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An optimization and simulation approach to emergency stations relocation

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Abstract

This paper suggests and compares three median-type location models to determine how to optimally relocate existing emergency medical stations. It also describes a detailed computer simulation model used to evaluate the locations proposed by each model in terms of several indicators of system performance. The simulation model was calibrated using real data from a health care provider in the Slovak Republic. The results of the computer simulation experiments suggest that the simple p-median model can significantly improve the accessibility of urgent health care to patients.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the project APVV-15-0179 “Reliability of emergency systems on infrastructure with uncertain functionality of critical elements” and by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Academy of Sciences under the Project VEGA 1/0342/18 “Optimal dimensioning of service systems”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Management Science and Informatics, University of Žilina, Univerzitná 1, 010 26, Žilina, Slovak Republic

    Ľudmila Jánošíková, Marek Kvet, Peter Jankovič & Lýdia Gábrišová

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  1. Ľudmila Jánošíková
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  2. Marek Kvet
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  3. Peter Jankovič
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  4. Lýdia Gábrišová
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Correspondence to Marek Kvet.

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Jánošíková, Ľ., Kvet, M., Jankovič, P. et al. An optimization and simulation approach to emergency stations relocation. Cent Eur J Oper Res 27, 737–758 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10100-019-00612-5

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