OPERATIONAL ASPECTS OF EMERGENCY AMBULANCE SERVICES

THE ANALYSIS OF THE EMERGENCY AMBULANCE SERVICE IS BASED ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TIME ELAPSING BETWEEN THE OCCURRENCE OF THE EMERGENCY AND THE FIRST ARRIVAL OF A PROPERLY EQUIPPED AMBULANCE. THIS RESPONSE TIME IS CONSIDERED IN TERMS OF TWO COMPONENTS: THE DISPATCH DELAY (THE TIME BETWEEN THE RECEPTION OF THE CALL AND AN AMBULANCE BEING AVAILABLE TO RESPOND) AND THE TRAVEL DELAY (THE TIME TAKEN FOR THE AMBUALNCE TO TRAVEL TO THE SCENE OF THE EMERGENCY). AS A FIRST APPROACH TO MODELLING THE DISPATCH DELAY, SIMPLE RESULTS FROM THE THEORY OF QUEUES ARE INVOKED TO RELATE THE PROBABILITY OF A DISPATCH DELAY AND ITS EXPECTED LENGTH TO THE RATE AT WHICH CALLS ARRIVE, THE TIME TAKEN TO SERVICE CALLS, AND THE NUMER OF VEHICLES ASSIGNED TO THE SERVICE. AS A RESULT OF THE INSIGHTS AFFORDED BY THIS MODELLING EFFORT, ANOTHER MODEL IS DEVELOPED TO SHOW HOW A HIGHER QUALITY, REDUCED COST SERVICE MAY BE PROVIDED USING "SECONDARY" AMBULANCES. BY MAKING SIMPLIFYING ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF DEMAND AND THE STREET LAYOUT IN A CITY, MODELS OF THE EXPECTED TRAVEL DELAY ARE DVELOPED FOR DIFFERENT DISTRIBUTIONS OF AMBULANCES. USING ESTIMATES OF THE COSTS OF VEHICLES, EQUIPMENT AND MANPOWER IT BECOMES POSSIBLE FOR THE AMBUALNCE SERVICE ADMINISTRATOR TO COMPARE THE LEVEL OF SERVICE, IN TERMS OF THE RESPONSE TIME, WITH THE EXPECTED COSTS OF PROVIDING SUCH A SERVICE. /AUTHOR/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Tech Rept NO 61, 162 PP, FIGS, TABS, REFS
• Corporate Authors:

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  Sloan School of Management, Operations Research Center
  Cambridge, MA  United States  02139
• Authors:
  • Stevenson, K A
• Publication Date: 1971-5

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Administration; Economic efficiency; Emergency response time; Emergency vehicles; Mathematical models; Operating costs; Operations; Optimization; Queuing theory; Reaction time; Travel time
• Uncontrolled Terms: Efficiency
• Old TRIS Terms: Queueing theory
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Economics; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00226269
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Highway Safety Research Institute
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 17 1972 12:00AM