Browsing by Author "Sofuoglu, Zeynep"

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Citation - WoS: 20
Citation - Scopus: 26
An analysis of Emergency Medical Services demand: Time of day- day of the week- and location in the city
(ELSEVIER, 2017) Gorkem Sariyer; Mustafa Gokalp Ataman; Serhat Akay; Turhan Sofuoglu; Zeynep Sofuoglu; Ataman, Mustafa Gokalp; Sariyer, Gorkem; Sofuoglu, Turhan; Akay, Serhat; Sofuoglu, Zeynep
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. Copyright (C) 2016 The Emergency Medicine Association of Turkey. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of the Owner. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Citation - WoS: 5
Citation - Scopus: 8
Does ambulance utilization differ between urban and rural regions: a study of 112 services in a populated city- Izmir
(SPRINGER HEIDELBERG, 2017) Gorkem Sariyer; M. Gokalp Ataman; Turhan Sofuoglu; Zeynep Sofuoglu; Ataman, M. Gokalp; Sariyer, Gorkem; Sofuoglu, Turhan; Sofuoglu, Zeynep
Objective Emergency Medical Services (EMS) play an important role in health care systems especially when well planned and well managed. The goal of this research was to characterize ambulance utilization rates and investigate associated factors. Such an analysis could make a contribution to operational planning of these services. Materials and methods The data for this study were taken from the Izmir emergency ambulance service known as the 112 service because of its call number. Total emergency demand made during 2013 was analyzed and the data were categorized according to four sub-categories: gender age rural-urban and reason for the call. For each category an analysis was made in terms of the absolute number of calls and a relative measure. Hypothesis testing and correlation analysis were used to investigate the differences between the demand for each category and to compare demand across categories. Results Although demand rates from males and females were very similar a significant difference was observed in the daily utilization of these services by gender. The absolute number of calls from rural regions was less than for urban regions but the rural regions had a higher proportion of calls (i.e. calls per 1000 people). Similarly the absolute number of calls generated by the elderly was less than that generated by the young but the elderly had a higher value in terms of relative measures. A medical condition was the most frequent reason for calls. A significant and positive relation was observed between male-female and elderly-young citizens and there was a significant but negative relation between rural-urban demand. Conclusion This study confirms that gender age and rural-urban distinctions are major factors that affect demand for these services and should therefore to be taken into consideration in operations management. It also highlights the need for a specific focus on rural regions and elderly citizens.