A semi-Markov decision model for the optimal control of an emergency medical service system

Giannis A. Kechagias, Alexandros C. Diamantidis and Theodosis D. Dimitrakos

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2024, vol. 46, issue 2, 169-194

Abstract: A mathematical model for the analysis of an emergency medical service (EMS) system with a specific number of advanced life support units (ALS) and a specific number of basic life support (BLS) units is presented in this paper. The system admits incoming emergency calls which are divided into two classes: 1) urgent, high-priority calls for which the patient's life is potentially at risk; 2) less urgent low-priority calls. Under a suitable cost structure, the system is modelled using an appropriate Markov decision process in continuous time for which we seek a stationary policy that minimises a predefined optimality criterion for vehicle mixes over a set of candidate ambulance fleets. Based on this formulation, it is possible to implement standard Markov decision algorithms, such as the standard value-iteration algorithm and the standard policy-iteration algorithm. A sensitivity analysis of some model parameters is provided to examine their effect in the vehicle mix and in the cost of the system. An integer programming formulation is also provided for the corresponding location-allocation problem of the model. Numerical results are also presented for the examined problem.

Keywords: emergency medical service system; EMS; vehicle mix; Markov decision process; MDP; integer programming. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=136414 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijisen:v:46:y:2024:i:2:p:169-194

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().