New York City's Healthcare Transportation During Disaster: A Preparedness Framework for a Wicked Problem

In disasters, victims with varied morbidities are located at incident sites, while capacities for care are distributed elsewhere in healthcare facilities with varied capabilities. Transportation serves an essential equilibrating role: it helps balance patients' need for care with the supply of care. Studying the special case of New York City, this project sets out the components as (1) incident morbidity, (2) transportation assets, and (3) healthcare capacity. The relationship between these three raises an assignment problem: the management of transportation within a dynamic and partly unpredictable incident-transportation-healthcare nexus, under urban disruption. While the routine dispatch problem can be tackled through better geographic allocation software and technical algorithms, the disaster assignment problem must be confronted through real-time mutual adjustment between institutions. The authors outline the institutional alternatives for managing the assignment problem and call for further research on the merits of alternative institutional models.

• Record URL:
  http://www.utrc2.org/research/assets/126/healthtrans1.pdf
• 
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/58913
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This research was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  State University of New York, Buffalo

  Department of Urban and Regional Planning, 3435 Main Street
  Buffalo, NY  United States  14214-3087

  University Transportation Research Center

  City College of New York
  Marshak Hall, Suite 910, 160 Convent Avenue
  New York, NY  United States  10031
• Authors:
  • Sternberg, Ernest
  • Lee, George C
• Publication Date: 2008-2-13

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: References;
• Pagination: 24p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Disaster preparedness; Disasters; Health care; Terrorism; Transportation; Transportation operations
• Uncontrolled Terms: Assignment problems
• Geographic Terms: New York (New York)
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Transportation (General); I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01099881
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: RF 49777-20-05
• Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS
• Created Date: May 23 2008 3:06PM