Cobertura populacional e tempo respostadas ambulânciasdo serviço de atendimento médico de urgência no município de Arapongas, Paraná

Abstract

The reduction of response time in prehospital medical care is crucial for survival, especially for critical patients. However, the geographical location of medical services, such as the ambulance base of the Emergency Medical Service (EMS), can influence population coverage, disadvantaged residents in more distant regions from the station, and consequently affecting extra-hospital response time. The main objective of this research was to analyze the territorial and population coverage, as well as the response time of ambulances from the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) in the municipality of Arapongas, Paraná, through geospatial analysis and the use of computational simulation models. This is an observational, cross-sectional ecological study that proposes to simulate the best location for ambulance base placement. Secondary data will be used to assess response time, population coverage, and territorial coverage using the Maximal Covering Location Problem technique. Based on this information, simulations will be conducted to determine the optimal region for EMS base allocation. As main results, the average response time for the municipality was 14.9 ± 8.77 minutes, with a mean age of 48 ± 24.47 years for treated patients. There were 618 clinical origin calls and 401 trauma cases out of 1019. Simulations could identify the location for an ambulance station, and for even better coverage, two stations could be allocated for comparisons. The simulations demonstrated good performance, and the information obtained in this study may assist managers in determining the best location for an EMS base to increase the survival rate, especially for critical patients.