A discrete-event simulation study for pre-hospital emergency systems

ABSTRACT

Ambulance dispatch, deployment, and relocation are crucial decisions in pre-hospital emergency medical services (EMS) that significantly impact response times. In metropolitan areas, the rapid movement of people and complex traffic conditions create a challenging environment for effective decision-making. This paper presents a discrete-event simulation framework designed to evaluate and improve pre-hospital emergency systems by capturing core EMS workflows and incorporating comprehensive, dynamic datA. To demonstrate the practical application of this framework, a simulation instance is implemented and validated in the context of downtown Shanghai, with an analysis of key performance indicators for EMS in this areA. Additionally, we propose a dynamic ambulance relocation model to improve the alignment between ambulance deployment plans and emergency calls. Simulation experiments show that dynamic ambulance relocation effectively reduces response times. Due to its ability to integrate real-time data, this framework has the potential to support immediate decision-making and evaluate proposed strategies in the real world.

KEYWORDS:

• Emergency medical services
• simulation
• ambulance dispatch
• ambulance relocation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/17477778.2024.2385994.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.