Location, capacity and capability design of emergency medical centers with multiple emergency diseases

- Mathematical model was developed to support design of emergency medical system.
- Location, capability and capacity of emergency medical center were designed.
- To ensure the survival of patients, minimum survival rate was applied.
- As an alternative solution procedure, hybrid genetic algorithm was developed.
- Deterministic solution was derived and validated via simulation studies.

This paper studies the location, allocation and capacity design of emergency medical centers (EMC) in a given region under the closest assignment rule. It is assumed that for each EMC candidate center the capability and initial capacity on each category of treatable medical diseases are provided. Selected medical center receives a prescribed amount of subsidies from the government in return for the offering of medical services at a competitive cost. It is further assumed that with additional subsidies EMC candidate center can not only enlarge its capacities for treatable medical diseases but also newly begin medical treatment for the diseases not included in the original capability. The number of patients of each patient group node during a unit time is assumed to be known along with the categories of their diseases. The problem is formulated as an integer program (IP) with the objective of minimizing the total amount of subsidies paid by the government. We select from among a set of candidate EMCs satisfying minimum desired survival rate constraints and determine both the capability and capacity of each EMC. The CPLEX version 12.4 is used to derive an optimal solution. Hybrid genetic algorithm was developed as a solution procedure for generating near-optimal solution. In addition, simulation studies are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed deterministic models in a stochastic context.