• Health Care Manag Sci · Mar 2016

    Reducing Emergency Medical Service response time via the reallocation of ambulance bases.

    • L C Nogueira, L R Pinto, and P M S Silva.
    • Federal University of Minas Gerais, Antônio Carlos, 6627, Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil. luiznogueira@ufmg.br.
    • Health Care Manag Sci. 2016 Mar 1; 19 (1): 31-42.

    AbstractThe demand for highly efficient and effective services and consumer goods is an essential prerequisite for modern organizations. In healthcare, efficiency and effectiveness mean reducing disabilities and maintaining human life. One challenge is guaranteeing rapid Emergency Medical Service (EMS) response. This study analyzes the EMS of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, using two modeling techniques: optimization and simulation. The optimization model locates ambulance bases and allocates ambulances to those bases. A simulation of this proposed configuration is run to analyze the dynamic behavior of the system. The main assumption is that optimizing the ambulance base locations can improve the system response time. Feasible solutions were found and the current system may be improved while considering economic and operational changes.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        

    hide…