ABSTRACT

In an emergency, the golden hour is the first sixty minutes after an accident or the onset of acute illness. The victim’s chances of survival are greatest if he or she can be given the right medical assistance within the golden hour. With an emphasis on transporting the injured in the right time to the right place by the right people using the right method, an effective ambulance tracking and dispatching solution is a very important aspect for saving lives. In an emergency situation, it can be difficult for a caller to explain where he is and where an accident has occurred. Callers can panic and fail to supply the information, the emergency service urgently requires. But with the facility to pinpoint the location of calls from a mobile phone or a landline using a GIS, and knowing the ambulance positions with relation to the accident spot, ambulances can be deployed far more quickly.

ASL Ambulance Monitoring and Dispatching System comprises of GPS/GSM units installed in ambulances and an Ambulance Monitoring and Maintenance Application (AMMA) which tracks the ambulances, dispatches the most appropriate ambulance to the accident scene and identifies the nearest appropriate hospital. This system is key component of Location Based Emergency Services (LBES).

Keywords:

Ambulance monitoring, tracking, dispatch, relocation, preparedness.

Introduction:

Location based emergency services(LBES) system commonly includes ambulances fitted with GPS devices that can transport patients to hospitals in a very short time by exactly knowing the location of the informer and the location of casualty.

The control station is a computer system which links to the ambulances through the GSM network, a global positioning system (GPS) and the Geographic information system(GIS).

Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer system for capturing, storing, querying, analyzing and displaying geographic data.

GIS is a powerful computing tool for managing large amounts of heterogeneous data. A GIS can be effectively used to identify accident spots on roads, displayed graphically which can be used for planning and decision making.

The computer system at the control station principally comprises a relational database containing details of calls, incidents, and ambulance availability.

It is required to automatically record the position of the ambulances and maintain a good database of the vehicle information, driver, paramedics, facilities available in the ambulance and other emergency facilities.

Any unexpected change in the position of the ambulance needs to be recorded and an alert to be sent to the control station.

In an event of an accident or the onset of an acute illness, the location of the caller needs to be recorded.

Approach:

The operator in the control center receives a request for service, usually from the land phone or from the mobile device. The request may be a caller intimating of an accident or the victim himself requesting for help.

This is monitored using a DIAL 100 system and the caller’s number and the location is automatically collected and stored in the database. All other information related to the accident / casualty is collected from the caller.

Once the information is received, it is fed into the AMMA system. Next, the ambulance AMMA system assesses the geographical location and the availability of the nearest ambulance with respect to the location of accident/ casualty is calculated based upon the particular assignment hierarchy established by the management.

Once the nearest ambulance is selected by the system, intimation is sent to the ambulance and the details of the casualty are sent to the display terminal on the ambulance.

The nearest hospital is informed for the arrival of the patient.

The ambulance consisting of the driver and the paramedic rushes to the spot under the guidance from the control station that is continuously monitoring the ambulance.

On reaching the spot, the patient is transferred to the ambulance. Any first aid attention required is given at that stage. The patient pick-up is confirmed to the control station through the display terminal and the same is recorded against the patient’s data at the control station. Possible identification details of the patient are given to the control room.

In cases where medical attention is deemed necessary, the crew determines the appropriate medical facility that can best address the needs of the individual. After arriving at the hospital, the patient is transferred to the hospital staff.

Before returning to duty, the ambulance crew spends additional time completing reports, cleaning and Re-filling the ambulance unit. After these steps have been completed the crew returns to their base location. The total service time is the time elapsed from the reception of the initial call to the unit’s departure from the hospital.

The entire process is depicted in figure 1.

Figure 1. Location Based Emergency Response Service

Further Scopes:

Recording heart-beat, blood pressure and other details of the patient while on transit from the accident spot to the hospital. The recorded details are sent to the doctor who will be monitoring this patient from the hospital and necessary medication is given.

Conclusion:

This paper gives overview of how ambulance management system could be implemented which can be effective in preventing many deaths. This system’s design could be more refined by adding more key factors that could minimize the time required to save life within the golden hour.