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Integration of Facility Location and Hypercube Queuing Models in Emergency Medical Systems

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Abstract

The purpose of emergency medical systems (EMS) is to save lives and reduce injuries with a quick response in emergencies. The performance of these systems is highly dependent on the locations of ambulances and the policy for dispatching them to the customers (i.e., patients). In this study, two new mathematical models are presented to combine the decisions about the location and dispatching policy by integrating the location and hypercube queuing models. In the presented models, the flow-balance equations of the hypercube queuing model are considered as the constraints of the location model. In the first model, the status of each server is idle or busy at any moment, as in the classic hypercube queuing model. In the second model, the travel time is considered independent of the on-scene time, and the status of each server is idle, busy, and traveling, or busy and serving a customer on the incident site. To verify the models, some small-sized examples are first solved exactly. Then, an optimization framework based on the genetic algorithm is presented due to the complexity of the models for solving larger-sized examples. Two approaches (i.e., the exact and simulation-optimization) are used to extend the framework. The results demonstrate that the proposed optimization framework can obtain proper solutions compared to those of the exact method. Finally, several performance measures are considered that can only be calculated using the second model.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran

    Maryam Ghobadi, Jamal Arkat & Hiwa Farughi

  2. School of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Reza Tavakkoli-Moghaddam

Authors
  1. Maryam Ghobadi
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  2. Jamal Arkat
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  3. Hiwa Farughi
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  4. Reza Tavakkoli-Moghaddam
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jamal Arkat.

Additional information

Maryam Ghobadi is the Head of Industrial Engineering Department at the Shomal University, Amol, Iran. She obtained her Ph.D., M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees in industrial engineering from the Kurdistan University in Sanandaj (2021), Alzahra University in Tehran (2013), and the Iran University of Science and Technology in Behshahr (2009), respectively. She has been teaching in this field from 2013 at the undergraduate and post graduate level. She has published a book, a book chapter, and more than 10 journal and conference papers.

Jamal Arkat received B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in industrial engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST) in Iran. He is currently an associate professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran. His research interests include operations research applications in health care, crisis management, and stochastic processes.

Hiwa Farughi is an associate professor at the University of Kurdistan. He was born in 1976. He received B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in industrial engineering from Amir Kabir University of Technology in 1998 and 2000, respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree in industrial engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology in 2012. His research interest topics include production planning, decision making techniques and quality control.

Reza Tavakkoli-Moghaddam is a professor of industrial engineering at the College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Iran. He obtained his Ph.D., M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees in industrial engineering from the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne (1998), the University of Melbourne in Melbourne (1994), and the Iran University of Science and Technology in Tehran (1989), respectively. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of “Advances in Industrial Engineering” journal published by the University of Tehran and as the editorial board member of nine reputable academic journals. He is the recipient of the 2009 and 2011 Distinguished Researcher Awards and the 2010 and 2014 Distinguished Applied Research Awards at the University of Tehran, Iran. He has been selected as the National Iranian Distinguished Researcher in 2008 and 2010 by the MSRT (Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology) in Iran. He has obtained an outstanding rank as the top 1% scientist and researcher in the world elite group since 2014. He also received the Order of Academic Palms Award as a distinguished educator and scholar for the insignia of Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques by the Ministry of National Education of France in 2019. He has published 5 books, 32 book chapters, and more than 1000 journal and conference papers.

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Ghobadi, M., Arkat, J., Farughi, H. et al. Integration of Facility Location and Hypercube Queuing Models in Emergency Medical Systems. J. Syst. Sci. Syst. Eng. 30, 495–516 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11518-021-5500-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11518-021-5500-x

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