A Case Study: Optimising PAP ambulance location with data and travel time analysis

Abstract: The mental health concerns in Sweden have been increasing since the beginning of the 2000’s, where Skåne County in the southern parts of Sweden has shown to be slightly higher in a proportion of reported cases in comparison to other regions. To address the growing need for psychiatric healthcare, the health services of the region of Skåne (Region Skåne) have introduced a psychiatric ambulance unit as a part of first responders. The Prehospital Acute Psychiatry (PAP) ambulance is manned by health care professionals trained in mental health issues. The goal of Region Skåne is to reach 90% of the population within 20 minutes and 99% of the population within 35 minutes. This case study aims to provide valuable and useful information to the decision-makers in Region Skåne when placing additional PAP ambulance units. A PAP ambulance placed in an ambulance station uses an optimisation model previously created and is based on data and travel time analysis. The data analysis consists of K-Means clustering and Linear regression, to find similarities in the data as well as trends in the number of cases. The travel time analysis and the area and population coverage is based on 20, 35, and 60 minutes travel time from a station. The travel time is dependent on the road conditions as well as population density when considering ambulance stations for additional PAP ambulances. Malmö, Helsingborg, and Kristianstad/Hässleholm PAP stations are shown to be optimal choices, due to favourable road conditions and densely populated regions. Ambulances placed in these stations can cover much ground while also being able to attend to a major portion of the population. The data analysis also shows that it is beneficial to place ambulances in these stations, due to an increasing trend of mental illness cases in these areas symbolising a medium to a high number of cases in relation to the rest of Skåne.