Optimizing Operation Time and Travel Distance for Motorcycle Ambulances in Emergency Medical Services

Abstract

Introduction: The motorcycle ambulance is used for quick access to patients. The response time to reach the patient takes less time than with a van ambulance. Moreover, accidents involving ambulances tend to be higher. However, at present, there is no study regarding the appropriate situation used of motorcycle ambulances in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in Thailand. Study Objective: This study aims to optimize the travel distance and the operation time of motorcycle ambulances used. Methods: This study was a prospective, randomized controlled study at the EMS unit of Srinagarind Hospital, Thailand. The data collection period was from November 2021 through May 2022. All data involving dispatch of both ambulances in need were collected. Results: A total of 2,398 cases of EMS operation were examined. The mean age of the patients in the motorcycle ambulance group was 42.5 (SD = 6.5) years, and 51.3% (n = 616) were male. The response time for motorcycle ambulances and van ambulances during the operation time between 6:00am-9:00am was 6.2 minutes and 9.1 minutes, respectively. The response times for motorcycle ambulances and van ambulances regarding distance traveled from 0-5km were 4.2 minutes and 7.5 minutes, respectively (P <.001); distance traveled from 5-10km were 6.3 minutes and 8.2 minutes, respectively (P = .010). Conclusion: The motorcycle ambulance can reach patients faster than the ambulance at the operation time from 6:00am-9:00am and 3:00pm-6:00pm. This study focused on the distance less than 10 kilometers.

Every Second Counts: A Comprehensive Review of Route Optimization and Priority Control for Urban Emergency Vehicles

“…Secondly, prioritizing EMVs will have a negative impact on associated SVs. Future studies should adopt suitable strategies to reduce the negative impact, such as adopting appropriate transition strategies, selecting smaller alternative rescue vehicles [106], and developing path-based or network-based algorithms based on selected routes. Thirdly, due to long transmission distances, the communication process between EMVs and TSCs or other SVs might be hindered by communication delays in the V2X environment [107].…”

“…Rather than exclusively optimizing EMVs, future studies should concentrate more on the negative impacts on SVs and select suitable indicators to quantify the negative impact, including SV waiting times, queue lengths, average number of stops, and passing capacity [71,72,86,87,90]. Moreover, future research can incorporate appropriate transition algorithms [93] and smaller rescue vehicles [106,112] in their models, which can help reduce the negative impacts and transition times [79,92]. The negative impact on pedestrians and non-motorized vehicles also needs to be considered [111].…”