Reducing Response Time of Ambulance Service by Utilizing the Knowledge of Service Location of Ambulance Drivers using Self-Organizing Map

Large numbers of people are dying because ambulances are taking too long to transport patients to hospital. This work addresses the issue of reducing response time by using knowledge of location of ambulance drivers. Kohonen's SOM was used to solve the ambulance driver-scheduling problem (ADS) problem owing to its ability to break the ADS problem into smaller and manageable parts using its unique visual approach. This approach would enable the ambulance company managers, most of who still rely on some crude non-computer based system, to visually solve the ADS problem. Numerical experiments were conducted using randomly generated data representing the ADS problem. Finally, performance of SOM was measured using grouping efficacy. This work can be used independently or it can be used as a plug-in in existing scheduling system to reduce response time.