emergency call center, and six ambulance stations. Each of them has one vehicle. The data used covers the one-year from January 2018 to January 2019. The method developed for this study resulted in a 21.14 % improvement in ambulance service. The most crucial point that was noteworthy among the findings was that referral of the patient to the most appropriate hospital, rather than the nearest hospital, was important in terms of both dispatching time and the life-threatening condition of the patient.