Title: A system dynamics model of the fire department EMS in Taiwan

Authors: Chun-Hsiung Lan, Liang-Lun Chuang, Yung-Fang Chen

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, Nanhua University, No. 32, Chung keng Li, Dalin, Chiayi 62248, Taiwan. ' Management Sciences, Department of Business Administration, Nanhua University, No.380, Sansing Street, Sinying City, Tainan County 73051, Taiwan. ' Department of Geography, Environment and Disaster Management, Coventry University, Priory Street, Coventry, GE514, CV1 5LW, UK

Abstract: Allocation of pre-hospital EMS (Emergency Medical Service) resources and effectiveness of emergency medical training are critical to patients. The demands for EMS are expected to increase in the future. By analysing the relationship between emergency response and the survival rates, the effectiveness of EMS resources and competence of personnel were evaluated. In other words, the current EMS resources will be insufficient, and the ratio of busy ambulances will increase. Patients may need to wait for an ambulance. In this paper, indicates that three more ambulances should be added and the priorities of resources to be allocated to suffice future demands are simulated. Through arrangement of extra hours of training, ROSC of patients within the system can be enhanced. Besides, by accelerating the travel speed of ambulances and shortening the average response time to 6.5 minutes, survival rate of patients could be increased and allow the EMS teams to take another 2.6 cases.

Keywords: system dynamics; pre-hospital emergency medical services; resource allocation; EMT; emergency medical technicians; OHCA; out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest; response time; emergency management; training; fire departments; Taiwan; patient survival; simulation; modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEM.2010.037015

International Journal of Emergency Management, 2010 Vol.7 No.3/4, pp.323 - 343

Published online: 21 Nov 2010 *

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