Introduction: Work of Emergency Medical Services is a key part of Slovenian healthcare system and is as such a cornerstone of 24-hour healthcare provide to inhabitants of Slovenia. Emergency medical services are defined as the medical services, omission of which would lead to severe health issues or death of patients and as the service of patient transportation. Emergency driving is the driving of an emergency vehicle to or from the point of intervention in which the emergency vehicle demands the right of way from other vehicles in traffic. Optimization is an act, methodology or process of making something as perfect, functional or efficient in given circumstances. Purpose: The purpose of this diploma work is to identify some possible ways of optimizing ambulance emergency driving and to suggest a theoretical model of optimizing ambulance emergency driving. Methods: This diploma work uses the descriptive work method. We have conducted a literature review. Literature was searched for in MEDLINE, Academic Search Complete, Business Source Premiere and CINAHL with full text. 26 units of literature were reviewed. Results: There are several possible ways of optimizing ambulance emergency driving. Emergency vehicle preemption was the most commonly mentioned method in reviewed work. In this method, the ambulance is given green light at one or more traffic light crossings. The emergency vehicle can also demand the right of way with the usage of modern technology. Another possible method of optimization is the identification of the best route. Most of the reviewed literature suggests using Dijkstra's algorithm for this. Furthermore, ambulance emergency driving can also be improved by designing a road network. Usage of optimization in multiple fields simultaneously shows to be the most promising way of optimizing ambulance emergency driving. Discussion and conclusion: Identified optimization methods can shorten ambulance travel time from 3% to 75%, respectively. A large amount of reviewed literature has limitations. Most of the reviewed literature has evaluated suggested methods in such different ways that it makes identifying the best optimization method impossible. Our suggested theoretical model strives to achieve the maximal ambulance travel time optimization, when the ambulance is treating a patient, whose treatment time is of the essence to the patient's outcome. The suggested theoretical optimization model is a starting point and a guideline for future research in the field of ambulance emergency driving optimization. Optimization of ambulance emergency driving is not well researched in Slovenia.
|
