Approximating Vehicle Dispatch Probabilities for Emergency Service Systems with Location-Specific Service Times and Multiple Units Per Location

Posted: 28 Jun 2013

See all articles by Susan Budge

Susan Budge

Independent

Armann Ingolfsson

University of Alberta - Department of Accounting, Operations & Information Systems

Erhan Erkut

Independent

Date Written: February 1, 2005

Abstract

To calculate many of the important performance measures for an emergency response system, one requires knowledge of the probability that a particular server will respond to an incoming call at a particular location. Estimating these "dispatch probabilities" is complicated by four important characteristics of emergency service systems. We discuss these characteristics and extend previous approximation methods for calculating dispatch probabilities to account for the possibilities of workload variation by station, multiple vehicles per station, call- and station-dependent service times, and server cooperation and dependence.

Keywords: health care, ambulance service, queues, approximations

Suggested Citation

Budge, Susan and Ingolfsson, Armann and Erkut, Erhan, Approximating Vehicle Dispatch Probabilities for Emergency Service Systems with Location-Specific Service Times and Multiple Units Per Location (February 1, 2005). University of Alberta School of Business Research Paper No. 2013-188, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2274906

Armann Ingolfsson

University of Alberta - Department of Accounting, Operations & Information Systems ( email )

Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2R6
Canada

Erhan Erkut

Independent ( email )

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