A Bound on the Performance of an Optimal Ambulance Redeployment Policy
Matthew S. Maxwell, Eric Cao Ni, Chaoxu Tong, Shane G. Henderson, Huseyin Topaloglu, Susan R. Hunter
Operations Research · 2014 · Volume 62 · Issue 5
Abstract
Ambulance redeployment is the practice of repositioning ambulance fleets in real time in an attempt to reduce response times to future calls. When redeployment decisions are based on real-time information on the status and location of ambulances, the process is called system-status management. An important performance measure is the long-run fraction of calls with response times over some time threshold. We construct a lower bound on this performance measure that holds for nearly any ambulance redeployment policy through comparison methods for queues. The computation of the bound involves solving a number of integer programs and then simulating a multiserver queue. This work originated when one of the authors was asked to analyze a response to a request-for-proposals (RFP) for ambulance services in a county in North America.
Keywords
system-status management, ambulance location, ambulance relocation, ambulance deployment, move-up, coupling
Enable JavaScript for citation tools and additional paper interactions.