Selecting the Destination Hospital to Carry Emergency Patients
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3354-9019
Laura Romero
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6954-786X
David Barrera
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9168-9103
Daniel Ricardo Suárez
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6264-2250
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Total time of prehospital care (PHC) is the time elapsing from the inbound call up to the moment when the ambulance is available for serve in another emergency event. This research aims to show that selecting the destination hospital impacts significantly the total PHC time, which influences the survival of the patient being transported as well as the time to make the resource available again (the ambulance). Consequently, a technique for selecting the destination hospital is proposed herein including some dimensions related both to the patient (diagnosis, specialty and insurance company) and to the hospital (occupancy and closeness). The performance was evaluated based on a simulation of discrete events. It is concluded that the proposed technique provides a better PHC time in 73% of the studied cases, with a mean decrease between 40 and 80 minutes as compared to the most commonly used technique (selecting the closest hospital).
medical emergency, ambulance diversion, patient transportation, theoretical models, ambulance, operation research, decision-makingurgencias médicas, desvío de ambulancias, transporte de pacientes, modelos teóricos, ambulancia, investigación de operaciones, toma de decisionesurgências médicas, desvio de ambulâncias, transporte de pacientes, modelos teóricos, ambulância, pesquisa de operações, tomada de decisões
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