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http://dx.doi.org/10.9798/KOSHAM.2014.14.2.159

Priority Assignment for Emergency Medical Service Provision in Disaster by Considering Resource Limitation  

Shin, Kyohong (Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, KAIST)
Lee, Taesik (Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, KAIST)
Publication Information
Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation / v.14, no.2, 2014 , pp. 159-168 More about this Journal
Abstract
EMS resources management is one of the determinants to maximize the number of survivors effective first response in the aftermath of mass casualties. This paper concerns a problem of patient prioritization for EMS provision by constructing a Markov Decision Processes( MDP) model. While prior research tends to focus solely on transport resources (i.e., ambulance), we show that factors on the involved hospitals (i.e., capacity and capability) in the disaster response affect optimal response policies. Experiments on hypothetical scenarios are conducted to compare the proposed model with the existing algorithms from the literature, including the standard triage practice known as START(Simple Triage And Rapid Treatment). We show that considering hospital factors can save more patients than the other algorithms in most scenarios. The results of the study suggest that capacity and capability of the hospitals participating in the response should be factored into decision makings in the EMS response to maximize the life savings.
Keywords
Emergency Medical Service(EMS); Disaster; Priority assignment; Hospital selection; Markov Decision Processes(MDP);
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