Compliance tables for an EMS system with two types of medical response units

Abstract

a b s t r a c tIn this paper, we consider an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system with two types of medical response units: Rapid Responder Ambulances (RRAs) and Regular Transport Ambulances (RTAs). The key difference between both is that RRAs are faster, but they lack the ability to transport a patient to the hospital. To maintain the ability to respond to emergency requests timely when ambulances get busy, we consider compliance tables, which indicate the desired locations of the available ambulances. Our system brings forth additional complexity to the problem of computing optimal compliance tables, as we have two kinds of ambulances. We propose an Integer Linear Program (ILP) computing compliance tables for such a system, which uses outcomes of a Hypercube model as input parameters. Moreover, we include nestedness constraints and we set bounds on the relocation times in the ILP. To obtain more credible results, we simulate the computed compliance tables for different input parameters. Results show that bounding the time a relocation may last is beneficial in certain settings. Besides, including the nestedness constraints ensures that the number of relocations and the relocation time is reduced, while the performance stays unaffected.

Ambulances Deployment Problems: Categorization, Evolution and Dynamic Problems Review

“…These advantages have led to compliance tables, a commonly used policy structure for the ambulance relocation problem [66,67]. Van Barneveld [68] addressed this problem but assumed penalty functions, incorporating the gradual covering of the problem. It is also important to point out that Lim et al [69] and Sudtachat et al [70] had recognized and evaluated by simulation that a static configuration of the ambulance fleet generates underutilization.…”

“…Similarly, Van Barneveld et al [68] considered two types of vehicles in their approach. One of them is Rapid Responder Ambulances (RRAs) and the other is Regular Transport Ambulances (RTAs).…”

“…The critical difference between them is that RRAs are faster, but they cannot transport patients to the hospital. In their proposal, Van Barneveld et al [68] assumed the dispatch policy is as follows: if the patient is reachable by at least one RRA within the service standard, then the closest RRA is assigned to that emergency. If not, and an available RTA can reach the patient meeting the service standard, this available RTA will be dispatched.…”

“…Van Barneveld et al [68] considered that it is typically difficult to determine the severity of the incident based on the caller's descriptions, considering that the caller is usually upset and may give an inadequate description of the patient's status. Therefore, they stated that it is impossible to know beforehand if the patient needs transportation to a hospital.…”

Energy management strategy for solid‐state transformer‐based solar charging station for electric vehicles in smart grids

“…In this section, a real‐time power distribution (CPAA) algorithm concerning the dual‐power tracking of EVs and the degree of completeness of the charging target is introduced. For real‐time EMS implementation, some parameters/data must be computed or obtained beforehand [60–63].…”