An analysis of Emergency Medical Services demand: Time of day, day of the week, and location in the city

OBJECTIVE: Effective planning of Emergency Medical Services (EMS), which is highly dependent on the analysis of past data trends, is important in reducing response time. Thus, we aimed to analyze demand for these services based on time and location trends to inform planning for an effective EMS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data for this retrospective study were obtained from the Izmir EMS 112 system. All calls reaching these services during first six months of 2013 were descriptively analyzed, based on time and location trends as a heat-map form. RESULTS: The analyses showed that demand for EMS varied within different time periods of day, and according to day of the week. For the night period, demand was higher at the weekend compared to weekdays, whereas for daytime hours, demand was higher during the week. For weekdays, a statistically significant relation was observed between the call distribution of morning and evening periods. It was also observed that the percentage of demand changed according to location. Among 30 locations, the five most frequent destinations for ambulances, which are also correlated with high population densities, accounted for 55.66% of the total. CONCLUSION: The results of this study shed valuable light on the areas of call center planning and optimal ambulance locations of Izmir, which can also be served as an archetype for other cities.