Analysis of and Modeling for Emergency Medical Services Facility Location for Road Accidents on Highway

This paper analyses the accident-prone regions along the 94.5km stretch of Mumbai-Pune express highway to determine optimal base locations for dispatching Emergency Medical Services (EMS). The study was driven by an increasing concern over the rise in accident fatalities on the expressway, and the alarming inadequacy of ambulance services. Our research aims to determine the optimal emergency medical service (EMS) facility locations to address the needs generated by accidents on expressways with heavy flowing traffic. Expressways present the unique problem of being isolated from hospitals and trauma centers located within cities, as well as practical constraints in turning vehicles around due to unidirectional heavy flow of traffic. We have used the mean shift algorithm of machine learning to determine clusters along with their centers. We further employed the minimax facility location model for rectilinear distances to determine a second base location within the primary clusters. The purpose of the secondary base locations is to supplement the primary EMS locations and distribute the load to ensure that the dispatched ambulances reach the accident spot in 8 minutes. The proposed model combines a traditional approach with a machine learning algorithm to produce faster output.