EMERGENCY VEHICLES ALLOCATION MODEL FOR URBAN CITY

Abstract The Emergency Medical Service (EMS) plays a vital role in any community. The accessibility, distribution, and utilization of the emergency health care services have a great impact on the effectiveness and the efficiency of the EMS. In this study, an algorithm has been devised to optimize choosing the appropriate station location, allocating the right number of emergency vehicles to a station, and directing the critical and non-critical patients to the most suitable hospitals. XPRESS-MP solver engine was used in this study to derive a deterministic mathematical model using mixed integer linear programming. This model is customized for Beirut city. The aim of the study is to design a system that ensures that an emergency vehicle should be available at the time of the incident and the travelling time required must be less than the standard travelling time. The outcome of the study optimizes the number and the location of the EMS stations as well as the number of emergency vehicles allocated to each station. In addition, it optimizes addressing and readdressing the patients to the most suitable hospitals taking into consideration deterioration of the patients’ health conditions while being driven to the hospital. Furthermore, the travel time presented in this study shows the shortest travel distance between any two zones.