Solving the dynamic ambulance relocation and dispatching problem using approximate dynamic programming

► We investigated dispatching and relocation decisions of emergency service providers. ► ADP is powerful in solving the underlying stochastic and dynamic optimization problem. ► Average response time can be improved by using more flexible dispatching rules. ► Relocating ambulances proactively improv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of operational research Vol. 219; no. 3; pp. 611 - 621
Main Author: Schmid, Verena
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 16.06.2012
Elsevier
Elsevier Sequoia S.A
North-Holland Pub. Co
Subjects:
Ambulance location
Ambulance services
Applied sciences
Approximate dynamic programming
Approximation
Biological and medical sciences
Dynamic programming
Economy. Management
Emergency vehicles
Exact sciences and technology
Health and social institutions
Mathematical programming
Medical sciences
Operational research and scientific management
Operational research. Management science
Optimization algorithms
OR in health services
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Stochastic optimization
Studies
Austria
Ambulance location
Approximate dynamic programming
Emergency vehicles
Stochastic optimization
OR in health services
Dispatching problem
Operations research
Medical transport
Transit time
Modeling
Location problem
Optimization
Time dependence
Emergency department
Ambulance
Dynamic programming
Localization
Mathematical programming
Travel time
Hospital management
Empirical method
Routing
Real time
Stochastic programming
Response time
Time average
Emergency
Service Proposal
ISSN:0377-2217, 1872-6860
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:► We investigated dispatching and relocation decisions of emergency service providers. ► ADP is powerful in solving the underlying stochastic and dynamic optimization problem. ► Average response time can be improved by using more flexible dispatching rules. ► Relocating ambulances proactively improves service quality. ► Essential to take into account time-dependent information. Emergency service providers are supposed to locate ambulances such that in case of emergency patients can be reached in a time-efficient manner. Two fundamental decisions and choices need to be made real-time. First of all immediately after a request emerges an appropriate vehicle needs to be dispatched and send to the requests’ site. After having served a request the vehicle needs to be relocated to its next waiting location. We are going to propose a model and solve the underlying optimization problem using approximate dynamic programming (ADP), an emerging and powerful tool for solving stochastic and dynamic problems typically arising in the field of operations research. Empirical tests based on real data from the city of Vienna indicate that by deviating from the classical dispatching rules the average response time can be decreased from 4.60 to 4.01 minutes, which corresponds to an improvement of 12.89%. Furthermore we are going to show that it is essential to consider time-dependent information such as travel times and changes with respect to the request volume explicitly. Ignoring the current time and its consequences thereafter during the stage of modeling and optimization leads to suboptimal decisions.
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ISSN:0377-2217
1872-6860
DOI:10.1016/j.ejor.2011.10.043