Decreasing Ambulance Response Time Through an Optimal Base Location

An important effort of academic research has been realized to improve ambulance response time (the time between the receipt of a call at the dispatch center and the arrival of the first emergency response vehicle at the scene). This study recommends the application of Lean Transportation concepts to achieve shorter ambulance response times. The approach considers the reduction of the time required to travel distance in excess waste by placing ambulances in optimal locations through mathematical modeling. In this project this is applied to the Monterrey metropolitan operations of the Mexican Red Cross. Results of the application are provided.

[1]  L. M. P. Peralta,et al.  The Prehospital Emergency Care System in Mexico City: A System's Performance Evaluation , 2006, Prehospital and Disaster Medicine.

[2]  J. Ord,et al.  Local Spatial Autocorrelation Statistics: Distributional Issues and an Application , 2010 .

[3]  P. Pons,et al.  Paramedic response time: does it affect patient survival? , 2005, Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

[4]  Soroush Saghafian,et al.  Operations research/management contributions to emergency department patient flow optimization: Review and research prospects , 2015 .

[5]  Gilbert Laporte,et al.  Solving an ambulance location model by tabu search , 1997 .

[6]  Richard F. Hartl,et al.  Heuristic Solution of an Extended Double-Coverage Ambulance Location Problem for Austria , 2005 .

[7]  Gunnar Stefansson,et al.  Applying a lean approach to identify waste in motor carrier operations , 2012 .

[8]  S. E. Heinbuch,et al.  A case of successful technology transfer to health care. Total quality materials management and just-in-time. , 1995, Journal of management in medicine.

[9]  Juan Manuel Fraga Sastrías,et al.  Motivos de llamada a los servicios médicos de emergencia en México: Definiendo prioridades , 2010 .

[10]  Xiaoyan Zhu,et al.  Covering models and optimization techniques for emergency response facility location and planning: a review , 2011, Math. Methods Oper. Res..

[11]  Gilbert Laporte,et al.  Ambulance location and relocation models , 2000, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[12]  Michael O. Ball,et al.  A Reliability Model Applied to Emergency Service Vehicle Location , 1993, Oper. Res..

[13]  Bernard Gardner,et al.  Overall vehicle effectiveness , 2004 .

[14]  Luciano Brandão de Souza,et al.  Trends and approaches in lean healthcare , 2009 .

[15]  H G Garrison,et al.  Ambulance diversion. Standards and Clinical Practices Committee, National Association of EMS Physicians. , 1997, Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors.

[16]  Bernardo Villarreal The transportation value stream map (TVSM) , 2012 .