Optimization for more effective emergency medical care - the case of the Portuguese Emergency Medical Service -- talk by Dr Inês Marques (University of Lisbon) Event

Event details

Abstract: Emergency medical services in mainland Portugal are coordinated by Instituto Nacional de Emergência Médica (INEM). In most cases, medical emergencies are reported to INEM through the European Emergency Number (112), where specialized staff classifies the situation and dispatches the proper emergency vehicle along with adequate staff. The operational productivity of INEM have a huge societal impact and is often a subject in generalized newspapers. In fact, the response time to a medical emergency may determine the life or death of a person. Hence, INEM needs to carefully plan its resources and operations to minimize the overall response time to each emergency. There are two important moments in INEM’s operations: (1) the amount of time to answer each 112 call, and (2) the amount of time the emergency vehicle spends from dispatch until it reaches the emergency location. The goal of this project is to provide INEM with new tools to improve operational results through the optimization of its resource assignment (staff and emergency vehicles), resulting in an improved and faster response to medical emergencies in Portugal. The final goal is to provide a functional prototype of the developed tools into the real-world operational scenario at INEM. This talk focus on the work already developed in integrated staff scheduling (dispatch center and emergency vehicles), and in ambulance dispatching and relocation decisions.