Comparing population and incident data for optimal air ambulance base locations in Norway
Abstract Background Helicopter emergency medical services are important in many health care systems. Norway has a nationwide physician manned air ambulance service servicing a country with large geographical variations in population density and incident frequencies. The aim of the study was to compa...
Published in: | Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:893c4de7f3c24865a58db964a43cbe68 2023-05-15T17:43:35+02:00 Comparing population and incident data for optimal air ambulance base locations in Norway Jo Røislien Pieter L. van den Berg Thomas Lindner Erik Zakariassen Oddvar Uleberg Karen Aardal J. Theresia van Essen 2018-05-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1186/s13049-018-0511-4 https://doaj.org/article/893c4de7f3c24865a58db964a43cbe68 EN eng BMC http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13049-018-0511-4 https://doaj.org/toc/1757-7241 doi:10.1186/s13049-018-0511-4 1757-7241 https://doaj.org/article/893c4de7f3c24865a58db964a43cbe68 Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine, Vol 26, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2018) HEMS Air ambulance Facility location problem MCLP Population density Incidents Medical emergencies. Critical care. Intensive care. First aid RC86-88.9 article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1186/s13049-018-0511-4 2022-12-31T00:22:58Z Abstract Background Helicopter emergency medical services are important in many health care systems. Norway has a nationwide physician manned air ambulance service servicing a country with large geographical variations in population density and incident frequencies. The aim of the study was to compare optimal air ambulance base locations using both population and incident data. Methods We used municipality population and incident data for Norway from 2015. The 428 municipalities had a median (5–95 percentile) of 4675 (940–36,264) inhabitants and 10 (2–38) incidents. Optimal helicopter base locations were estimated using the Maximal Covering Location Problem (MCLP) optimization model, exploring the number and location of bases needed to cover various fractions of the population for time thresholds 30 and 45 min, in green field scenarios and conditioned on the existing base structure. Results The existing bases covered 96.90% of the population and 91.86% of the incidents for time threshold 45 min. Correlation between municipality population and incident frequencies was −0.0027, and optimal base locations varied markedly between the two data types, particularly when lowering the target time. The optimal solution using population density data put focus on the greater Oslo area, where one third of Norwegians live, while using incident data put focus on low population high incident areas, such as northern Norway and winter sport resorts. Conclusion Using population density data as a proxy for incident frequency is not recommended, as the two data types lead to different optimal base locations. Lowering the target time increases the sensitivity to choice of data. Article in Journal/Newspaper Northern Norway Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Norway Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine 26 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
HEMS Air ambulance Facility location problem MCLP Population density Incidents Medical emergencies. Critical care. Intensive care. First aid RC86-88.9 |
spellingShingle |
HEMS Air ambulance Facility location problem MCLP Population density Incidents Medical emergencies. Critical care. Intensive care. First aid RC86-88.9 Jo Røislien Pieter L. van den Berg Thomas Lindner Erik Zakariassen Oddvar Uleberg Karen Aardal J. Theresia van Essen Comparing population and incident data for optimal air ambulance base locations in Norway |
topic_facet |
HEMS Air ambulance Facility location problem MCLP Population density Incidents Medical emergencies. Critical care. Intensive care. First aid RC86-88.9 |
description |
Abstract Background Helicopter emergency medical services are important in many health care systems. Norway has a nationwide physician manned air ambulance service servicing a country with large geographical variations in population density and incident frequencies. The aim of the study was to compare optimal air ambulance base locations using both population and incident data. Methods We used municipality population and incident data for Norway from 2015. The 428 municipalities had a median (5–95 percentile) of 4675 (940–36,264) inhabitants and 10 (2–38) incidents. Optimal helicopter base locations were estimated using the Maximal Covering Location Problem (MCLP) optimization model, exploring the number and location of bases needed to cover various fractions of the population for time thresholds 30 and 45 min, in green field scenarios and conditioned on the existing base structure. Results The existing bases covered 96.90% of the population and 91.86% of the incidents for time threshold 45 min. Correlation between municipality population and incident frequencies was −0.0027, and optimal base locations varied markedly between the two data types, particularly when lowering the target time. The optimal solution using population density data put focus on the greater Oslo area, where one third of Norwegians live, while using incident data put focus on low population high incident areas, such as northern Norway and winter sport resorts. Conclusion Using population density data as a proxy for incident frequency is not recommended, as the two data types lead to different optimal base locations. Lowering the target time increases the sensitivity to choice of data. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jo Røislien Pieter L. van den Berg Thomas Lindner Erik Zakariassen Oddvar Uleberg Karen Aardal J. Theresia van Essen |
author_facet |
Jo Røislien Pieter L. van den Berg Thomas Lindner Erik Zakariassen Oddvar Uleberg Karen Aardal J. Theresia van Essen |
author_sort |
Jo Røislien |
title |
Comparing population and incident data for optimal air ambulance base locations in Norway |
title_short |
Comparing population and incident data for optimal air ambulance base locations in Norway |
title_full |
Comparing population and incident data for optimal air ambulance base locations in Norway |
title_fullStr |
Comparing population and incident data for optimal air ambulance base locations in Norway |
title_full_unstemmed |
Comparing population and incident data for optimal air ambulance base locations in Norway |
title_sort |
comparing population and incident data for optimal air ambulance base locations in norway |
publisher |
BMC |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13049-018-0511-4 https://doaj.org/article/893c4de7f3c24865a58db964a43cbe68 |
geographic |
Norway |
geographic_facet |
Norway |
genre |
Northern Norway |
genre_facet |
Northern Norway |
op_source |
Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine, Vol 26, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2018) |
op_relation |
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13049-018-0511-4 https://doaj.org/toc/1757-7241 doi:10.1186/s13049-018-0511-4 1757-7241 https://doaj.org/article/893c4de7f3c24865a58db964a43cbe68 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13049-018-0511-4 |
container_title |
Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine |
container_volume |
26 |
container_issue |
1 |
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1766145695266373632 |