In this study, the travel response time was estimated between the ambulance locations and the demand points and between the demand points and the hospitals. The estimation was conducted in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) by utilizing the shortest path algorithm. The demand points were randomly generated to represent the holistic approach in the study region, Williston Basin. In addition, the current practices for the ambulance responses to demands were measured based on the historical data of trauma. Then, the two different results were compared to measure the performance. A single factor analysis of variance test was conducted with the two groups. From the average comparison, it was found that the average response time in the study region is expected to be better than the statewide response time between the ambulance locations and demand points. However, the estimated delivery time between demand points and hospitals was longer than the statewide, measured delivery time. This study is limited for several reasons. First, the historical data shows a wide range of dispersion, showing high variance. The outliers of the data should be carefully investigated. Second, the historical data is based on the statewide region, which includes some data from outside of the study region. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting